Protestant Groups and Coping with Urban Life in Guatemala City

This paper analyzes the social significance of Protestant sectarian groups in two urban neighborhoods of Guatemala City. These groups recruit individuals with aspirations for social and economic improvement who are without a network of secular relationships to aid them in time of emergency and help them obtain better social and economic positions. In comparison with Catholics, Protestants are younger and more likely to be self-employed. They also are more likely to be migrants who have few family ties in the city. The social organization of neighborhood Protestant groups entails encompassing moral and secular relationships that effectively provide for members' economic and social needs. The effects of these groups under the conditions of Guatemala City are to provide economic security rather than rapid economic improvement and to withdraw members from overt political co-operation with people of similar social and economic position.