‘ Yesterday There, Here Today, Tomorrow… Who Knows ’: Guatemalan Refugees and Land Conflicts in La Trinitaria, Chiapas, 1981–1999

ABSTRACT In the early 1980s, thousands of Guatemalans crossed the southern border of Mexico in search of refuge fleeing the massacres perpetrated by the army of their country. As they reached the border municipalities of Chiapas, they created more than a hundred refugee camps there. This article analyses the case of the camps that were built on properties purchased by the Catholic Church in the municipality of La Trinitaria, relying on archival sources and interviews, it reconstructs the tensions that occurred between the refugees and the local population as these two sectors shared land, water and firewood.