Sister Kay Haver explains, "refugees realize that the suffering is not over when they arrive in the United States" (Mehri). As a member of the Sanctuary Education Committee, which helped create a safe haven for immigrants, Haver describes the obstacles Guatemalan immigrants faced once they fled to the United States. The Guatemalan civil war involved extreme violence and pressure from the government, which fought primarily against left-wing rebels who genocided these people. The government primarily targeted poor, indigenous Maya, similar to Estevan and Esperanza in Barbara Kingsolver's The Bean Trees. Kingsolver grew up in rural Kentucky and lived briefly in the Congo during her childhood as a young woman who leaves Kentucky for Arizona and picks up an abandoned child along the way. The book chronicles her experiences throughout her life as she wrote it at night while struggling with insomnia while pregnant with her first child. The story features two refugees from Guatemala, Estevan and Esperanza, who Taylor helps during their struggles in the United States. These immigrants are often at risk of being kidnapped, which creates tremendous instability in their lives. Esperanza and Estevan also cannot return to Guatemala either for fear that their old government will kill them. Taylor is invaluable to the couple, and that's because most immigrants didn't have this advantage when coming to America. Despite this assistance, their lives are still stressful, just like those of many immigrants who came to the United States from Guatemala during that time. While America may be a safe haven for some immigrants, Mayan refugees from Gua… center of paper… indigenous. She also worked on restorations between groups. Menchu's belief that the United States must understand that Guatemala is a completely separate country from the United States could be a factor in 2014 as the United States may want to stay out of the war entirely. Many believe that the United States should respect Guatemala's type of government and the self-determination of Guatemalans instead of getting involved in their affairs. Native Guatemalans now feel much more comfortable at home, unlike during this war, when immigrants from Guatemala felt deprived of a home. Estevan would not say "I don't even know which house I'm missing anymore", showing a feeling of insecurity common to many Guatemalans of the time. Now, with all the progress in Guatemala and the change in government, people feel much happier and more patriotic.