Delaware
Delaware's Guatemalans seek a brighter future with new leader in their native country
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Thousands have fled Guatemala over the past 60 years, hoping to escape a civil war that lasted from 1960 to 1996. The following years saw rising violence, civil unrest and pervasive poverty.
Over the course of the 36-year-long war, more than 200,000 Guatemalans were killed or disappeared. Indigenous Maya made up 83% of that number of casualties. The U.S.-backed Guatemalan army’s destruction of more than 600 villages further deepens the scars of the country’s history.
Many of those who fled the violence ended up in Delaware. Guatemalans make up the second-largest segment of Latino residents in the state.
Last month, Guatemala’s new President Bernardo Arévalo took office, after promising to battle corruption. With new leadership, what do Delaware’s Guatemalan residents hope for from the new administration?
Aracely Garcia Ramirez is one of those who escaped to the U.S., eventually landing in Newark, Delaware, after leaving Ixchiguán in the San Marcos section of Guatemala near the Mexican border 24 years ago.
She remembers what it was like when the war was raging. She was just 3 years old when she heard soldiers knock at their door and children crying. She saw people running, homes being demolished and even burned.
“Por lo poquito que yo me acuerdo, las personas no podían dormirse en su casa, se tuvieron que quedarse en las noches en el monte y todos tenían miedo porque estaban amenazados de que los ejércitos iban a llegar a quemar sus casa”, ella dijo. “Por ejemplo, la casa de mis padres, la quemaron y la quemaron la casa de mi abuela y pues en ese tiempo, pues yo perdí a mi padre en la guerra, perdimos a muchos familiares”.
“Algo que no se me olvida fue de que cuando llegaron a sacar a uno de mis tíos de la casa, de la cama y enfrente de nosotros lo asesinaron”, ella añadió.
“From the little bit that I remember, people could not sleep in their houses, they had to stay in the hills during the nighttime and everyone was afraid because they were threatened that the army was going to come and burn their houses,” she said. “For example, they burned my parents’ house and my grandmother’s house and, well, at that time, I lost my father in the war, we lost many relatives.”
“Something that I haven’t forgotten was when they came to take one of my uncles out of the house, out of bed, and in front of us, they murdered him,” she added.
When she was 10, Garcia had to end her education at the elementary school level when she moved to the nation’s capital, Guatemala City, for “better opportunities.”
“Por ejemplo, en mi pueblo allá no hay trabajo más que en el campo… Mi pueblo era un pueblo abandonado porque no había buenas carreteras, no había buenas escuelas, no teníamos el apoyo del gobierno”, ella dijo. “En mi pueblo hay una, hay un grupo de personas que se dedican a recaudar dinero para arreglar las escuelas, para arreglar las carreteras, todo lo que necesita el pueblo”.
“For example, in my town, there are no jobs except in agriculture… My town was an abandoned town; there were no good roads, there were no good schools, we did not have the support of the government,” she said. “In my town, there is a group of people who are dedicated to raising money to fix the schools, to fix the roads, everything the town needs.”
Yet, even with the improved job prospects, transportation, and structure in the city, it still fell short of providing a good quality of life. That prompted her decision to migrate to the U.S., mirroring the widespread trend of mass migration out of Guatemala.
Thomas Jefferson University is opening a regional campus of its Sidney Kimmel Medical College in Delaware, an effort that will result in the state’s first medical school.
Jefferson beat out three other bidders to establish the four-year program in partnership with the state. The other bidders were the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, the consulting firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Ponce Health Sciences University in Puerto Rico, Spotlight Delaware reported.
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The inaugural class of 40 medical students will begin instruction in July 2028. Initially, the campus will be based at the University of Delaware in Newark, with Jefferson faculty providing instruction. A permanent home for the campus is still being finalized, the Inquirer reported.
The medical students will receive 18 months of preclinical training on campus before receiving clinical training from healthcare providers in Delaware’s southern counties, where the state’s physician shortage is most deeply felt. That shortage is compounded by an aging population, Delaware officials said.
“Jefferson is committed to being part of the solution to Delaware’s physician shortage,” Jefferson CEO Dr. Joseph Cacchione said in a statement. “We are proud to help build a future where every Delawarean has access to the care they deserve. Jefferson is all in.”
The school’s creation is being supported by $157.4 million from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Delaware is one of three states without a Doctor of Medicine or Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine program. Since the late 1960s, Jefferson and the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine have reserved seats for Delaware students.
“Sidney Kimmel Medical College has trained generations of physicians for more than 200 years, more than any other medical college in the country,” Said Ibrahim, dean of Sidney Kimmel Medical College, said in a statement. “It is a privilege to bring our mission to Delaware’s patients and communities.”
Jefferson has announced several expansions recently. The university is establishing a full-time doctor of nursing practice-nurse anesthesia program and several online graduate programs at the Lehigh Valley Health Network Center for Healthcare Education in Lehigh County. It also is opening a satellite respiratory therapy lab at Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest in Allentown.
Delaware officials said medical students will start their classroom instruction at UD and then do their clinical training at offices and health care systems in Kent and Sussex counties, where the shortage of doctors is most acute.
However, ChristianaCare, which has its own partnership with Jefferson, is not participating. The state’s largest health care system was part of Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine’s unsuccessful bid to operate the school. In a joint statement from ChristianaCare and PCOM, the two organizations expressed disappointment with not being part of the consortium of higher education institutions and healthcare organizations.
“The path forward raises genuine questions about whether the school’s goals can be fully realized without ChristianaCare’s meaningful participation in its clinical training mission,” it said. “The success of any four-year medical program depends not just on an academic institution, but on a true and committed partnership with its clinical partners — one built on shared mission, mutual investment and trust developed over time.”
Students in the first class can get their tuition subsidized, covering all of their education costs, in exchange for an agreement to work in rural Delaware for five years.
Running the medical school is expected to cost Jefferson $78 million over the next five years. The money is from a federal rural health grant through the Rural Health Transformation Program, which congressional Republicans created in the so-called “One Big, Beautiful Bill Act.”
The program will give $50 billion to every state over five years, though exactly the total each will eventually receive is unclear. Half of the money is to be distributed equally to states and the other half is awarded by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services based on a variety of factors.
The state applied for $1 billion late last year to improve health care in Kent and Sussex counties. The Trump administration has so far allocated Delaware $157 million. Delaware is expected to receive at least $500 million over the life of the fund.
Delaware Ohio Housing Growth
A look at the rapid expansion of housing developments in Delaware, Ohio.
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Every few weeks Delaware city approves a new housing development. The city has more than 4,000 housing units in its development pipeline, contributing to the rapid growth in one of the fastest-growing counties in Ohio.
A crash shut down U.S. 42 in Delaware County in both directions June 2.
As of 7 a.m., U.S. 42 was closed from U.S. 23 to Jegs Place near the Delaware Municipal Airport.
It was not immediately clear whether anyone was injured in the crash or when the roadway would open.
This is a developing story and will be updated
Public Safety and Breaking News Reporter Bailey Gallion can be reached at bagallion@dispatch.com.
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