She never does anything with the anatomical rag dolls, except for planting them under the social worker's desk blotter. Some immigrants seeking asylum in the United States did receive help from the Sanctuary Movement, a collection of church congregations committed to helping refugees find shelter, employment and legal resources, just as Mattie did for Estevan and Esperanza in the novel.As the social worker predicted, Turtle proves resilient. Many Guatemalans, like Estevan and Esperanza in the novel, were therefore forced to come into the United States illegally. Though the United States had played a role in inciting the civil war by helping the conservative military regime of Carlos Castillo Armas take control of Guatemala’s formerly democratic government, American immigration policy did not allow Guatemalan immigrants to gain refugee status. As war raged, many Guatemalans were forced to flee to America due to their ethnic background, their political affiliation, or the complete destruction of their homes and livelihoods. The Guatemalan government began a crusade against the indigenous Mayan population of Guatemala, causing in response the formation of leftist rebel groups supported by the rural poor of Guatemala.

The novel also includes the Guatemalan Refugee crisis of the 1970s and 80s that resulted from the Guatemalan Civil War. To this day, reservation life remains difficult as many Native American tribes struggle to receive the resources and support the United States government promised them in payment for the relocation, and poverty marks the lives of many reservation Native. Under the administration of President Andrew Jackson in 1838, thousands of Cherokee people were relocated from Georgia to a reservation in Oklahoma, an event called the Trail of Tears because of the harsh conditions and rampant disease that took the lives of over 4,000 Cherokee as they were forced to travel.

Present day Oklahoma is home to large numbers of Cherokee Native Americans after the US governments’ Indian Removal efforts of the 1800s and early 1900s. Taylor Greer, the main protagonist of The Bean Trees, tries to raise Turtle, a young Cherokee girl who has been abandoned in Oklahoma.

The bean trees cover