In late 1998, Hurricane Mitch pounded the isolated village of Santa Catarina Ixtahuacán in mountainous western Guatemala, destroying many homes. The experience traumatized many Ixtahuaquenses. Much of the community relocated to be safer and closer to transportation that they hoped would help them to improve their lives, acquire more schooling, and find supportive jobs. This long-term study follows the two resulting communities over the next quarter century as they reconceived and renegotiated their place within Guatemalan society and the world. Those who remained in place modernized slowly and revitalized their cultural roots, experiencing no unusual deaths. Those who moved changed rapidly in a cascade of gender, occupation, land ownership, and migration transformations leading to numerous deaths from highway accidents, landslides, high-altitude cold, and conflict with the neighboring municipality of Nahuaiá. Making a Place for the Future in Maya Guatemala shows how humans continuously evaluate and rework the efficacy of their cultural heritage. This process of evaluation and modification helps explain both the inevitability of culture change and the speed of such change in the face of natural disasters and our ongoing climate crisis.