During Easter time in Mexico, it is common for communities and groups to put on reenactments of the Stations of the Cross. For migrant rights activists, the event has become a way to take their message to the streets and affirm the human rights of migrants. On the Wednesday before Easter, I attended one of these migrant-focused Stations of the Cross ceremony in Arriaga, Chiapas. Arriaga is a town that receives a lot of migrant traffic because it is the starting point of the cargo train that many migrants take to head northward. Migrants in transit as well as community members participated in the ceremony, which was led by Padre Heyman, the priest at the migrant shelter in Arriaga.
The event started with a mass (which I missed because my bus got me in late). Afterwards, we walked along the railroad tracks that so many migrants utilize to travel northward. We carried banners affirming the rights of migrants and the need to protect these rights. When we arrived at a “station”, we all stopped and listened to the priest and his assistants as they read a reading about the life of a selected migrant. These migrant stories highlighted the difficulties that migrants face in the journey. When the ceremony was over, we all gathered under a large tree near the railroad tracks and shared a meal together.
That same day, I headed northward towards the migrant shelter in Ixtepec, a town in Oaxaca further along the train route that also sees a lot of migrant traffic. During these visits to Ixtepec and Arriaga, I had the opportunity to talk with and hear the stories of many migrants. Some of the stories were very powerful, and I felt compelled to find a way to share their messages with others.
The linking of Stations of the Cross and migrant rights got me thinking: why not present the stories in a similar format? Here, I will present 14 stories to represent the 14 stations. Normally, I provide a little bit of contextual information when I share migrant stories, however here I will just let the stories speak for themselves.
1. Victor, a 28 years old Guatemalan. I had met him before in Albergue Belén. A big flirt. Now in Arriaga, he looks just as energetic, with smiling eyes. He tells me that, during the trip from Tapachula to Arriage, he stayed with a group of people in the house of a man nearby the Arrocera. They paid and everything, but soon after they left the house, the grandson of the man was there in the path, waiting with a shotgun. It was clearly a trap. Arriving in Arriaga, Victor and some of his traveling companions submitted the demand against the man.
2. A middle-aged Honduran man. He tells me he lived in the United States all his life, since he was 14 years old up until recently. He insisted on speaking me in English, telling me that he doesn’t like to speak Spanish because he hardly spoke Spanish when he was in the U.S.
3. A young 15-year old Honduran, with caramel colored-skin and almost blond hair. He told me it was natural. He tells me he’s been assaulted and robbed three times already during his short time traveling in Mexico. His mom lives in North Carolina and he hasn’t seen her for almost 13 years. She left when he was 2 years old. She married an American and has become a naturalized citizen. For the past 10 years, she has been fighting with the immigration system of the U.S. to get papers for her son. But they still haven’t come through. The reason he’s traveling to the U.S. illegally? “I got tired of waiting.”
4. Melvin, 18 years old from Honduras. He had been studying in Honduras and just had one year left, but he decided to migrate. He was excited by the idea of the adventure. Close to Ixtepec, he was assaulted. He now works in the shelter in Ixtepec, to help out the priest while he waits for his papers to come through.
5. A Honduran man, about 20 years old, tells me about how authorities in a detention center in the U.S. chained his ankles and wrists all together and forced him to wait, kneeling on the floor almost 48 hours. He was there until a higher commanding officer came and scolded the men who had done it to him.
6. A short Salvadoran who wants to go to the U.S. to help make a future for his mom. He can't find work in his country. It’s his first time heading north.
7. Why did you migrate? One of the migrants asked the young woman nursing her baby by the train tracks, waiting for the train to start up. Well, for the povery, she answers. Where we were living in Tecun Uman, Guatemala, we didn’t have a house. We would settle in abandoned houses and then, when someone came to kick us out, we would look for another one.
8. A migrant who looked like he could have been a Vassar student. Birkenstocks, dreadlocks, glasses… He told me he’s lived in Texas for the past three years, but he was deported about 6 months ago. Now he’s on his way “home” to Texas.
9. A middle-aged man who follows the news. He told me, Bush didn’t go to war in Iraq for the oil, it was for the power. We chatted politics.
10. A 40-something Guatemalan. Short, with curly hair. He’s traveled back and forth between Guatemala and the U.S. many times. He proudly tells me, “I’ve been in all the migrant shelters in Mexico.”
11. A young Salvadoran tells me how, just a few weeks ago, he was in Phoenix, Arizona. He had just crossed into the U.S. and was staying in a hotel. INS raided the hotel and deported him.
12. Odi, 27 year old Guatemalan woman. She was assaulted and began working in the shelter in Ixtepec. The priest there helped her get her papers. She brought her son to Mexico and was working on getting him his papers. She wanted to keep working in Mexico and build a life there for her and her son. “I don’t want to go to the U.S. anymore,” she would tell me. But then her ex-husband put out a demand that the boy be returned. When I saw her, she had just gotten back from bringing him back to Guatemala. Now, she tells me she wants to go to the U.S. Sure, it’s dangerous. But now there’s nothing to lose.
13. José, 29, Salvadoran. He tells me, “I didn’t migrate out of necessity. My parents had money. I migrated because I wanted to make a life for myself.”
14. Padre Alejandro Solalinde of the Ixtepec shelter. Has been witness to the repeated human rights violations carried out against migrants. Has made a number of public demands against the abuses. Has received a number of death threats from these same assailants and gang members. Despite all the challenges, radiates a sense of peace, compassion, and understanding. Sits at night with the migrants to watch the news.
No comments:
Post a Comment