Children set off with the hopes of earning enough money to support their parents and siblings. Young adults who made sacrifices to go to college in the hopes that it would lead to success have returned to their nation disappointed.
An American man who was already employed there wanted to bring his cousin with him when he visited his wife and kids.
A shared story of seeking a better life took shape from Honduras to Mexico as families of the 67 migrants packed inside a tractor-trailer and abandoned on Monday in Texas started to confirm their worst suspicions and talk of their relatives.
As of Wednesday, 53 of those migrants who were left in the scorching sun on the outskirts of San Antonio had passed away, while others were still being treated in hospitals. Families are confirming their losses, but the painstaking identification process continues.
According to Francisco Garduo, head of Mexico’s National Immigration Institute, the fatalities included 27 persons from Mexico, 14 from Honduras, seven from Guatemala, and two from El Salvador.
Each one trusted smugglers with their life. Cities and villages accustomed to watching their young people leave to escape poverty or violence in Central America and Mexico were horrified to learn of the trailer full of bodies.
Alejandro Miguel Andino Caballero, 23, and Margie Tamara Paz Grajeda, 24, had hoped that their respective degree paths in economics and marketing in Las Vegas, Honduras, a community of 10,000 people located 50 miles south of San Pedro Sula, would lead to opportunities for financial security.
The young pair, who have been together for almost ten years, has recently spent time seeking positions with businesses. But they were consistently rejected.
They became discouraged when the epidemic struck and the northern section of the country was destroyed by hurricanes.
So when Andino Caballero’s American-based relative volunteered to help him and his younger brother, Fernando Jos Redondo Caballero, 18, pay for their trip up north, they were prepared.
The brothers’ mother, Karen Caballero, remarked, “You think that those with a greater level of education must get more career opportunities.” Because of this, they work and study.
Even Paz Grajeda, 24, who lived with Alejandro in his mother’s house and whom Caballero referred to as her daughter-in-law even though they were not married, felt as though she could no longer keep them back.
We all worked together to make it happen as a family so that they might live a new life and realise their aspirations, according to Caballero.
On June 4, they departed Las Vegas and travelled with Caballero to Guatemala. From there, the young group was transported in the back of semi-trailers via Guatemala and finally Mexico.
I believed everything was going to work out, she admitted. Alejandro Miguel was the one who was a little frightened. If something happens to us, Mom, he said. And I reassured him by saying, “Nothing is going to happen. You are not the first person to visit the United States, and you won’t be the last either.
They last heard from Caballero on Saturday morning. She was informed that they had crossed the Rio Grande at Roma, Texas, were travelling to Laredo, and that they planned to travel to Houston in the north on Monday.
On Monday night, she had just arrived home when she was instructed to turn on the television. She added of viewing the article about the trailer in San Antonio, “I couldn’t process it.” “Then I recalled my sons’ route of travel—they had been in trucks since Guatemala and for the whole of the stretch in Mexico.”
Following the delivery of their information and pictures to San Antonio, Caballero was able to confirm their demise on Tuesday.
Alejandro Miguel was a talented dancer who was also joyful, inventive, and well-known for giving everyone a hug. Fernando Jos was ebullient and noble, ready to assist everyone who needed it. From his hairdo to his attire, he modelled everything after his older brother. They were screaming soccer fans, filling their mother’s house.
It is sad to learn that her boys and Paz Grajeda, who was like a daughter, have passed away. She added, “My children leave a vacuum in my heart.” We will miss them a great deal.
The chances for Wilmer Tulul and Pascual Melvin Guachiac, two 13-year-old cousins from Tzucubal, Guatemala, had been much more limited because of their distance of almost 400 miles.
The majority of the 1,500 members of the Indigenous Quiche settlement of Tzucubal, located in the mountains some 100 miles northwest of the city, rely on subsistence farming.
The final text Wilmer wrote to his mother Magdalena Topaz in their home town of Quiche on Monday was, “Mom, we’re moving out.” On June 14, they departed their home.
After hearing that audio message for several hours, Topaz said through a translator, a neighbour informed the family that there had been an accident in San Antonio and they anticipated the worst.
According to Melvin’s mother, Mara Sipac Coj, the boys were best friends their entire lives and did everything together, even arranging a trip to the United States despite not speaking Spanish very well.
She described Melvin as a single mother of two who “intended to study in the United States, then work, and after that build my house.” On Monday, she heard a voicemail from her son informing her that they were departing. She deleted it because she could no longer endure hearing it.
The lads were met in Houston by relatives who hired the smuggler and made the arrangements. Her death was certified by the Guatemalan government on Wednesday after her family informed her of their passing.
Manuel de Jesus Tulul, the father of Wilmer, broke down in tears on Wednesday. He claimed to be unaware of the boys’ route to Houston and to have never believed that they would be transported in a trailer. After finishing elementary school, his kid quit going to class and helped his father prepare farmland for planting.
Wilmer, according to Tulul, did not envision a future for himself in a community where affordable homes were constructed with money sent from the United States. He hoped to one day purchase a home and some land, as well as assist in supporting his three siblings.
Nearly half of the $6,000 that the smuggler demanded was already paid. Now, Tulul’s main concerns were retrieving his son’s body and praying that the government would foot the bill.
Javier Flores López and Jose Luis Vásquez Guzman, cousins in Mexico, left the small town of Cerro Verde in the southern state of Oaxaca to support their families. They were travelling to Ohio, where they would find employment in construction and other fields.
According to his family, Flores López has since vanished, while Vásquez Guzmán is a patient at a hospital in San Antonio.
About 60 individuals live in the neighbourhood of Cerro Verde, which has been mainly neglected by young people. The people that are still there make a poor living by weaving mats, brooms, and other goods out of palm leaves. Many people survive on as little as 30 pesos (less than $2) every day.
Flores Lopez, now in his mid-30s, left Cerro Verde years ago and moved to Ohio, where his father and a brother reside. This was not his first visit to the U.S.-Mexico border.
A relative of his, Francisco L3pez Hernandez, indicated that he had returned home to short visit his wife and three young children. Vásquez Guzmán, 32, made the decision to go with his cousin for the first time to visit his older brother who lives in Ohio.
Although everyone was aware of the dangers, L3pez Hernandez said it still came as a shock because many residents of Cerro Verde had successfully crossed the border between the United States and Mexico with the aid of smugglers. The family is still waiting for proof, although they think Flores L3pez was.
The mother of Vasquez Guzman had planned to apply for a visa to travel to see her hospitalised son, but on Wednesday he was moved out of intensive care and she was able to call him. Director of the Oaxaca Institute for Migrant Attention Aida Ruiz explained that she made the decision to remain in Mexico while she waited for his recuperation.
Most people, according to L3pez Hernandez, rely on those who have managed to reach the United States to provide the money for the journey, which typically costs around $9,000 per person.
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There are many hazards, but for those who are fortunate, the opportunity to work and make life is there, he said.
