More than 420 kilometers from Managua, Karelia de la Vega, popularly known for her character, Lady Vulgaraza, survives from the sale of coconut, milk and papaya boxes. She learned this trade as a child and for generations she fed her family in the Pochocuape region, from where she left on June 6, 2022 due to harassment by the regime’s police.
“It has been quite difficult, but I am trying to get ahead with the sale of traditional sweets, hand in hand with a lady who gave me the opportunity to sell them in her business. Right now I only sell three types of cajetas, but I intend to extend the production of cajetas”, she says by telephone from San José, Costa Rica, Karelia, a 28-year-old trans woman.
Karelia confesses that these have been difficult weeks because she was not prepared for exile – she arrived in Costa Rica with only 30 dollars – but now her family enjoys a bit of peace of mind. “They are no longer with the thought that they are going to throw me in jail,” she explains.
According to her account, days before it was publicly known that she had left the country, police officers arrived outside her house – where she has a children’s soup kitchen for the children of the community – but after that they never came back. For now, her purpose is to expand her sale of sweets and support her mother, who is elderly.
“I want to collect money and with that start, earn a living as I did in Nicaragua, either on the streets or somewhere where someone gives me a space. Selling those traditional sweets that he made in Nicaragua, maybe not the same amount that he made in Nicaragua, but to survive,” he says.
Tiktoker seeks employment, while surviving by making nacatamales
Kevin Monzón, 21, lives in a situation similar to that of Karelia. Given the lack of work, he survives by selling nacatamales in Costa Rica, a trade that he barely has enough to survive on, while he waits for a job opportunity.
“Right now I’m having a hard time. Sometimes I eat, sometimes I don’t and that’s how I go. I have put quite a few papers in the Chinese supermarkets, but nothing to do with it, it is very complicated. That of Nicaraguans is bumped. What I do is sell nacatamales on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Through that I have survived,” says Monzón, who became popular in Nicaragua for his videos confronting the regime on the Tik Tok platform.
However, he confesses that even if he manages to sell all the nacatamales, the profit is small because Costa Rica is an expensive country. “Here money is nothing. A thousand colones are nothing, ”he laments.
Faced with this difficult situation, the young man has thought about returning, but the fear of being arrested and causing his family suffering stops him. “My life is in danger,” says the young man who has precautionary measures from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).
Monzón says that when he arrived in Costa Rica he suffered from depression due to separating from his country and his family. His physical health also deteriorated quite a bit and he had to be taken to a clinic. “Before I came I was always healthy, I didn’t get sick; but as soon as I arrived I fell into depression and later they even took me to the hospital because I suffered from inflammation of the colon, it was extremely painful and expensive, ”he says and explains that thanks to the Nicaragua Never Again Collective he was able to receive psychological care.
Now he is in better health, but the shortcomings and problems continue. He just found out that his mother has a fatty liver and a tumor. “For me it was a very hard blow. I talk to her every day and tell her that I’m fine so as not to worry her,” says Monzón.
**If you want to help Karelia de la Vega or Kevin Monzón, you can contact them through their social networks**
