▲ The Clave Vallejo migrant camp began to be installed more than a year ago, because the Shelter, Training and Empowerment House for Migrant and Refugee Women and Families is located nearby. Since those accepted into the shelter cannot stay indefinitely, they chose to settle next to the train tracks. Every day they face the paradox of seeing the railroad pass and not being able to use it to reach the border with the United States, since to travel they require an appointment with the authorities of the neighboring country to the north or a permit from the Mexican authorities. During the day, when visiting the place, what is most observed are children, since adults must take care of obtaining resources and buying food. Some, the privileged ones, have obtained stoves and other equipment that allow them to make the wait bearable.Photo Luis Castillo
César Arellano García
La Jornada Newspaper
Tuesday, December 31, 2024, p. 5
Suspended in time, stranded in Mexico, hundreds of migrants who take refuge in the Clave Vallejo and Avenida 100 Metros camps, in the Gustavo A. Madero mayor’s office, do not expect anything from the New Year. Due to their situation, they will not have turkey, ribs or punch. Much less the traditional 12 grapes, a symbol of hope in each of the months to come.
Foreigners in transit, mainly children, women and men from Honduras, Guatemala, Cuba, Haiti, Colombia and Venezuela, live in small houses built with recycled materials. They call them ranchitos
. They only fit their few belongings and cardboard or old mattresses to rest on. Of course, the cold abounds.
During the day, foreigners mix with homeless people, who sleep on old, dirty couches that someone threw in the trash and they gave them a new chance.
When touring the shelters, the overcrowding hits the nose. Bad odors are perceived. Garbage accumulates everywhere. Well they say: What gets in the way for some can be of use to others.
. There are piles of clothes, toys, shoes, furniture, strollers, mattresses; They all show their years of use and inevitable poor condition.
Children suffer more
Yasnel Auscastegui lives with her husband and four children crowded into one of the small improvised rooms. “This year the celebration will be sad, why are we going to say other words. We really feel very sad in the conditions we are in. These are not the expectations of the children, but we have to continue here, far from the family, although we communicate with them there in Venezuela, it is the first time that we will not be together.
The New Year in Venezuela is celebrated in a very joyful way, with fireworks, family gatherings, eating, and partying, but this year will be very different due to these conditions we are in.
He stated that they have hope of reaching the United States, regardless of Donald Trump’s threats to expel migrants when he takes office as president. We have faith in God: he rules over any man and circumstance, the first and last word is decided by the Lord, we trust him, the goal is to reach the border
.
But not only that: he recalled that during their journey they have been victims of violence, discrimination, threats, robberies and extortion, since the lack of legal status exposes them to kidnappings and violence. Traveling through Mexico has been very hard. It is full of dangers for migrants who seek to reach the border with the United States.
.
Noeli is also Venezuelan and pointed out that this year We will not spend it with the family or have dinner. Some people from an evangelical Church invited us to celebrate. The journey has been difficult, it is no secret to anyone that on the border with Guatemala and Mexico they take money from you, we lived in the anxiety that they could kidnap us, although there were also many good people who supported us
. He came to this shelter because in the Historic Center they rented him a room for 2,100 pesos that he did not have to pay.
Saraí Martínez, from Honduras, is interviewed in the camp, her children jump from one mattress to another, playing at jumping the border. Last week they broke into my shelter, my little ranch, they attacked us. I was stripped of my documents. Many families no longer want to be here in this situation. We are adrift. Living a very strong situation. We have suffered violence, abuse, exploitation and despair. Once on the streets, we become increasingly immersed in poverty, crime, abuse and abandonment.
.
He also trusts in God to enter the neighboring country to the north. May He open his heart to Donald Trump, because we need to get out of poverty. We can no longer return to our country. While we live asking for money because it is difficult to find work
.
Alejandro is 25 years old and lives in the shelter located on the median of Avenida 100 Metros, near the North Bus Station. I have traveled seven countries. The hardest thing about the journey is that everyone extorts you, but not only that, this year there will be no dinner or Three Wise Men gifts for my children because there is no money.
. The migrants agreed that despite the adversities they have experienced during their journey, their goal is to migrate to the neighboring country to the north.
