With its fairly unicorn case published, Ana Morazán’s iPhone is all that remains of what she calls her “other world,” in reference to her middle-class life before consecutive hurricanes destroyed her home in Honduras.
There are glamorous photos of the 42-year-old woman with blonde salon-style hair, impeccable makeup and cocktail dresses. Debt-free.
The comfortable life he built during years of hard work and sacrifice disappeared in the space of two weeks when he was part of the 1. 7 million people displaced by Hurricanes Eta and Iota that hit Honduras and Guatemala in November 2020.
Morazán and her boyfriend, Fredi Juárez, who moved in with her during the pandemic, say they went into debt to rebuild Morazán’s space and then began receiving threats. Since then, the couple has moved and lately lives in a tent in an overcrowded shelter in Tijuana.
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EDITOR’S NOTE: This story is part of an ongoing series that explores the lives of others around the world who have been forced to move due to rising seas, droughts, scorching temperatures, and other things caused or exacerbated by climate change.
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The photos and videos of Morazán’s iPhone comfort and torment her. They remind her who she was and what she had, give her hope of returning, but also show how she was temporarily swept away by the storms that led her to be a migrant.
She wipes away a tear as she watches a video she recorded about the destruction near San Pedro Sula. In the video, he scans each and every room in his once-spotless house, painted a bright lime color and now dotted with dirt. Then he looks at the camera and says, “All I have is dust and more dust and more dust. “
The couple said that since they left, they had been attacked, kidnapped and robbed, which kept them moving. Now, she and Juarez are among the tens of thousands of Central Americans in Mexican border cities asylum in the United States, yet they are blocked. through a pandemic-related fitness order that has been invoked through the Trump administration and has continued under President Joe Biden.
While concern about violence prevents them from seeking to return to Honduras, even if they did, they would have no position to live. If Eta and Iota hadn’t hit, it wouldn’t have triggered a chain reaction of other things that forced them to flee.
“All our messes with hurricanes,” said Juarez, 48.
No country gives asylum to other people displaced in particular due to climate change, Biden’s leadership has studied climate migration to explore options. Each year, storms, droughts, wildfires and other herbal problems force an average of 21. 5 million people from their homes. homes around the world, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Honduras was among the top 11 countries considered at most in the U. S. government’s first assessment. The U. S. Department of Homeland Security through intelligence agencies on the effect of the climate update and its broad effects on global stability was published last year. But identifying climate migrants is not easy, especially in regions plagued by violence.
“I’m just asking President Biden to help me,” Morazan said. “It’s not simple for us, given our age. It’s a nightmare. Your life can be replaced in a second. We lived well. it’s going to take place day by day.
After eta’s stroke, Morazán cleaned buckets clean of dust from the living room, bedroom, kitchen, and bathroom and tried to bring him back to life. With the pandemic affecting the economy, she is already struggling to pay her bills, especially to cover medical expenses. expenses of his nephew who has a center problem.
Then, thirteen days later, Iota destroyed what little he had controlled to save. Juarez, a long-distance truck driving force that had gone on a trip, returned and tried to help. But both ended up being fired and started borrowing money. to pass while looking to fix the house. Morazán borrowed about 340,000 Honduran lempiras (US$14,000), while Juárez borrowed around 80,000 lempiras (US$3,200).
They ended up sleeping in the streets of the San Pedro Sula neighborhood. Then she and Juarez began receiving threats with requests to disburse cash or the house, even though Morazán owned it in its entirety, and was still just a muddy shell. Soon after, Morazán was beaten by assailants who stepped on her ankle and feared for her life, she said. That’s when they fled the country.
Being on the road for a year hasn’t been easy. In southern Mexico, the couple said they were kidnapped by bandits and held for two days on a banana plantation until they gave up what little money they had.
“It’s horrible, ugly, ugly, ugly,” Morazan said.
They moved to Guadalajara, where they discovered paintings at the airport to provide security, however, drug traffickers approached them there, so they resigned and headed north to Tijuana.
They sleep in an inflatable bed on top of folded cardboard boxes so as not to get soaked when rain enters through the gaps of the fragile roof of the shelter and wets the floor. fetid that makes him want to vomit. In short, the couple worked on collecting recyclable materials from a landfill.
“We hope the United States will open its doors because we may not last here,” Juarez said.
One night, another migrant sleeping in a tent at the shelter was hit by a stray bullet in the neck in a shootout that broke out in the ramshackle neighborhood.
“There are cartels and a lot of crime,” Juarez said.
Morazán struggles to keep his spirits up. A wandering Chihuahua was welcomed and named Jabibi. He tried to dress in clothes donated to the shelter, but the party among migrants has been fierce and the most productive things are claimed seconds after being unloaded.
Morazán put on makeup while holding a mirror inside her tent because “I like to feel pretty,” but admitted she only bathed every other day because of the limited number of showers.
“It’s very difficult,” he said. I only have memories in my head. At least those can’t be erased.
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