SAN MARCOS ATEXQUILAPAN, Mexico (AP) — With rosaries in their hands, residents of this mountain town looked at photos of three of them at the top of the altar at the local church, praying that teenagers Jair, Yovani and Misael would be among the 53 migrants. who perished inside a suffocating caravan in Texas.
The wait for confirmation has been harrowing for families from Mexico to Honduras. Now they expect what was once feared — capture by the Border Patrol, or even hospitalization — anything but the solemn goal that has spread circle of relatives into circles of relatives throughout the region.
Again, at least they would know.
Not far from the church, in the open air of the two-storey houses of the circle of relatives of Olivares – those of each sister and her parents – a black tarp has been hung to shade the dozens of other people who come each. someday be with the parents of teenage brothers Yovani and Jair Valencia Olivares and the mom and dad of their cousin, Misael Olivares Monterde, 16.
Such a blanket is standard for vigils, when the circle of the relatives’ house cannot accommodate all those who come to pay homage to him. But in this case, it is a vigil where the population of the town of 3,000 inhabitants comes to cheer. the circle of relatives, praying and exchanging stories about the boys.
On Friday, the wait for a circle of relatives ended in sadness. News spread throughout the village that Misael was among the dead. Other people thronged outside the Olivares’ homes, offering hugs and condolences.
Candles were still burning on a makeshift altar at home, where Teófilo Valencia and Yolanda Olivares Ruiz, de Jair, 19, and Yovani, 16, were waiting for a miracle.
A day earlier, Valencia had sat in front of his phone, reading the last messages he had earned them.
“Dad, now we’re going to San Antonio,” Yovani wrote at 11:16 a. m. monday. Half an hour later, his brother wrote to his father that they were willing to paint and pay for everything.
A few hours later came the gruesome discovery of the semi abandoned on the train tracks outside this South Texas city.
The cousins had left together on June 21. Yolanda Olivares Ruiz, the mother of the brothers, hid in her wallet Yovani’s certificate of studies as identity and filled 3 spare parts in backpacks, as well as the phones of the parents in the United States. and Mexico.
Hermelinda Monterde Jimenez spent the night before they left talking to her son Misael. “He said, ‘Mom, wake me up,’ and for a while I thought about not doing it so he wouldn’t leave,” she said. his resolve and his own dream. “
His parents took out loans, using their home as collateral to cover the smuggling costs of $10,000 for each cousin. They paid a portion upfront and had to pay the rest after the children arrived and rang out.
The other young men sought to work, save money, and return to open their own clothing and shoe store. They gave themselves 4 years.
Last Friday, June 24, they were in Laredo, Texas.
They told their parents that after the weekend they would be taken to their destination in Austin, where a cousin who had made the trip a few months earlier was waiting for them. Last week, 20 citizens left town for the United States.
The circle of relatives only learned of the unfortunate caravan on Tuesday. They tried to succeed with the children, but the messages and calls were unsuccessful. They visited government offices the same day, offering any data that might help with the search.
On Wednesday, Mexico’s consul in San Antonio showed that citizens of the Gulf Coast state of Veracruz — where San Marcos is located — were among the 27 Mexican victims. On Thursday, state attorneys traveled to San Antonio with the IDs.
Meanwhile, the Olivares wait and pray.
A week after his 18th birthday, Marcos Antonio Velasco left the Mexican capital for the United States, accompanied by his friend José Luis Vásquez Guzmán, whom he had met in his mother’s hometown in the southern state of Oaxaca. This week, the government showed that Vasquez Guzman was one of the survivors of the caravan and had been hospitalized in San Antonio.
Velasco’s family’s fears were heightened when an official from Mexico’s Foreign Ministry called Wednesday to say their son’s identification had been discovered in the caravan. Since then, they have shared data that can identify their child, but have only been told to wait.
“I need to know where he is, he’s dead or alive,” said his mother, Maria Victoria Velasco.
The wait ended Thursday for Jazmín Nayarith Bueso Núñez’s circle of relatives in El Progreso, Honduras. His prayers for his return went unheeded. She appeared as one of the dead in San Antonio.
Bueso Nunez suffered from lupus, an immunological disease that had him tasked with a job at a joint plant and much loved to treat, his circle of relatives said.
A circle of family friends had come forward to help her on her journey to the United States, where she hoped to find a better-paying job to help the 15-year-old son she left with his parents and find a remedy for his illness.
Before leaving on June 3, the 37-year-old told her father she intended to emigrate.
“Dad, I came to say goodbye to you,” Jose Santos Bueso said on his last visit. “I’m going north. “
He tried to dissuade him, noticing the dangers. ” No, Dad, it’s a special vacation,” she told him. “‘I was there, my daughter,'” I said. There is no special vacation. “The only special holidays were for air travel on a visa,” he told her.
“The smuggler wins $15,000. He says he’s going to take me with no worries,” he told her.
She was in Laredo for her last conversation. She told him that the smugglers would take their phones before continuing, so he wouldn’t be able to talk for a while.
On Thursday, a relative in the United States who had helped the circle of relatives provide identity documents to the government told them the sad truth, his brother Erick Josue Rodriguez said.
“The economic scenario, the social scenario that exists in our country is very, very difficult,” Rodriguez said. “That’s why we see caravans, migrants day after day, month after month. This is because other people have dreams and no opportunities. .
Back in San Marcos Atexquilapan, Mexico, sisters Hermelinda and Yolanda walked late Thursday from their home to church with photographs of their children. They were flanked by women dressed in candles.
Inside, the mothers sat in the front row while the priest invited the other accumulated people to pray.
“It’s not that they’re criminals,” he said. They went in search of their daily bread. “
The people of the village prayed: “We ask that these boys have the dream of a greater life, give them this comfort, this relief wherever they are, Lord, that they be given answers because those families are suffering, they have anguished hearts. “. “
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Martinez reported from El Progreso, Honduras. Sherman reported from Mexico City. AP Fabiola Sanchez in Mexico City contributed to this report.