Clutching rosaries, citizens of the mountainous town of San Marcos Atexquilapan, Mexico, looked at photos of 3 of them at the top of the altar of the local church, praying that teenagers Jair, Yovani and Misael would be among the 53 migrants who died inside a suffocating trailer 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. For now, parents are rereading the latest messages, looking at photos, waiting for a phone call and praying.
Not far from the church, open-air from the two-story houses in Olivares’ circle of relatives — of both a sister and her parents — a black tarp hung Thursday to protect the dozens of people who flock to both sides. day to be with the parents of teenage brothers Yovani and Jair Valencia Olivares and the mother and father of their cousin, Misael Olivares Monterde, 16.
Such a coating is standard for funeral vigils, when the circle of the relatives’ house cannot accommodate everyone who comes to pay homage to him. the circle of relatives, praying and exchanging stories about the children.
Teófilo Valencia, father of Jair, 19, and Yovani, 16, was sitting in front of their 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 abandoned semi-trailer 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, put Yovani’s certificate of studies in her wallet as identification and filled 3 spare parts in the 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.
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,” he said. “‘I was there, my daughter,'” I said, ‘There’s no special vacation. ‘”The only special vacations were traveling by plane on a visa, he told her.
“The smuggler makes $15,000. He says he’s going to take me without 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 the explanation for why we see caravans, migrants day after day, month after month. It’s because other people have dreams and I don’t have 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 a worried heart. . “