I obliged and watched her sadness disappear for a brief moment. Except for one of the youngest daughters, she tapped my back and asked if I could take her photo. They showed me around their temporary home quietly, all of them shy. Instead, they kept us uncomfortable and tormented…waking us up at random hours, flicking the lights on and off constantly so we wouldn’t rest, and telling us incorrect information about what was going to happen.” We would ask for help but no help would come. He continued: “While in detention we were made fun of, insulted, treated like common criminals, and had food and water withheld. “I had no idea where my son and husband were, or if they had been sent back immediately,” said Marta. “When we got to the border, we were immediately taken to a detention center, separately,” Francisco said. And like many families, they trekked the 2,000 miles and presented themselves at an official point of entry in El Paso, Texas - as required. Silvio and Marta left with their children and were joined by Marta’s relatives, Francisco and Fidelia. “It was more of a need than a choice to leave, we had nothing back home and no way of knowing if our lives would ever improve…so, for our children’s sake, we left it all behind and walked two months to get to the U.S.” “We left Guatemala at the end of April,” said Marta. They were: Francisco, Fidelia, Silvio, Marta, and their children. It is a tragedy only understood by witnessing - there will never be enough written, filmed, or photographed to accurately convey the agony.Īs the sun moved down slowly towards the west, I met with a Guatemalan family living in house number six. I watched his eyes and saw his heartbreak at the misery endured by these families. Inside one of the temporary “homes” at the Ciudad Juarez refugee camp. His voice trailed off as he turned to look at the little girl, not more than five-years-old, inspecting her new footwear, happy to have something to cover her cracked, bloodied feet. “We have several who are doctors and nurses - they need to come with us next time…” “We need to get our church members here,” said the pastor to the group of SDA volunteers folding up the plastic tables. “It’s difficult to get doctors or nurses to come here, and even if they came, none of these families can afford medications.” “No,” replied a volunteer from Ciudad Juárez. “Are there any doctors here, or any that come around?” asked one of the SDA pastors. Without medical treatment, likely, many of those children may not make it to the other side of the wall - a grim realization, but an honest one. There was plenty of Pedialyte to go around for hydration, but unaccompanied by a tablet of aspirin or Tylenol, it could only do so much. A case of chickenpox here, bronchitis, possibly pneumonia there, low-grade fevers, malnourishment, and heat exhaustion. You had to look closely at the line of refugee families to see it, but there were countless sick babies and toddlers. The afternoon silence was broken by the rustling of plastic bags, whispered questions asked of parents by their children, and the gleeful laughter of having new toiletries and diapers, freshly prepared hot food, and new flip-flops to wear. They will cover her cracked, weathered feet. | Al Neal / PWĭedicated to the memory of the lives lost in El Paso on Augvictims of domestic terrorism, innocent casualties in Trump’s war against humanity and morality: Jordan Jamrowski Anchondo, 24 Andre Anchondo Arturo Benavides, 60 Javier Amir Rodriguez, 15 Leo Cimpeda Campos, 41 Maribel Hernandez, 56 David Johnson, 63 Angie Silva-Englisbee, 86 Mario Flores, 77 Raul Flores, 77 Elsa Libera Marquez, 57 Luis Alfonso Juárez, 90 Margie Reckard, 63 Sara Esther Regalado Moriel, 66, of Ciudad Juárez Adolfo Cerros Hernandez, 68, of Aguascalientes, Mexico Jorge Calvillo Garcia, 61, of Torreon, Mexico Elsa Mendoza de la Mora of Yepomera, Mexico Gloria Irma Marquez of Ciudad Juárez María Eugenia Legarreta Rothe, 58, of Chihuahua Juan de Dios Velázquez Chairez, 77, of Zacatecas Ivan Hiliberto Manzano, 46, of Ciudad Juárez Hiliberto Manzano, 46, from Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua Teresa Sanchez, 82 Alexander Gerhard Hoffman, 66, from Germany.Ī little girl inspects her new flip-flops. A girl from Honduras passes the time by watching the small world of the Ciudad Juarez refugee camp around her.
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