Month: November 2022

A Second Journey to the U.S.

In 1995, my father received a call one day, stating that the woman who raised him, Mamá Santo, was very ill and was going to die soon. He immediately got on a plane and went back to El Salvador to his Tía Antonia’s house and met with Mamá Santo. He found his mother skinny and frail, lying in bed and dying; he lay with her and hugged her. She asked him who he was and he answered “Manuel”; she then responded “Ahhh, mi flaquito”. My father embraced her for half an hour while she was dying. Mamá Santo asked for food for her and her son; she had gone a week without eating, but ate for the first time with him. She told my father that the next morning she would wake up early to make him food. After that, she ate a lot every day to grow strong and take care of her son—she wanted to make him food. The days went by, a year passed; unfortunately, he needed to return to the U.S. because he ran out of money in El Salvador.
Mamá Santo has passed away a long time now, but I thought that I would share where she is now and what the cemeteries look like in Santa Rosa de Lima, El Salvador.
My father recalls that the second time migrating was worse because it was more difficult. A bus took him to Guatemala; in Mexico, he got on a trailer, the kind that they put horses in, and rode for 12 hours. When they had their breaks, the migrants slept outside, hiding in ranches on the mountains, controlled by the mafia. Two months went by and my father remembers the Coyotes throwing parties, giving them tacos and refrescos to liven up their spirits. Out of nowhere, the group was told that they would need to walk five hours to get to another mountain. It was reported that Mexican migration officers were coming; they were also illegal in Mexico, so they needed to go into hiding. The Coyotes got serious and sped up the process when they realized that they were being persecuted. Around 2:00 AM, the group was woken up by the Coyotes and given five minutes to get on five buses any way that they could (on top, under), whoever hesitated stayed back.
Burnett, John. “Coyotes' Boomtown: Picking up the Migrant Trail on the Way to the U.s.-Mexico Border.” NPR, NPR, 8 Apr. 2019, https://www.npr.org/2019/04/08/710348088/coyotes-boomtown-picking-up-the-migrant-trail-on-the-way-to-the-u-s-mexico-borde.
12 hours passed with no space, food, water, or bathroom like last time. Arriving at these empty mansions, the migrants waited for their name to be called from a list to continue their journey. My father crossed the border into Arizona by crawling under the wall in a tunnel. Throughout the night they walked 5 hours and rested, but left the people that could not continue, like a woman with her nephew. The next day, the Coyotes advised them to get in bushes to hide from the sun for 30 minutes and walked in the desert for the rest of the day. Night came, and my father was able to see the lights of Phoenix, Arizona, which was 24 hours away. Many pickup trucks appeared, and the Coyotes ordered the migrants to get in, so they could get into the neighborhood. They stayed in another set of empty houses, but my father and his cousin, Alex, decided to escape after staying a day. They went to the middle of Phoenix and received money from their family members to get a flight to D.C.
Phoenix, Arizona | Travel Guide | Inspirato
“Phoenix, Arizona: Travel Guide.” Inspirato, https://www.inspirato.com/destinations/phoenix-arizona/.

I hope you guys learned about how migration has changed over time. For the next post I will talk about the results of the civil war and how it impacted both the U.S. and El Salvador.

Thank you! 🙂

Escape to the United States

Everything started when my father was recruited by the guerilla at only 16 years old. He stayed there for three days, when suddenly, three old men in the community spoke for him and said that they needed his help because he was the only one in that helped them. After this, the government recruited my father, but his uncle, who had relations with the military, told them that his grandmother needed him, he was the only help she had. After that whole process, his grandmother and mother, Mamá Santo and Mamá Julia, decided that he would need to leave his homeland, El Salvador, because he was being sought after by both sides due to their belief that he was an informant.

Salvadoran members of the Atlacatl Battalion cross a river during a military operation in San Miguel department, El Salvador, September 1, 1983. Rapid reaction battalions were trained in counterinsurgency tactics to combat guerrilla warfare and were

“+ El Salvador Black & White.” Robert Nickelsberg, https://www.robertnickelsberg.com/elsalblackwhite.

So by the age of 17, he initiated his journey to the United States of America. He rode a bus from Santa Rosa de Lima to San Salvador and then got on board on a bus paid for by the Coyotes to go to Guatemala. The Coyotes quickly dropped off my father and everybody else on board on a mountain, where they met with other Coyotes who would lead them from Guatemala to cross Mexico. They slept on the mountain with no blankets, nothing, but my father likes to brag about the fact that since he grew up in the countryside he was able to endure the pain better than those in the city.

When they got to Mexico, they were picked by a moving truck at four in the morning; it was packed with around 200-250 people all in the same space with no water, food, air, and nowhere to use the restroom for eight hours at a time. During a break, they would park near a farm and give the migrants a sandwich, little bottle of water, and allow them to rest for 45 minutes before getting back in.

A Look Back on the Salvadoran Civil War | Salvadoran civil war, El salvador culture, Salvadoran

“A Look Back on the Salvadoran Civil War.” Fans in a Flashbulb, 28 Mar. 2011, https://fansinaflashbulb.wordpress.com/2011/03/28/a-look-back-on-the-salvadoran-civil-war/.

After dealing with the truck ride, they dropped the migrants off in the mountains during the night time and ordered them to go deep until they let them know that they can come back out. Two buses came to pick them up and again, it was crowded, but the people were advised to leave the bus in an orderly fashion because they were now in the city, where each group was dropped off at beautiful, elegant, but empty houses. This part is where they took small groups to cross the U.S.-Mexico border, where they walked three hours to be picked up by a pick up truck, only to be stopped by a migration officer. They were sent back because the Coyote and the officer had an agreement and the Coyote did not arrive on time. Luckily, they were not identified and were able to get back into the U.S., but this time they were picked up by an overloaded limousine.

Migrants from El Salvador flee violence for opportunity

Strochlic, Nina. “Migrants from El Salvador Flee Violence for Opportunity.” Culture, National Geographic, 3 May 2021, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/el-salvador-migrant-caravan-photography.

They then came to Houston, Texas where they entered another empty house and made calls to the family members of the migrants to let them know that their loved ones were safe. From there, my father then travelled to D.C. to meet up with his Tío Mario.

I hope I gave you all insight on the why and how immigration has worked during that time. My father actually immigrated to the U.S. two times, so for the next post I will be talking about that second time and the results of the civil war.

Thank you! 🙂