Page 12 - aruba-today-20181117

A12 WORLD NEWS
Saturday 17 November 2018

Caravan migrants and worried families try to stay in touch

By MARIA VERZA or suddenly showing up on a desert highway in a everything they made on figured they didn't have
Associated Press back home after being dangerous part of Mexico, transportation, with little anything to lose.
SAN PEDRO SULA, Hondu- caught at the border and where migrants often fall left for food. So they bor- The hardest part was when
ras (AP) — There was cake deported. Technology has prey to robbery, extortion, rowed money from the only Brithani held onto her moth-
at little Brithani Lizeth's third changed that. kidnapping and murder. people who lend to the er and begged to come
birthday party, and also with them, crying, "Don't
tears. leave me, mommy, don't
Though her grandmother leave me!""I couldn't take
and aunt tried to make her, the risk was too great,"
their simple cinder block Orellana said, clutching at
home festive, the little girl two Virgin of Guadalupe
could not be consoled. She medals hanging around
missed her parents. her neck, one of them en-
Orbelina Orellana and El- graved with the initials of
mer Alberto Cardona were her three kids.
hundreds of miles and two The daily phone calls from
countries away in a small Mexico stopped for a while
town in southern Mexico, when the couple's cell-
making their way toward phone was stolen, until they
the United States with thou- started traveling with some-
sands of others in a desper- one else who had one. Dur-
ate caravan, leaving their ing that time the only news
loved ones behind. their anxious family back
Despite the distance, Orel- home received was from
lana was able to get a pic- the TV — scenes of tear
ture and audio recording gas and border clashes be-
from her daughter's birth- tween migrants and Mexi-
day party in Honduras via In this Nov. 2, 2018 photo, 3-year-old Brithani Lizeth Cardona Orellana, bottom right center, stands can police, and unfound-
WhatsApp and hear the with her 5-year-old sister Janeisy Nicolle and brother 9-year-old brother Kenner Alberto, flanked ed rumors that a child had
little girl sob: "I love you, by their aunt and uncle at their home in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. died in those disturbances
Mommy," words that left Associated Press at a bridge between Gua-
the mother crushed. temala and Mexico.
"I didn't even want to get Not everyone in the cara- Their loved ones didn't poor in Honduras — gang "When we see those imag-
up," she said of the bitter- van has a smartphone, and mention that some days members, who charge es, we worry and I just ask
sweet moment. for those who do, coverage they were low on rice and exorbitant interest. When God to take care of them
Like thousands of others, can be spotty in the Mexi- beans because the fam- they were unable to repay for me," Murillo said.
Orellana and her husband can countryside. At times ily's small pineapple farm the $250, their debt sud- Thinking about their chil-
have relied on social me- it's hard to find a hotspot wasn't producing anything denly became $700. Then dren is the only thing that
dia, text messages and or a charge. But for those to sell. "Life is hard here," the death threats started helped the couple when
brief cellphone calls to who do, they're precious said Orellana's 29-year-old to come. "If there is no way life got tough with the
connect with worried loved cargo. Many share them sister Deysi, now respon- to pay it, they look for other caravan. Like when they
ones back home as they with fellow migrants who sible for raising Brithani, Ja- ways," Orellana said. "That's lost their IDs on the border
traverse a country that can eagerly log in to Facebook neisy and their 9-year-old why I was afraid." bridge amid the clashes. Or
often be deadly for mi- and other apps to send or brother, Kenner Alberto. On top of it all, their small clambering aboard foul-
grants.The birthday record- receive a quick message. "But it's hard up there too." wooden home collapsed. smelling garbage trucks
ing gave her comfort and Some NGOs also facilitat- Many in the caravan are "They suffered a lot," said to travel more quickly and
courage to continue the ed free calls home for mi- traveling in family units; Orellana's mother, 69-year- keep up with the rest of
difficult journey of nearly grants, with the Red Cross among them are at least old Evangelina Murillo. the group. And the days
3,000 miles (nearly 5,000 ki- organizing more than 4,000 300 children below age 5, Murillo, who has cancer, of slogging dozens of miles
lometers) by foot, bus and of them. according to a count con- lives with her daughter and (kilometers) underneath a
hitchhiking as they head Orellana, 26, and Cardo- ducted when they paused son-in-law, two sons and baking sun, and falling sick
toward the Mexican bor- na, 27, have tried to call for several days to rest in now her three grandchil- when colder temperatures
der city of Tijuana. Brithani and her two siblings Mexico City. Many more dren in the two-room home set in.
At the frontier with San Di- each evening when the children have been left donated by a local church "Whenever I felt like return-
ego, many in the caravan caravan stops for the night, with relatives so as not to in the rural outskirts of San ing, I told myself, 'Damn, I'd
hope to ask for asylum in usually to sleep outdoors in expose them to the dan- Pedro Sula. It's a danger- be going home to the same
the United States, though public squares. gers of the trip. ous place: Another son was misery as always,'" Orellana
it could take weeks or "I tell her I will always love Orellana and Cardona killed by a thief who was said. "If I've come this far,
months as they take their her ... and she tells me not are convinced they made trying to steal his pig. I have to face whatever
places at the end of a line to miss her, that she is go- the right choice in leaving That kind of violence and comes to provide a better
of thousands of others in ing to send for me," said Ja- their children behind and poverty are the reasons life for my children."
the slow-moving applica- neisy Nicolle, the couple's hope to reunite with their cited again and again by Nearing Tijuana, the couple
tion process. 5-year-old middle daugh- little ones if they make it to migrants who joined the said they were still unde-
Years ago the migration ter.Often, in these brief the United States and find caravan. cided whether they would
trail north could be some- conversations, neither side work.Violent political pro- Orellana and Cardona try to cross into the United
thing of a black box. Peo- tells the whole truth for fear tests in Honduras last year had tried four years ago to States or ask for refuge in
ple might set out and not of causing worry. closed many of the stores emigrate from Honduras, Mexico.And on Sunday
be heard from again until Orellana and Cardona, where they used to buy only to be deported from their thoughts will again
months later after reach- for example, didn't get small electronics goods to Mexico. When they heard be back home, this time
ing the U.S. and phoning into the fact that he had sell on the street. Ultimately about the caravan on the with Janeisy: It's her sixth
from a relative's house, been stranded for a while they were spending almost TV news in October, they birthday.q