Article author:
Reuters
Sandra Sebastian, Tamarakoro and Sophia Menchu
Nahuala — Some of the youngest immigrants believed to have died in a stuffy trailer from a poor town in Texas this week Guatemala And Mexico are following in the footsteps of relatives seeking a better life in the United States.
On Thursday, the residents of Nahuala, Guatemala, mourned Wilmar Trulu (14 years old) and Melvin Guatiak (13 years old). Record tragedy.
At least 53 people died in trials.
The home of the indigenous Quiche community, Nauara is a town where few Spanish is spoken and many immigrants have left. Some families have sent back remittances that helped build luxury homes. Still, most families in Nowara make a living by growing corn and beans on small lands.
"My grandson said he had a dream," Wilmar's grandmother Pasquala Ssipak told Kish through her interpreter. "He traveled, but (the dream) never arrived."
The family saw a photo sent from the San Antonio Morgue and he and Melvin died. I confirmed. Both families exhibited pictures of young people with bright flowers in honor of the boys with a modest altar outside the house.
Wilmar left Nauara near dawn on June 14th for Houston, where his brother emigrated last year. The family explained how the loan was needed to pay the smuggler 35,000 quetzals ($ 4,500), and after Wilmar arrived, his brother would pay more.
At 3:00 am on Thursday, the family left in two vans and brought official documents for a few hours drive to Guatemala City to identify the boy.
Like other families in Central America and Mexico, they want a closure against the sudden loss of a loved one left to die on a truck at the threshold of a new life across the US border. I'm out.
In the small town of Attexquilapan in eastern Mexico, hundreds of miles away, Teofilo and Yolanda Olivares talk about their last sons, Jair (19) and Yovani (16), on Monday morning. I am seeking. They sent a message that they were waiting to be picked up and taken to San Antonio.
Parents are confident that their son is on the truck with his cousin, 16-year-old Misael. But the authorities haven't told them yet, they said.
"It's very difficult to think about everything they've experienced," Yolanda said. "I'm consuming me from the inside without knowing them."
Teofilo, following other cousins who emigrated eight months ago, had their sons Attexquilapan on June 21st. Said that he left. The boys crossed the Rio Grande on Friday.
"They dreamed of moving forward ... they had plans to start a business," said shoemaker Teofilo.
Misael's mother, Hermelina Monterde, said her son had an ambition to go beyond the shoemaking tradition of her family.
"He sees the work we're doing, we're always sitting, we're always sitting, and that's hurt our back. He said," I'm I want to work (in the United States) and go to help all of you, "she said.
Teofilo agrees that his family will pay smugglers 200,000 pesos ($ 10,000), and his son is taken to the United States to pay. He said he had to pawn his house in order to do so. ..
"I don't know what I'm trying to do," he said.
The family is asking US authorities to grant a humanitarian visa so that they can find their son.
"I don't want to go to work or visit my visa. I want to go see my sons with my visa. I wish I were here," Teofilo said in tears. (Sandra Sebastian of Nahuala, Sophia Menchu of Guatemala City, Tamara Koro of Atexkirapan, Written by Brendan Oboyle and Dyna Beth Solomon, edited by Michael Perry)