Hope is Kept Alive through Community Organizing in Guatemala
by Miosotti Tenecora BUSL’19
Before I was born, my mother crossed into the United States without a visa. The journey she took was a tough one. I remember my grandmother telling me that she could not sleep or eat for three days until my mother phoned in to say she had made it to America safely.
Thousands of people, like my mother, leave their country every year in hopes of reaching the United States to have a better life. Because the journey of the migrant without a visa is full of risks, many never make it to their destination. Migrants are dying on the way to their destinations for reasons that are not accidental but related to deliberate acts targeting them directly. Migrants fall prey to smugglers, drug cartels and, most alarmingly, to the authorities of the countries they pass through.[1]
Throughout Central America, the family members and communities of migrants who have gone missing on their way towards the United States must cope with their loved ones’ absence on a daily basis.
I was one of three IHRC’s students who traveled to Guatemala to collect testimonials from state authorities and families of missing migrants to document why the government is failing to respond to complaints of migrants’ disappearances. When we arrived to interview one family, I was amazed to discover the whole community had gathered to speak to us, because the pain of that family’s loss was felt by everyone around them.
As I listened to each family that had lost a loved one, I tried to put myself in their shoes. These families and communities are looking for the same relief my grandmother longed for — just to know that their loved ones are safe. One of the interviewees told us that she won’t stop looking for the father of her child, and that part of her knows he is still alive and will return. While telling her story, she clutched a stack of legal documents. They were all the documents she had submitted to various government agencies, and all the communications she had received, concerning her search for her missing husband. These legal documents held all her faith and hope that the government will help her find him. Much like this woman, the other families we spoke to were actively seeking information on their missing relatives and accountability for their disappearance. As we interviewed more families, we came to realize there was no direct channel for reporting a person suspected to have gone missing abroad. Even when the family of the missing finds an authority willing to hear them out, that authority rarely considers the information supplied sufficient to open an investigation. The lack of sensitivity and respect for the families’ suffering strips away their dignity. One of our interviewees told us that often officials will blame the family members for letting their loved one leave Guatemala.
Since the Guatemalan government cannot provide information or trace missing migrants, migrant smugglers (or “coyotes”) fill the void at a hefty price, exploiting the families’ desperate need to know their loved ones’ whereabouts. These “coyotes” are the very same ones that have already charged the migrants exorbitant amounts of money to smuggle them from Guatemala to the United States. One of the most distressing cases we recorded was a mother who transferred the deed to her house to a coyote in exchange for information on her son. The extortion is not limited to the families in Guatemala but extends to family members in the United States. For example, gang members claimed they had located a family member of a disappeared migrant in the United States and coerced the family member to pay a large sum of money — which they could not afford — in exchange for releasing their lost loved one. It turned out that the gang didn’t have the missing person, they only wanted money.
In this context of state inaction, mothers of disappeared migrants have taken on the search for their sons and daughters alone. In Guatemala, mothers have come together and organized “caravanas de busqueda” (literally “search caravans”). Groups of mothers of missing migrants from all Northern Triangle countries have in recent years traversed the path taken by their children in these traveling search parties. Large portion of the “caravanas” route passes through Mexico, where the brave mothers visit government agencies, jails, shelters, detention centers, and even known gang zones looking for their loved ones. For the mothers, these search missions keep the hope of reunion with their child alive. One man we interviewed had lost his brother. He told us that their mother became deeply depressed when her son went missing. The planning and execution of these search parties helped her cope with her depression and this year will be her third time going. Getting together with other families who have a disappeared family member not only helps build up hope but offers a sense of community, when families share stories and strategies used in the search.
The search missions strengthen not only the families of those affected, but also their community. Neighbors pray and look forward to the mother and the lost relative’s return. The mothers’ bravery is not going unnoticed. These search missions have increased social awareness of the issue. Now, if a mother finds their disappeared loved one, it is broadcast on social media. Heartened by such news, more and more mothers are joining the caravanas and spreading hope that the Guatemalan government has failed to deliver.
— —
[1] Hiskey, Córdova, Orcés, Malone, Understanding the Central American Refugee Crisis, American Immigration Council, February 1, 2016, https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/understanding-central-american-refugee-crisis
