Riding the train from the bottom tier

(http://www.prensalibre.com/pl/2008/junio/30/_Img/408029_101.jpg)

I recently talked with a 20 year old named Paolo that had come up from Escuintla, Guatemala. He rode the train to the border. Paolo simply stated that the train was very ugly. He explained how people are robbed, kidnapped, and the women are raped. It is better just to give the thieves 200 pesos or they will beat you up and take everything. Paolo said that the Mexican police robbed him in Oaxaca. They punched him in the stomach and took all his and his friend's money. Later, when he was back on the train, bandits assaulted them. One of them hit him on the head with a stick and they took his wallet and cell phone. They were about to kidnap him but he jumped off the train and got away. They immediately called his family and told them that they had kidnapped Paolo. At this point, he had no money so he went to the nearest town to beg and try to get help. The people there warned him that the Mexican immigration authorities would get him so he kept moving. Finally someone gave him a phone card and he called his family to tell them what happened. Having heard the ransom call, his family was petrified. They had been scrambling to try to come up with the money but had not yet sent it to the would-be kidnappers.

The train is incredibly dangerous. People often fall and lose limbs. On one of my first trips to do interviewing there was a man staying at the shelter who had lost his foot falling off a train. He was sleeping on a cot in the corner, covered in bandages. I remember being laughed at by a man from Honduras named Luis when I asked if he thought crossing the desert was dangerous. He explained how you have to learn to sleep on the train, holding on. If you relax your grip you will fall and will most likely die or lose a limb. The train shakes violently and people always fall. Luis said that you have to find a way to wedge your arms in some crevass and hang on while simultaneously sleeping. The train takes over a week and getting off leaves you vulnerable to kidnappings or robberies, and it delays your trip as you wait for the next train. Waiting is dangerous because of the violent gangs such as MS-13 (Mara Salvatrucha 13) that now controls much of the southern Mexican border. A 2009 report by the Comision Nacional de Los Derechos Humanos (National Commission for Human Rights) documented 9,758 kidnappings of Central Americans in Mexico between September 2008 and Febuary of 2009.

Paolo said that he had been hoping to cross to the U.S to work and make enough money to help his family and marry his girlfriend that just gave birth to their first child. At the moment, Paolo's mother, girlfriend and young son live in a one room house in Guatemala. Paolo was intending on being gone for two years to work. He decided to stay at the border and work to recuperate some of the costs of the trip. The money that he had borrowed to make the journey was all stolen on the train so he spent a month in Mexicali working as a welder. He is very passionate about welding. He said that he really wants to work more with artisan welding. He said that back in Guatemala he used to make sculptures when he could find materials. Paolo said that the best piece he ever did was a sculpture of hearts with drops of blood falling from them like tears. "Everyone loved it," he said. Paolo continued to explain that work as a welder is difficult to find in Guatemala. He worked in the campo - the fields and made very little money.

After a month in Mexicali he had saved enough money to attempt to cross into the U.S. He first tried to cross the California border outside Mexicali, but he was caught in five minutes. He tried again here in Arizona and had a 3 day and 3 night ordeal in the desert. He and some friends decided to cross without the aid of the guide and got lost for a few days. Finally they made it to a city and hitched a ride. When the woman found out they were illegal she kicked him out of the car and called the police that picked them up by the side of the road. The officer grabbed Paolo and threw him on the ground to handcuff him. They called him a "mojado" - wetback, as well as other things in English that he did not understand. After he was finally caught, he was sent to operation streamline and given a formal deportation. They lost his wallet and $800 pesos ($60USD) in the process. He was deported to Mexico after lying to the Authorities that he was actually from Chiapas, a state in Southern Mexico. He was left with nothing but a backpack that was promptly stolen while he was sitting on a curb. Paolo said that it didn't matter though. The only thing in his backpack was a dirty old shirt.

He said that he plead guilty to the charges at streamline because he needs to be able to send money to his family. The prospect of staying and fighting the charge was too much of a risk. He owes money for already and needs to be able to continuously send support to his family. He is the only one that works at this moment so they depend completely on him. Paolo does have family that currently lives in the U.S. but he does not know where. He was planning on going to Arizona to find work and see if he can locate some relatives. At this point, Paolo planned on going back to Mexicali to spend a few more months working. Hopefully he will be able to make enough money to pay back the money lender in Guatemala. There is so much that can go wrong in undocumented migration.

It never ceases to amaze me how intelligent and resilient people can be. There is so much talent and passion that is being suppressed, and yet they go on. The frankness and matter of fact nature with which he relayed the abuses and terrors he had suffered surprised me. He barely blinked an eye at being robbed yet again in Nogales. On one hand it is evidence of the way abuse is normalized but on the other hand it is a testiment to the strength and resilience of people. Paolo prefered to talk to me about art. His eyes lit up as he talked about shaping metal into works of art. While it is sad to see a skilled, intelligent, passionate 20 year old that has not even gotten the opportunity to complete secondary school and has to risk so much just to make enough money to support his family and get ahead in life, it is heartening to know that if he can proceed and focus on what he is passionate about, I can do anything. Unfortunately we live in a world that places more emphasis on where you were born than who you are. It is a tiered system that places U.S. citizens at the top, the Mexicans below them and the Central Americans on the bottom; and yet, when all is said and done there is nothing that separates us except for our humanity, compassion and ability to make the best out of life.