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My Story: Student #3

MI VIAJE A LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS

Recuerdo el día que decidí venirme y tomar la decisión. Se lo comenté a mis padres y ellos me dijeron si estaba realmente seguro de irme ya que no tenía a nadie aquí en los Estados Unidos. Les dije que sí ya que había hablado con mi madrina. Ella se encontraba en Nueva York. Llegó el día de salida que fue el 1 de marzo de 2022 salí a las 2 de la mañana de mi casa. Junto a mis padres, hermanos y tíos tuvimos que viajar tres horas porque yo vivía en un pueblo llamado ixcán playa grande. Donde quedamos en que me recogería el señor que me iba a llevar era en Cobán. Recuerdo muy bien cuando llegamos, fuimos a desayunar ya que estábamos esperando al señor. Me la pase muy triste ya que era la última vez que estaría con ellos. Cuando llegó el momento de despedirme de mis padres, hermanos y tíos, me dolió mucho saber que me iba pero solo recordaba en mi mente que todo era por un mejor futuro y hubieron lágrimas. Después me fui y en todo el camino iba muy pensativo sabiendo que no sabía hasta cuando los volvería a ver. Estuve en un hotel esperando a otros compañeros que también viajaban para aca. Al siguiente día salimos nuevamente en una camioneta y nos subieron Luego de un largo camino, llegamos al otro lado de México donde nos dejaron en una casa y se reunió más gente de todos lugares. Nos contaron a todos y en la noche nos subieron a todos en camionetas y trocas. Eran alrededor de 19 autos en total. Éramos 225 personas, las que venían. Recuerdo que íbamos muy incómodos porque éramos demasiados en una sola camioneta. Fue un viaje un poco largo de aproximadamente unas seis horas, luego paramos y nos bajamos a una casa que sería como una bodega para estar solo. Así pudimos descansar un poco. Pasamos el día entero allí ya que llegamos de madrugada. A las 10:30 pm, nos movieron y nos subieron nuevamente en las camionetas y empezamos el recorrido por otra larga noche. Paramos nuevamente en otro lugar que estaba como entre la montaña y solo había una galera de dos niveles. Había tablas que no más tenían un nailon encima y ya eso era como una cama. No había paredes ni nada. Solo se podía observar árboles a los lados.

Luego llegó la noche y nos empezaron a mover. Subimos en unos camiones para llevarnos a otro lugar y luego viajamos por un par de horas hacia otro lugar todo incómodos porque íbamos parados y todo amontonados ya que éramos mucho. Era difícil ir porque algunos se golpeaban porque el chofer frena de golpe y algunos se caían y se lastimaban mucho. Después de un par de horas, llegamos al destino. Caminamos por unos diez minutos hasta llegamos a un rancho donde ahi habian mas personas. Eran alrededor de 1,000 personas. Pasamos todo el dia ahi y hasta la noche nos movieron nuevamente. Caminamos de salida otros 15 minutos hacia la horia de la calle donde habían como 11 buses grandes. Nos subieron. Íbamos todos incómodos, unos encima de otros y fue un viaje demasiado largo de 12 horas aproximadamente hasta llegar a Puebla. Recuerdo que en ese lugar, todos se dispersaron a nosotros. Nos dejaron en una casa donde había muchas más personas y estuvimos toda la tarde ahí, pero con miedo porque a cada momento estaba pasando migración. Luego el muchacho que nos traía nos llevó a otro lugar. Solo nuestro grupo fue hacia un hotel y luego pasamos la noche. En la madrugada, a las 2:20, nos movieron para Monterrey en una camioneta. Cuando llegamos, nos dejaron en una casa con otras personas que estaban allí. Luego, al día siguiente, nos llevaron en un camión hacia Reynosa. Luego, nos bajamos en una bodega donde nos contaron y nos separaron por nombre de grupo de guía. Después, llegó el señor que nos iba a llevar. Nos fuimos en su camioneta. Nos llevó a una casa. Pasamos el día allí. Al día siguiente en la tarde me movieron. Para la frontera en la noche. Cruzamos el río en una balsa y de allí subimos a un bordo. Caminamos un par de minutos. Luego nos entregaron y nos dijeron que nos sentáramos. Luego nos contaron cuánto éramos. Luego caminamos hacia un campo, luego nos identificamos, nos subieron a un bus, luego nos llevaron a la hielera donde hacía frío, al día siguiente nos llevaron a un albergue.

MY TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES

I remember the day that I made the decision to come here. I told my parents about it and they asked me if I was really sure that I wanted to leave since I didn't have anyone here in the United States. I told them yes since I had spoken with my godmother. She was in New York. The day of departure arrived, which was March 1, 2022. I left my house at 2 in the morning. Together with my parents, brothers and uncles we had to travel three hours because I lived in a large beach town called Ixcán. We agreed that the man who was going to pick me up was in Cobán. I remember very well when we arrived. We went to have breakfast as we were waiting for him. It was a very sad time since it was the last time I would be with them. When it was time to say goodbye to my parents, brothers and uncles, it hurt me a lot to know that I was leaving, but I just reminded myself that everything was for a better future. There were tears. Then I left and the whole way I was in my thoughts, knowing that I did not know when I would see them again. I was in a hotel waiting for other people who were also traveling here. The next day we left in a van that they put us in. After a long journey, we arrived at the other side of Mexico where they dropped us off at a house and more people gathered from all over the place. They told all of us that at night they will put all of us in vans and trucks. There were around 19 vehicles in total. We were 225 people, those who came. I remember that we were very uncomfortable because there were too many of us in a single van. It was a rather long journey of approximately six hours, then we stopped and got off at a house that was like a warehouse so we could rest a bit. We spent the whole day there since we arrived at dawn. At 10:30 pm, we were moved and loaded back into the vans and off we went for another long night. We stopped again in another place that was in between the mountains and there was only a two-level shed. There were boards that just had a nylon on top and that was the bed. There were no walls or anything. You could see trees through the sides.

Then night came and they began to move us. We got into some trucks to take us to another place and then we traveled for a couple of hours to another place, all uncomfortable because we were standing and all piled up since there were so many of us. It was difficult because some people were injured when the driver braked suddenly and some fell and hurt themselves. After a couple of hours, we reached the destination. We walked for about ten minutes until we reached a ranch where there were more people. There were around 1,000 people. We spent the whole day there and until night they moved us again. We walked another 15 minutes from the exit to the street where there were about 11 large buses. They loaded us in. We were all uncomfortable, one on top of the other and it was a very long trip of approximately 12 hours to reach Puebla. I remember that in that place, everyone was dispersed. They left us in a house where there were many more people and we stayed there all afternoon, but with a lot of fear because immigration was passing by all the time. Then the young man who brought us took us to another place. Only our group went to a hotel and there we spent the night. At dawn, at 2:20, they took us to Monterrey in a van. When we arrived, they dropped us off at a house with other people who were there. Then the next day they took us in a truck to Reynosa. Then, we got off at a winery where they separated us by name from the guide group. Later, the man who was going to take us arrived. We left in his truck. He took us to a house. We spent the day there. The next day in the afternoon they moved me to the border at night. We crossed the river in a raft and from there we got on a board. We walked for a couple of minutes. We were then handed over and told to sit down. Then they told us how many of us there were. Then we walked towards a field and we identified ourselves. They put us on a bus, then they took us to La Hielera, or the “freezer box”, which is a detention center at the border, where it was cold. The next day they took us to a shelter.