My conversation with an Honduran man and his son

By: Danny Diaz

This week was one of those weeks that I will never forget. As the world watched the inhumane separation of families in my backyard, I felt compelled to join local efforts comprised of RGV natives working hard to reunite these families.

I’m proud to say that so many of my hermanas and hermanos from the RGV showed the world what solidarity looks like. We saw this by creating constant presence at the Ursula processing center, donating our money to legal defense efforts, volunteering at the Catholic Charities Respite Center, advocating for human rights through the national media, and other volunteer efforts.

This is not to say that the struggle for the families is over, far from it. In the middle of this very intense week we learned that Donald Trump signed an executive order ending the separation of families, only to find out that families will now be detained indefinitely, and did nothing to address the already thousands of families who have been separated.

At some point its likely that the national press will move on to the next major story, and the cameras will be gone. At that point its going to be us in the RGV that continue leading these efforts and working to make sure that the country doesn’t forget of the human right violations that happen here every day.

As I navigated all possible ways to volunteer and help during this time of crisis at the border, I found myself helping interview central american migrant families and translating for a media group named DEFINE AMERICAN founded by dreamer Jose Antonio Vargas. During this time I met a 50 year old Honduran man and his 17 year old son who I approached to do an interview. They had just been released and given a court date for appearance before a judge. They are then sent to the Catholic Charities respite center, which is where we met them. Our questions were simple, and yet their responses were so powerful and impacting. We asked, why did you decide to migrate North? The father said that his son is a good boy, a boy that avoids drugs, and who wanted to stay away from gangs. His son was scheduled to graduate from high school in Honduras this year, but they couldn’t stay any longer as gang violence and economic need pushed them north. I asked the young man what type of danger he faced. He responded that the mara gangs dominated his neighborhoods and were approaching him to join, or else face the consequences. Many times those consequences mean death, or death of close loved ones.

As we continued the interview, we asked them about their trip North. It was heart wrenching to hear the sacrifice and pain they endured as they voiced their experience to us. Their trip was a twenty day journey filled with insecurity, hunger, and pain. Perhaps the most painful detail they told was how they endured forty-four hours without food and water inside a traveling refrigerated trailer in Mexico.

They told us that human smugglers crossed them via a boat where soon after they turned themselves in to Border Patrol. They were then quickly processed and separated for six days without any idea when they would be reunited. Thankfully for them, they were reunited and expressed deep joy in being reunited once again. The father was given an ankle bracelet so he can be tracked by the federal government meanwhile he waits for his court date.

Their story, like many other stories of Central-American migrants is a story of survival, of love of family, and of faith. Their journey north is one many of us would take if we were born under the same circumstances. This issue is about human life, and shouldn’t be tossed around like a political football. These real life stories need to be told loudly, they must be humanized once again and not be used for political leverage.

Related posts:

It was just a regular day at the laboratory. First, I mechanically exfoliated the WS2 (tungsten disulfide) crystal on a silicon dioxide substrate. My goal was to find the thinnest crystal possible to…

No Commission is a concept originated by super producer, art collector, and Harvard Business School graduate Kaseem “Swizz Beatz” Dean. He and wife, Alicia Keys, are the owners of an expansive art…

Twenty years after Voodoo, revisiting my first encounter(s) with D’Angelo’s “Untitled”: part seance, part sexual awakening. Poor John . . . Alone, exiled to the isle of Patmos, must have had some…