[A friend from Mexico (an amazing friend, really) writes (for a Google translation, see the bottom of this post):]
Pues el día de hoy regresamos de la visita al municipio de la Patrona en Veracruz cerca de Orizaba, les cuento sobre esto porque es algo muy intenso que cuando se vive se regocija uno con la vida pero también caes en cuenta de lo indiferentes que somos y del mundito en el que a veces nos encerramos.
La Patrona es el lugar por donde pasa el tren ( La Bestia ) que viene desde el sur de Mexicio, Arriaga Chiapas y al cual se suben los migrantes que vienen de Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala etc. en este lugar de 3 mil habitantes hay 14 señoras que desde hace 15 años trabajan por su voluntad en darles de comer a los migrantes cuando pasa el tren, todos los días dos o tres veces al día tienen comida preparada , arroz, frijoles, pan y agua que empacan en bolsas de plástico y que se las dan cuando el tren a su velocidad normal, a veces el maquinista baja la velocidad cuando pasa por ahí porque ya lo saben, les dan también ropa, o zapatos todos los días desde las 7 de la mañana en una cocina de leña preparan la comida. Es solo desde hace como 3 años que esta acción humanitaria comienza a ser visible para la sociedad y el gobierno mexicano, fuimos invitados por una asociación de jóvenes que las ayuda, hicimos acopio de ropa, llevamos dos costales de arroz, uno de frijol, bolsas de plastico y cacahuates para ayudarlas, estuvimos el sabado y el d omingo, les ayudamos a preparar y cuando pasó el tren corrimos junto con ellas a las vías para dar la comida, claro que nos vimos medio novatos la primera vez porque tiene su chiste darles las bolsas o las botellitas de agua amarradas para que no te reboten a ti y te lastimes o a ellos, es algo indescriptible cuando pasa el tren con los migrantes agarrados y que extienden su mano y uno se lo logra dar, es verdaremente algo que resientes en el cuerpo, adrenalida, emoción pura, estas mujeres son felices cuando lo logran, uno es feliz cuando lo logra ¡¡¡ luego nos fuimos a Orizaba a las vías y les llevamos zapatos y ropa porque el tren se para y ellos se tienen que bajar a esperar que otro tren parta, ahi estuvimos platicando como con 25 migrantes casi todos de honduras y el salvador, llevaban 8 días en el tren bajando y subiendo, con frío y hambre los habían correteado los zetas en Tierra Blanca y se habían llevado a 20 ellos eran realmente sobrevivientes, dos de ellos hondureños se fueron con nosotros a la Patrona y durmieron y comieron allá, hoy los pasmos a dejar a Puebla porque iban con una cuñada que los ayudaría a esperar la llamada de aviso para irse a Celaya a contactar un pollero que los pasaría, unos de ellos iba hasta virginia , en las vías había un muchachito de 16 años que iba a Huston... fue un fin de semana maravilloso, pensamos en seguir colaborando y tratar de ir con la Patronas una vez cada dos meses o mes y medio, tienen muchas carencias, cocinan con leña les hacen falta muchas cosas para seguir con la labor y sobre todo animarlas y alentarlas porque lo que estan haciendo es un acto de humanidad invaluable ayudar a los migrantes a que ese viaje de tortura en el tren sea más llevadero o por lo menos ellos saben que ahí en ese pequeño poblado de Veracruz hay 14 mujeres que les dan una caricia con un poco de pan y arroz....
les mando este link
para que vean un documental de las Patronas mujeres maravillosas mexicanas.... ojalá tengan tiempo de verlo, Norma es la lider de ellas es una mujer maravillosa... todas los son, la mayor de ellas doña Leo...
Angry white people in Arizona - what are they thinking? Is it really so long since their ancestors came there, poor and hungry? The story brought back my grandmother, a Czech peasant from Slavonia and the stories I heard from her about the life through the Second World War and the aftermath, stories that shaped my lifelong conviction that men are a useless gender on the way out.
The men, mostly, were forced by random circumstances into joining random factions, they fought and they terrorized the populace. Women tended gardens, raised chickens, fed everybody - from German officers quartered in grandmother's house to every scared and hungry orphan that came up to the doorstep. Grandmother would slaughter one of her pigs, and then she would use every gram of it - smoke hams, make sausages, fry the skin and then throw the bones and what else was left over into a lime pit and make soap. Towards the end of the war her older son was taken by Serbian royalists, now turned communist partisans, and buried alive. Her younger sun was in the woods with the partisans, and roads were full of dispossessed and fleeing.
The worst was the aftermath. The British turned over to the communists several hundred thousands who had fled across Slovenian border into Austria. Thousands were executed right there - in 1991 I met a woman in Denmark (with whom I share the last name) who was lined up with other children in front of a trench but survived the execution. The rest were force-marched across Croatia and into Serbia on "Krizni Put" (
El Camino de la Cruz), along river Sava, and through Slavonski Brod where grandmother lived. And here La Patronas images come in: the women would brave the Serbian guards, come up to the side of the road and throw food to the endless procession of thousands and thousands miserable, starving and barely alive war prisoners.
[a Google translation of Mexican friend's letter]
Well,
today returned from a visit to the city of the patron in Veracruz near
Orizaba, tell them about this because it's so intense that when one
rejoices to live life, but also fall into account what we are and
indifferent the little world in which we sometimes locked. The
Patron is the place where the train passes (The Beast) coming from
southern Mexicio, Arriaga Chiapas and which are raised migrants from
Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala etc. In
3 thousand inhabitants there are 14 women who work for 15 years for his
willingness to give food to the migrants when the train passes, every
day two or three times a day have prepared food, rice, beans, bread and water
packaged in plastic bags and they are given when the train at its
normal speed, sometimes the driver slow down when going through there
because you know, they also give clothes or shoes every day from 7 morning in a wood stove preparing food. It's
just like 3 years that this humanitarian action begins to be visible to
society and the Mexican government, were invited by a youth association
that helps, we gather clothes, carry two sacks of rice, a bean-bags Plastic
and peanuts to help, we were on Saturday and UNDAY, we help them
prepare and ran when the train went along with them the ways of
providing food, of course we saw the first half rookies because it has a
joke to give bags
or bottles of water tied up so you do not bounce off you and hurt you
or them, is indescribable when the train passes migrants caught and
extending his hand and one he does give is something that he feels
verdaremente the
body, adrenal, raw emotion, these women are happy when they do, one is
happy when he does then we went to Orizaba to the tracks and I wear
shoes and clothes because the train stops and they have to come down to
wait for another train leaves, there were talking as 25 migrants almost
all of Honduras and El Salvador, took 8 days on the train going down
and up, with cold and hunger they had chased the Zetas in Tierra Blanca
and had led to 20 they
were really survivors, two Hondurans were with us to the patron and
slept and ate there today Puebla spasms to leave because they were a
sister to help them await the wake-up call to go to Celaya to contact a pollero that happen, some of them going to virginia on the tracks was a boy of 16 who went to Houston ... was
a wonderful weekend, think about continuing to work and try to go with
the pattern once every two months or six weeks, have many shortcomings,
they cook with firewood they lack many things to continue the work and
especially encourage and encouraging
because what we are doing is an act of humanity invaluable help
migrants that travel on the train torture more bearable, or at least
they know that here in this small town of Veracruz there are 14 women
who give them a pat with a bit of bread and rice ....
I send you this link
to see a documentary about the Mexican Patronas wonderful women .... hopefully have time to see, Norma is the leader of them is a wonderful woman ... all those are, most of them Mrs. Leo ...
