My Dearest Maria Isabel

Dear , Maria Isabel

Hola mi amor, sorry I couldn’t write to you earlier. Te extraño demasiado bebe! I want to see you again, no aguanto estar tan lejos de usted. I have you grate news; I left drugs, soy un hombre Nuevo. It was extremely difficult to get here. I saw unimaginable cruelties and was beaten up almost left dying. Fue horrible, sufrio mucho, y fue peor sin ti bebe. I am now in the United States with my mother. When I arrived here, sentí que estaba en otro mundo, todo es diferente. There are edificios enormes, ni se comparan a los de Honduras. I feel everything is cleaner in here and there are more opportunities for me. When I saw my mother for the first time we both started to cry. Fue bello nuestro encuentro. We caught up on all we have missed I love being with my mom. My mom treats me like if I it was our last time together. She sends me to school and we spent most of our free time together, which isn’t much. She works till late at night and she does not have that much free time. Even though living here is much better than living with no money in Honduras, la vida no es de solo pastels y arcoiris. I mean life is not just cakes and rainbows it is hard. I have to worry about police our migration sending me back to Honduras. If they did my life would be ruined. That is not my only problem, I have to work after school and sleep late while waking up early in the morning. I learned to speak English; things are easier knowing what they are saying. At first when they asked me any question or told me something a just answered, “no speaking English”, I also said, phrases like solo español, no entiendo, o lo siento no hablo ingles, even though some times what they were telling me was very important. That is the reason speaking English in this country is vital.

Maria I really miss you, eres mi media naranja. One time in class they told me to write about an interesting experience, I could have written about my journey, or about my drug use experiences, but I wrote about you. I couldn’t get you out of my head; now that I do not have to worry about getting killed I have my mind free of preoccupations and full of love towards you. I miss the way you make me feel, it was a great journey being with you, I have a new drug addiction that doesn’t harm me, and this drug called Maria Isabel.

Maria, I ask you to please do not follow me to the United States. It’s obvious I want to see you, but if you make the journey to el norte, it is probably I won’t. This trip is extremely difficult, if you take it you’ll suffer and, que dios lo prevenga, but it is probably you’d die. I beg you stay there and may be some will be together.

From your love, Enrique

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The Journey

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Dear, Enrique

Whats going on man? It has been difficult here with the mara. It was an adventure con usted, and I will tell you this, I will never forget you. Through you I have seen brightness, eres un gran sipote. You told me your story of why and how you got here. I hope you have a great life con tu vieja. You inspired me to follow my dream. Now it is time to tell you my real story which I did not have the chance to tell you. Yo era un pobre miko viviendo con mis viejos. I traveled throughout El Salvador; Guatemala and Mexico. I used to be a very good boy and helped my parents with work. Aunque no tenia tanta plata, I wasn’t miserable, since I had my loving fathers. Apenas tenia 8 años when two chepos asked my mother for some money. solo tenian 40 pesos, and they denied giving them the money. One of the chepos fired their shotgun and killed my father. Corri asia mi papa and my mother stopped me they beat up my mother and killed her. I was left alone with no money. Since I was in desperate need for company me uni a la mara, they did not trust me at first pero despues de un tiempo nos unimos mas. They taught me many things. The most important one was como usar el cuete, me refiero a la pistala, va alero. It wasn’t easy being a part of them I had to take many beatings and the most important thing was to be loyal and follow their rules. I grew up to be one of the most important gang members. I was 17 years old and was the fifth most important. We had a rivalry between us y la otra mara. In a gunfight we had, which I missed, almost all of our members died. Yo era el nuevo jefe de una mara pequeña y indefensa. I decided to migrate to Mexico; I knew if I stayed I would die sooner or later. I joined a gang I had contact with. I won a lot of money on the freight trains and worked twice as hard to get it. I became great on this but always had remorse. We controlled almost all the death trains. One time I secretly tried to reach el norte but was stopped by another gang, so I went back to my gang. Then I met you a young miserable man. I couldn’t help being fiends with you. It was interesting spending time with you. Now I have new inspirations on escaping from this life. I will migrate to the United States, but I have to be careful and make sure not to find la policia o a las otras maras. The most important thing is for my gang to not find out, porque si se dan cuenta me cuelgan. I will take a gun for protection. I will see you there. Whish me luck Enrique. I hope we can regain our friendship y dejar lo feo atras.

Sincerely, El Brujo

Van Al Nort, "The Way to The North"

1.

This video demonstrated how illegal migrants and illegal contraband is transported every day. It also reveals how police officers some time abuse them or ask for ransom. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzhQ0OhS2t8&feature=player_embedded
2.

This movie show the reality of how tough it is for some people to migrate to the United States, how people die by doing this, and how gang members or police can assault you. The video ares some short clips of the movie.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYJOQEqokb0&feature=player_embedded
3.
This Fantastic video shares with us the life of an immigrant in the United States and how they lived before crossing the border.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-1ms0Qys4c&feature=player_embedded
4.

This is one of the most reviling videos since you see the people boarding the nightmare train. It is amazing how dangerous it is. It also reviles how the migrants are abused and stolen from.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHDsyOpuyNw&feature=fvst
5.
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This is an impacting video which demonstrate s how the migrants riding the famous “death train lose parts of their body or are assaulted by gang members. I love this video because it does not cover anything of the reality.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYEAcOZAfuM&feature=fvsr

The Old LIfe

I am tired of living in misery. I am tired of living every day asking for money. The average amount of money I recollect is about L. 50, which is about $ 2.5. Sometimes generous people have the heart of giving me a considerable amount, L. 100, this days make me glad since I use the money to buy a delicious burger from Burger King. One time a beautiful young lady gave me L.5000, about $250. I did not know what to do with this money; I was all alone in this life and had no one to spend it with, only if you consider the people who tried to steal it. I got threatened every day, one day a very skinny tattooed man told me “If you do not give us the money I will stick this knife in your chest and grabbed it from those miserable hands of yours.” I had to options risk my death and flee or give him the money and also risk my death since I saw his face, and when you see criminals face it is likely they kill you. I first took a good look around my surroundings, and saw two police officers in the corner of a pharmacy. Like everyone else would, I ran to them, the criminal stopped and went away when he saw I had reached them. I was so glad until the two officers beat me up with their shotguns; they thought I was a thug, than sent me with a warning, which I did not deserve. All of this made me realize that I had no future in this country. I had just turned 16 and Tegucigalpa was not the right place for me. I had a decent life till my parents died and my house burned, it was the day of my 8th grade graduation. I wanted to leave all the horrible memories behind and continue with school in another country. I knew it was not going to be easy, but I had everything in my favor. Three days before I had gotten the L.5000, a Mexican man had offered me to drive me legally in a pickup truck to Ciudad Juarez, in Mexico with the conditions to hide when we passed through the borders. I had told him I was struggling living in Honduras and I guess he had compassion towards me. I had saved L.5 every day for two straight years, even though it kept me from eating. I had a total of L.8500 saved. I decided I will go to Mexico and from their go to the United States. I visited the pickup truck guy and revealed my plan to him, he said he had no problem, but told me to not involve him in anything. When I got to Mexico I found a smuggler and he asked for L.1000 to take me all the way to the U.S. He took me in his taxi almost all the way. He did not keep his promise but laid me to the river, I was lucky I did not get on those death trains. I had to walk and hide to get to the river, I did not get lost to the map the smuggler had given me. On the way I sorted out what I was my future in the U.S. I would look for a job, finish school and become legal. I crossed the river and met a bishop who gave me shelter and protection. I am now leaving in a gust room in his house and in a public school. He told me to finish writing my experience in the journal I had started in Tegucigalpa. He said this would make me realize who I was, who I became, and who I will be.