Family and community
Catracho: Lots of Pictures of Me
Here these are… that is the same one with Natalia and here we are, this is the entrance of El Comedor. Yeah, that’s another guy from Honduras. Oh, this is another guy from Honduras. Also, the entrance to El Comedor.
Yeah, there’s a lot of pictures of me that I want to show you.
That’s because nobody wanted to take a picture, so I asked them to take pictures of me then. That’s with the other Catracho from Honduras.
Lupe: Just Like My daughters
These are the daughters of this woman from Honduras. She came to the shelter yesterday. The girls are the same age as my daughters. This one is six and the other one is ten. They remind me of my daughters. I’m just thinking of my daughters.
Éstas son las hijas de una mujer de Honduras. Llegó al albergue ayer. Las niñas tienen la misma edad de mis hijas. Ésta tiene seis y la otra diez. Me recuerdan de mis hijas. Sólo estoy pensando en mis hijas.
Lupe: Between a Rock and a Hard Place
I’m between a rock and a hard place, between the sword and the wall. If I stay here, well, that would be better, but it would be turning my back on my kids. And I cannot do that, because they’re my life. But if I try to go back and they catch me and they keep me in detention for a year, well, I don’t want that either, because then I won’t be able to be with my kids either. So I don’t know, I don’t know what I’m going to do. And to my village, I don’t want to go back there. There’s no work there. It’s only agriculture and there’s no work. So I don’t want to go back there. So I don’t know.
Lupe: I Sent My Kids, Thinking I Would Follow
I left Mexico when I was 16. In the US I met my husband, I had my kids. I was there for almost 12 years. When I was pregnant with my last kid, the border patrol picked me up. My husband had been deported so I let them deport me, thinking that back in Mexico I would do okay. I was here for four years. Then my husband crossed back, and I sent my kids. Then I tried to cross as well, and couldn’t. They picked me up. I was detained for three months. I was just released, just now.
Catracho: Waiting for the Van
So there we are outside of the shelter, waiting for the van to come to climb up and bring us here [to El Comedor] for breakfast. That’s everybody who stayed at the shelter. They’re waiting for the van to come. Here that is a van, and we’re all climbing into the van and they’ll take us over to the Keno Initiative at the border.
How does it feel to be there waiting for the van?
Catracho: The Chapel at the Shelter
So let’s see, what’s going to happen next? You got up and then you go where?
Oh this is still at the center. That’s the chapel where we can say thank you fo being alive and being here in Nogales. Everybody goes through the chapel and that is the place where we can just hang out and wait after we make the bed and pick up stuff. We wait in the chapel and then the van comes and picks up and brings us here to El Comedor for breakfast.
Catracho: Staying in the Shelter
How many people sleep in the shelter?
It fits about 40 people and there’s more people on the other side of this room too. There is a lot of people in the shelter. We only see a few of them.
And everybody gets along well?
Oh, yeah, we all get along well. Except, some, well, if you make a lot of noise or if you misbehave then they will call it your attention or they kick you out. Anybody who argues or fights or if you drink, gets kicked out.
So who took this picture?
Catracho: Why We are Friends
These are all friends. They are all happy there saying hello… They are all in the same situation. Some of them were just deported and some of them are
waiting to cross for the first time. Here in Nogales it is really difficult, you cannot just go to the border on your own, you have to pay the mafias, they’re also
watching.
So you have to deal with the border patrol and with the mafia. Which one is worse?