Maria stares out of the school bus window and wipes tears from her eyes for the hundredth time today. She is riding with her six week old infant son, Tomas, from Brownsville, Texas to Washington, D.C. where they are promised to find a job, housing, and a new life. The Border Patrol people in Texas gave her a cellphone, but she has no one to call. Maria is all alone in the world.
How things can change in two years. Maria had worked as a bank teller in her hometown of Caracas, Venezuela and felt so good about her life and future. She met Tomas when he came to do his banking. It was love at first sight. Tomas was a school teacher in his fifth year as the high school soccer coach. After just three months of dating, they decided to get married.
For Maria, her life in Venezuela was everything she hoped for. Yes, money was tight. Everything in Venezuela was expensive and prices seemed to go up weekly. But she and Tomas were so happy together despite the troubled political situation in their country. Tomas was much more bothered about the growing corruption and oppressive tactics of the current government than she was. Sometimes in the evenings, Tomas would get so angry and agitated about the latest arrests of anyone who dared to speak out against the injustices.
Maria’s nightmare began on a Saturday morning. Tomas had gone to a protest rally in the city center and had been one of the speakers that day. That was the last time Maria had seem him. Tomas was taken into custody after the rally. She hadn’t heard a word from him since. Maria called the police, Tomas’ friends, even the school principal, but no one knew where he was or any details of his detention. Heart broken and terrified that she, too, might be arrested, Maria fled Caracas to a small village a hundred miles away where one of her aunts lived.
Months went by with no news about Tomas. Maria was hearing more and more stories about citizens who spoke against the government being “disappeared”-some of them missing for years now. She fell into a deep depression. Without Tomas, Maria felt like her life was not worth living. Her fear of being arrested grew day by day. When a caravan of refugee Venezuelans on their way to the U.S. border came through her village, Maria joined the walking caravan.
Maria didn’t know she was pregnant when she joined the caravan. By the time they reached the migrant camp in Mexico, Maria was seven months pregnant. Like thousands of others, she was forced to live in squalid, dangerous conditions that were awful for the healthiest person, let alone an underweight pregnant woman. She gave birth to Tomas in a tent shared with four other women who helped her as best they could. Baby Tomas was small but quite healthy given the circumstances.
Thankfully, giving birth to Tomas moved Maria to the front of the line for her interview with U.S. officials. She was granted temporary asylum and moved to a crowded facility in Brownsville. Three days later, more government officials showed up and talked with her about joining the group of refugees on the bus to Washington. Maria spoke very little English and was unsure she understood much of what the officials were saying, but Washington had to be better than where she was now. Little did she know she had traded one form of government abuse for another.
Thankfully, giving birth to Tomas moved Maria to the front of the line for her interview with U.S. officials. She was granted temporary asylum and moved to a crowded facility in Brownsville. Three days later, more government officials showed up and talked with her about joining the group of refugees on the bus to Washington. Maria spoke very little English and was unsure she understood much of what the officials were saying, but Washington had to be better than where she was now. Little did she know she had traded one form of government abuse for another.
