Hi I’m Anna I’m 33 years old, I’m from Brescia and right now in my life, together with my partner Luca, I’m in Ciudad de Guatemala.

We decided to take a break from work and leave for a two-month volunteer experience in Guatemala at the Scalabrinian Congregation’s Migrant House.

Choosing to devote our time and skills to others is something that already characterizes our lives. I am a social worker, and Luke is a gardener within a social cooperative that also does rehabilitation work. We had, however, a desire to dedicate ourselves, together, to others in a context that was less usual and comfortable for us, so we turned to ASCS, which we already knew from past experience, and the possibility of joining Father Francisco here was born.

Here in the House on a daily basis we are involved in welcoming people who are traveling from South and Central American countries to reach the United States. We live in the same building where these people are housed, helping with registration when they arrive, distribution of meals, distribution of clothes if they need them, and cleaning the rooms that then take in adults and families at night.

They are supported in their work by a team of workers who animate the home on a daily basis; in fact, here there are two cooks, two legal counselors, three first responders, two nurses, three room attendants, a social worker and a pedagogue who is responsible for organizing activities for the children during the evenings. These staff work in shifts and are responsible for ensuring that the people received what they need. The volunteer is engaged on a daily basis in shifts during which he or she is called upon to assist the operators and engage in the activities provided in each of the areas of focus I have described above.

At this time the House can only guarantee one night’s stay for each person because of the very heavy flow it responds to on a daily basis, so the choice is to guarantee one night’s stay for as many people as possible. To give you an idea of the volume of the phenomenon in 2023 the Casa del Migrante in Ciudad de Guatemala housed about 32,000 people.

Together with Acnur Unhcr, IOM, and other local associations such as SOSEP, AMIGUA, and Te CONECTO, the Migrant’s House also takes in people who are repatriated from the United States. In fact, there are laws that give the United States, when confronted with people without proper papers to stay at the country, the ability to repatriate them sitting down. In the moments of meetings I had with repatriated people, it became clear how this procedure is unfortunately characterized, most of the time, by dehumanizing practices.

They tell us, in fact, that once they are identified by law enforcement officers (who may be Border Patrol agents, simple police officers or military personnel) they are taken to a room, given a brief interview in which they are asked about the reasons for their migration and some personal details; it seems that during this moment of dialogue the migrants are not explained the U.S. laws for which they have no right to be on the national territory, nor are the repatriation procedures described to them.

The people I interview who were forcibly repatriated to Guatemala tell me, in fact, that without any explanation they were taken to a room in which they remained for many days waiting for their petition to be evaluated, a place where they lost track of time and where regular meals were not distributed; without warning they had chains placed on their wrists, waists and ankles; they had to board a bus that took them to a plane. They were handed a paper on the bus that said they were being returned to Guatemala. They boarded the plane, in chains, and had to spend most of the trip so tied up, until the plane flew over Central America, at which point they had a chance to be untied.

Volunteers also actively participate in the reception of returnees through a roster system; operators and volunteers offer these people the opportunity to call relatives or acquaintances so as to notify them of the repatriation and ask for support in returning home.

For those who cannot find a quick solution, the Migrant House offers to stay for the nights needed to reach relatives or to raise the money needed to return home or rent a place to sleep. There are people who return to Guatemala after many years of living their lives with their family in the United States and have no one here, so they need time to reorganize and try to rebuild their existence in a place that no longer represents “home” to them.

Right now Mexico is also repatriating migrants who are in the country without proper documentation on a daily basis, law enforcement agencies daily set up checkpoints and check dozens of buses and arbitrarily repatriate some and let others through while also dividing up family units, this happens both at the U.S. border and in previous states far from the border.

Here at the Migrant House and possible to meet every day families with very young children who decide to leave for the United States, for example from Venezuela, thus crossing some seven countries, facing untold dangers and trauma for the dream of a better life, which unfortunately is often shattered as soon as they reach Mexico or cross the border to the United States.

More and more children are being forced to travel for months, crossing the Darién jungle, a region in Central America located on the border between Panama and Colombia which represents the natural border between Central and South America and is characterized by forests, mountain ranges, and watersheds, in this place they are exposed to hunger, bad weather, armed gangs, the possibility of violence, extortion, kidnapping, deception, and the sight of hundreds of corpses of all those people who never came out of the jungle.

People here are used to say that “la Selva sempre te reclama algo” (The forest always asks a price for passage). Having overcome this obstacle, a long journey still awaits them and finally Mexico, this immense country that alone covers almost as much distance as there is between Venezuela and Guatemala, characterized by as many dangers.

Speaking then of Guatemala, which as of today represents for migrants yet another obstacle placed along their journey, it is not easy to hear daily reports of sexual violence perpetuated by the police against especially women and girls qhen these arrive the border to enter the country; it is not easy to hear of extortion perpetuated by the police, of the now customary practices of law enforcement of abuse and threats, it is not easy to stand in front of women who have gone through everything for the fulfillment of their dream of a better life for themselves and their family and then as soon as they cross the border between Mexico and the United States they are arrested and repatriated and to whom the FF.OO do not feel they even have to explain what is happening and why they will get on a plane to return to their home country.

It is not easy to suspend judgment when faced with families consisting of even infants and elderly people, one wonders for a few seconds how one could make the decision to embark on such a journey under such conditions; however, it is a question that lasts only a few moments since the eyes of these people make you realize immediately that no one would embark on this kind of journey if they did not really have the need to leave behind something that is now no longer bearable.

Dismissing the shoes of those who know how right and how wrong to live is a very useful daily exercise that we could do even in our homes, comfortable and cozy, filled with everything, in our cities full of rights and freedoms, we who with a passport and little money can anything our minds tell us.

Here it is certainly easier to do so, there are no discounts, reality tragically imposes itself in front of us every day and dodging it is impossible; here it is much easier to remember that we never have the right to judge anyone because life may confront us with choices we never even imagined and for our own good we may be willing to do what we never thought possible.

You get the urge sometimes to stop seeing, to turn off this channel that if you think about it too much is really terrible, unfair, wrong, you get the urge to turn away for a moment, don’t watch and I think it is healthy, is however accompanied by the knowledge that this channel when we choose another film does not turn off, never turns off, anywhere in the world and rather finds a way to activate new channels that are more and more unfair and more and more inhumane.

You have to look, you have to feel, you have to put yourself in the shoes of others, it’s not necessary to go so far away, but sometimes it can be easier, the neighbor can be really tiring to look at, it’s okay even so, without judgment, but with the courage to do it somehow, to look to really see finally, to see what’s going on, to become aware of what the life of the world and the people in it really is, and to learn to live with that awareness, the world requires us to do our part and we don’t need to go far to contribute to the betterment of life.

One of the things that struck me most at the beginning of this experience, which will come to an end in a little more than a fortnight, was the kindness, politeness, and gratitude shown by the people on the move that we welcome every day. They thank us, bless us, look for a rag to wipe the table, tidy up, leave the rooms clean, listen to directions, and wait patiently for the evening moment after dinner when one of the operators entertains them with information from time to time with different focuses inherent in the legal, gender, protection, and logistical issues needed for the trip. I meet children every day who respectfully listen to the directions of adults, who without pretension joyfully welcome the play activities offered to them, without other demands, they listen. Yes I was so impressed with the real listening skills of these people. They really listen, they hear and understand, they carefully place themselves in front of us to listen.

Ours are small, essential gestures; they can at best make a night less cold, make a belly less empty, make a wound less painful, they are our heroes, fighting every day for a very defined and immense dream in their heads that will probably be shattered into a thousand pieces by people who do not want to see, who have chosen not to look and not to listen. They will probably forget our faces as soon as they leave here to leave room for really useful information such as the name of the bus stop that can take them to the next town or the location of the bank where they can withdraw the money they need to continue on their way, in us, however, their eyes will never disappear and all the lessons they have given us without even realizing it.

These journeys are true epiphanies; you may not necessarily encounter unexpected things, but without a doubt you can no longer act as if they do not exist.

One encounters for perhaps the first time parts of us hidden, forgotten or never recognized, I have looked into the eyes of women who are the same age as me, with three children, never been to school, who alone left three months ago to join their husbands in the United States and every day they walk and imagine a way to continue while taking care of children who maybe scream too much or have a fever; these women at some point look at me and ask me where I come from and how I came here and I can only answer that I arrived on a plane and I know that I was able to do that because of my incredible passport that without too much effort I made as soon as I was old enough to have it and that with the same ease gave me access to this country; they ask me how Italy is I can only say that even if you have its problems compared to what they are telling me it is a welcoming country with so many possibilities.

Like every trip I have taken, this one is also transforming and enriching my life and that’s what I expected and what I was looking for, this time though it’s doing it to us not just to me and that’s the new and wonderful piece that I take extra from this experience, the great gift, the great good fortune to be able to share each of these little moments and these new realizations with the person I love and with whom I have decided to walk.

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