The journey: something you can never know enough about
Our experience as volunteers in Guatemala is giving us the opportunity to get a closer look at some of the stories and dynamics of the migration phenomenon that run through the entire American continent, albeit starting with the understanding that this is something extremely complex that we will never finish understanding. Some tales are so unbelievable as to seem unreal, some stories so impactful as to be hard to take in, some smiles as beautiful as they are surprising. The eyes we have seen are the same eyes that have seen many things before us, beautiful and ugly, but all different from each other and that is why I do not think they can ever be traced back to a single description of the migrant’s journey.
Indeed, here, the goal is to describe some of the common traits we have encountered through stories of those who migrate and the words of those who study and experience this phenomenon in the home.
Most people who pass through here have South America as their starting point (with the exception of those already leaving from Central) and often depart from Colombia or Venezuela. The latter in particular is the origin of most people in transit and is separated with Guatemala by more than 2,500 km. But what is in this enormous distance? This is the real question that no one can answer exactly and that many people ignore.
Institutionally there are 6 borders, there are agreements that try to limit the number of people who are able to cross them, there are law enforcement and military forces that have the enforcement power to enforce those agreements.
Effectively there are thieves, criminal gangs, independent militias and corrupt police. A series of agents ready to make money on the skin of people in transit. Those who migrate live in illegality, and here protections from institutions do not exist, leaving the way clear for these figures to use freely by all means at their disposal to be able to extort money. In this case the term “on the skin” is literal, because the threat always puts life or the opportunity for a decent future at stake, which is always about the same thing but in different words. The situation with lawlessness and threats on one’s life is the perfect combination to be sure of getting the much coveted money.
The goal of course is always to survive, and the consequence on some occasions is street life, for all those who do not have enough money to get by or from whom everything has been taken away by the individuals just mentioned. That life where dignity is lost in the face of the stares of people passing you by or when you happen to see yourself in the window of the store in front of which you are sitting. That situation where no one should be, but which some children and the elderly experience going against all the dangers involved.
One of the House’s most iconic photos: a sign used for begging on the street that is temporarily set aside for the overnight opportunity given by the House, and indirectly by those who inspired realities such as these (represented in the picture).
Then, of course, there are mountains, desert roads, cold, excruciating heat, huge rivers to cross, and natural obstacles of various kinds, which among the most dangerous of the entire trek finds the Selva del Darién. It is a jungle, consisting of highlands, dense vegetation, very dangerous animals, and rivers to cross, which in rainy seasons become extremely mighty and impossible to cross.
And then there is everything that is described above, just everything. There is the border and there is the military patrolling the border for institutional arrangements that are supposed to restrict entry into the state of Panama, but concretely they have the power to control the border at will, leaving uncovered spaces where people can pass, ending up being part of the mechanism that regulates the path of those migrating and their lives.
Then there are the gangs and criminals, who find the perfect environment to act undisturbed by institutions: in total freedom, where law enforcement and the eyes of the world cannot reach. Situations arise here that are so terrible that they cannot be told, landscapes so terrifying that they cannot be described, and experiences so bad that they only want to be forgotten and never seen again.
It is a place as beautiful naturalistically speaking as it is terrible for those who experience migration, becoming for several people the end of the journey. One day a young man told me, “I crossed the Selva with my wife and daughter. It was so hard, and if I had known how hard I almost certainly would never have gone.” He is Venezuelan and his country’s crisis is well known, the implication of which we can easily draw is that the journey can be so difficult to the point that living without prospects for the future is even better.
Finally, humanly, there are men, women, children, the elderly, families, friends, fellow travelers. People who live an indelible experience in their lives. Sometimes as long because of lack of money or the frailties they carry, sometimes shorter but just as intense. A journey that is composed of these briefly described elements and many more unknown ones, where the situation is always changing and where the only witnesses are those who suffer. It is always about something that concretely will end one day and in one way or another. But that, perhaps, within them never ends, through memory or past experiences that indelibly influence the future. It may be a traumatic event, the loss of someone or a missed school term to have to accomplish this feat. Perhaps, the journey of those who migrate does not end at the destination but is much longer.
