By Jane Bauer
“Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for a kindness.”
—Lucius Annaeus Seneca
If you have not ventured to the highway around Huatulco lately you may not have noticed the number of migrants on their walk towards a better life. Many months ago on the south side of Copalita an immigration kiosk was erected and manned by immigration and army personnel. They pull over buses and vans and have a tented area where I occasionally see people who have been pulled off buses and vans, for not having the proper documentation, waiting. When I happened to be standing next to a man in an immigration uniform at the bank, I asked him what they did with the people and he told me they sent them back to their country or at least to the border of Mexico.
In the last month the number of migrants has steadily grown and some days I have seen at least a couple of hundred people walking on my fifteen-minute drive home. A path just before the immigration kiosk has been forged through the brush so that they can avoid it altogether.
One day in early November I stopped and asked a group where they were from just before they got on the avoid-immigration kiosk path through the bushes.
“Haiti” one man responded.
“Où allez vous?” I asked
“Les Etats-Unis” he said.
One Sunday morning while driving in to work, moving in the same direction as the walkers, I stopped for two women. They climbed into my car with a small baby and a few meters later we picked up a young man. I asked if they were from Haiti and they said they were from Guinea.
The immigration kiosk was just up ahead but we weren’t stopped, to be fair the two soldiers standing in front of it looked resigned to their inability to do anything.
We stopped just off the highway in Copalita and had breakfast. Guinea is 9345 km from Huatulco. Over breakfast we talked about their journey.
Mari Assi, a robust young woman, with a burn scar covering one hand and forearm, was wearing sandals and carrying her 19 month-old daughter Fati. Her traveling companion was Aminata who had left her 13-year old daughter back in Guinea and the young man was Osmane. While French is the primary language in Guinea, due to its colonization by the French, their speech was also peppered with words of a language I didn’t know. They flew from Guinea to Nicaragua and had been walking/taking buses/ hitchhiking for 12 days. Their final destination goal: New York.
Since then I have met people from Senegal, Ghana, Venezuela, Guatemala and even a family from Afghanistan with three young girls. I keep my car stacked with bottles of water and non-perishable snacks and gently used footwear.
I know there are many differing opinions when it comes to immigration policies and migrants. However, when it comes to being face to face with a person in need, politics cannot be the discussion, humanity needs to be the discussion. Helping people in our path, if we can, is the bare minimum of what we should offer- regardless of religious credo or political affiliations.
If you watch the news it will tell you about the atrocities happening in other parts of the world- military coups, crime, instability, places where women being raped is a regular occurrence. I don’t need look at the news to understand the why of what brought Mari Assi, Aminata, Fati and Osmane to be on the same road as me. I only need to look at their inadequate footwear, their clothes that have leaves sticking to them from sleeping in the bushes, to know they deserve more… more help… more humanity… and more compassion.
If you would like to contribute water/ juice and non-perishable snacks such as granola bars I will hand them out on my daily commute. If you have any new or gently used proper footwear I will distribute that as well. Items can be dropped off at Café Juanita.