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Vanessa was four months pregnant when she and Abel knocked on the door of Casa del Buen Samaritano shelter in Oaxaca, Mexico, seeking refuge for the night. The couple had left their village in El Salvador a few weeks earlier because of the daily gang violence in their area. They were looking for a safe place to raise a family. Our team at the Center for Migrant Orientation of Oaxaca (COMI), which runs the migrant shelter, began searching for work for Abel and Vanessa while the couple lived at our migrant shelter assisting with the daily chores.
Carla was worried about trusting a stranger to take her and her 8-year-old daughter from Honduras to North Carolina, where her husband had been working for several years without a visa. But when her husband called, saying he would send a "coyote" in three days to guide them north, she decided to do as he instructed. The coyote abandoned the mother and child in Oaxaca and robbed Carla of her bag in which she kept phone numbers, so she was unable to contact her husband or her family in Honduras.
Like Abel and Vanessa, Carla and her daughter, Melissa, made their way to Casa del Buen Samaritano--or Good Samaritan House, in English--where the house managers, Joaquin and Rocío and their own daughter, Sherlyn, 5, welcomed them and got them settled for the night. Sherlyn played with the frightened Melissa like a sister, helping to ease the trauma until the child and her mother were able to return to their home in Honduras.
Over the past six years, COMI has served migrants from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Peru, Colombia and Cuba. The center, which opened in February 2003, was commissioned by the Archdiocese of Antequera-Oaxaca in response to the joint pastoral letter of U.S. and Mexican bishops calling for compassion for migrants.
Our team includes Father Fernando Cruz Montes, COMI's founder and coordinator; Maryknoll Lay Missioner Susan Hinthorn, administrator; Nancy Garcia, secretary; and Wendy Vogt, a volunteer who is a doctoral student at the University of Arizona. Lay Missioner Randy Hinthorn is also a volunteer, helping with special projects and presentations at the center.
Our organization is not about encouraging migration. We are providing humanitarian assistance. We do not give migrants money nor do we purchase bus tickets. Embracing Christian values, we welcome each migrant with compassion and respect, and try to orient them to the dangers and consequences of their decision to leave their homes in search of a more dignified life.
We point out to migrants all the reasons they shouldn't continue on their journey but seldom change anyone's mind because they are desperate. However, in some cases, such as that of Carla and her daughter, we are able to direct them safely back to their homeland, instead of continuing on a perilous and sometimes fatal journey.
Casa del Buen Samaritano is one of the services offered by the center, providing a safe environment for the migrants, many of whom have already experienced physical abuse, robbery and sexual assault on their journey. At Buen Samaritano they are allowed to rest and recover for three days.
In addition to food and shelter, we offer medical attention to those needing it, through collaboration with a local clinic, and psychological counseling for women who have been sexually assaulted. We frequently treat stomach problems and foot injuries, common ailments for migrants. In extreme cases, we provide hospitalization.
Last year, 2008, the number of migrants COMI served tripled to 268 migrants (55 women, four children and 209 men). That help included 839 nights' lodging and 2,944 meals, as well as medical attention for 30 people and distribution of 16 jackets.
One of the reasons for the increase in people helped in 2008 was a greater effort to intervene where people are most at risk. One priest, for example, at a location on the train route frequently used by migrants handpicks people who shouldn't be traveling on the train because it is so dangerous and sends them to us. This is especially important for women, children and older people--the most vulnerable of migrants.
In addition to interviewing each migrant and coordinating services with the migrant shelter, we also work with families of migrants in crisis. Recently, we have been assisting two families searching for their sons who left for the United States and disappeared. One left Oaxaca in November 2005 with his uncle and cousin, but they became separated in the desert of Arizona. His uncle and cousin arrived safely at their destination, but he has not been heard from since.
The family has provided DNA samples and we are working with the medical examiner's office in Tucson, Arizona, with the hope of obtaining information about the young man, and, if necessary, help to provide closure for his family.
In the other case, a 42-year-old man who had been working in Gainesville, Texas, since September 2002 and kept in regular contact with his family in Oaxaca, disappeared in July 2008. His parents came to us in November and then traveled to Texas in early December. They returned to Oaxaca with no answers. We are in touch with the Homeland Security agent in Dallas and police in Gainesville, and our objective is to keep the case active with the hope of obtaining definitive information.
Abel and Vanessa now work as cooks in Oaxaca and recently welcomed their new daughter, Alejandra. From birth, she is a Mexican citizen. Her parents hope to obtain citizenship as well and make their home in Oaxaca.
At the center, migrants are not statistics; they have faces and dignity. We are privileged to treat them like our brothers and sisters and call them by name. We are motivated by the words of the late Pope John Paul II, who said, "Welcoming the immigrant in a spirit of solidarity is not an act of charity but rather an act of justice."
Randy and Susan Hinthorn, from Seattle, Washington, have been Maryknoll lay missioners since 2001.
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After arriving in Oaxaca, Abel and Vanessa showed off the ultrasound of the baby they were expecting.
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Joaquin and Rocío, house managers at the Good Samaritan shelter, with their daughter welcome migrants in need in Oaxaca.
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