Protesting Migrants Recreate the 'Way of the Cross' Through Mexico Ivan Castaneira and Rafael Castillo - VICE News
go to original April 27, 2014

Jordan - who is half-Mexican and half-Honduran - is heading towards the train to Honduras. He hopes to pick up his undocumented fiancé, Edis, and return to Mexico with her.

Edis was deported by the Mexican National Institute of Migration a few months ago as she attempted to meet up with Jordan. She is currently unable to legally enter Mexico, yet they hope to be able to get married in Guadalajara, which would grant her the documents she needs to stay the country.

The pair want to join the via crucis, a Christian tradition during Holy Week which attempts to recreate “the way of the cross,” or the path that Jesus walked carrying the cross upon which he was to be crucified. Mexican migrant organizations are typically run by representatives of the Catholic church, who use the via crucis to draw media attention to the violence that Central American migrants face.

The symbolic event attempts to draw a comparison between the suffering that Jesus endured en route to his death and the ordeal that migrants experience, often on the freight train known as “The Beast.”

For Jordan and Edis, this via crucis is also an opportunity to limit the risks associated with moving across Mexico. On previous occasions gangs of delinquents have requested sexual favors of Edis in exchange for allowing her to cross.

For the past three years the recreation has visited “La 72” - a migrant shelter operated by Franciscan Friars in Tenosique. The home is named in honor of the victims of the August 2010 massacre in San Fernando, Tamaulipas, where the bodies of 72 Central American migrants were found in a mass grave. The victims were killed by Zeta cartel gunmen, after their families failed to pay the ransom that was demanded in exchange for their safe release.

Read the rest at VICE News

Photo by Iván Castaneira

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