When Central American Mothers Organize to Find Their Missing Migrant Children Marta Molina - Waging Nonviolence
go to original November 12, 2012

Mercedes Moreno holds a sign with a picture of her son, José Leonidas Moreno, who disappeared in 1991. (WNV/Mario Marlo)

“The things we have in common are that our sons or daughters are disappeared, and that we can organize from our pain, because it gives us courage,” said Mercedes Moreno, a migrant from El Salvador who has lived in Los Angeles since the 1970s. “We too will not rest until we find our children. Many of us also have to raise children while we search for our disappeared. We have a common pain, and we are all Mesoamericans. That’s why our home used to be called Mesoamerica.”

From 1978 into the 1980s, Mercedes organized with the Sandinistas and with the Salvadorans who fled from the civil war to the U.S. “We went to the churches and talked to the community priests, with the neighbors,” she explained, “so that they would listen and understand that we had something in common despite not being from the same country. Now, as mothers, we must do the same.”

Mercedes has not been able to get any information about her son, José Leonidas Moreno, since 1991. She just finished traveling with his photo on the Central American Mothers’ Caravan with 37 other mothers in search of their children, who disappeared in Mexico while traveling to the United States. Some were fleeing armed conflicts, while others found themselves homeless due to natural disasters that leveled all they owned.

Called “Freeing Hope,” this caravan of 38 mothers — which began on October 15 and ended on November 3 — traveled through El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and across what is known as the “Migrant’s Route” in Mexico. This was the eighth such caravan organized by Central American mothers to arrive in Mexico. By the end, they had traveled nearly 3,000 miles, through 14 states and 23 towns, seeing with their own eyes the very landscapes that their children likely crossed while trying to reach the United States.

Although many of them have not been able to find their children, they drew attention from the media and authorities, spread awareness of migrants’ issues and put a face to the human rights’ violations that migrants are exposed to on their journeys.

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