FM4 Paso Libre

(Originally posted June 2016)

Since February, I’ve been volunteering with a grassroots project that supports migrants coming through Guadalajara, called FM4 Paso libre, officially known as Dignidad y justicia en el camino, A.C. The organization provides humanitarian aid, along with legal and psychological accompaniment, to ensure the human rights of migrants. The journey migrants face is dangerous, and strenuous. The FM4 provides a safe place with hot food, showers, medical care and clothing from a 100+ family of volunteers.   

Migrants on their journey through Mexico face many challenges and are vulnerable to countless abuses.  They leave their homes and their families in Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala and from southern Mexico, to journey across Mexico, many with the final destination of the U.S. They flee violence from the maras, gangs that terrorize their neighborhoods. They flee the poverty and hope to find work to support their children, their wives, and their parents back home. Their journey is dangerous, from environmental hazards and human adversaries; including government agents, cartels and gangs, to individual attackers. They experience attacks, robberies, kidnappings and deportations. They witness rapes, amputations from accidents on the train, and deaths of fellow migrants. They walk, occasionally catching a bus or a ride, but mostly they ride on top of and in between the cargo trains. Three main routes head north from the center of the country, the western route passing through Guadalajara and the FM4 Centro de Atención de Migrante, the shelter where I volunteer.   

Everyday the FM4 opens its doors at 9:00 am, just a block off of the train tracks. After registering and storing their belongs in the lockers, migrants find themselves at home in the huge warehouse. The FM4 provides two hot meals and a meal to go, a change of clothing, as needed, a shower and medical care. Each migrant participates in an interview about who they are, their journey so far and where they’re going. Their experiences are documented in a network with the other migrant shelters across the country. The interview serves to document, to protect, both the individual migrant and the collective group, and to gather data about transmigration in Mexico. Also while at the FM4, migrants can make a phone call to check in with their families to let them know they’re safe and have made it to Guadalajara. While at the FM4, the men (about 95% of the migrants coming through are men) eat, rest, play soccer, read and play dominos. On busy days, volunteers are bustling to meet all the basics needs of food, interviews, showers, phone calls. On easy-going days, you’ll see volunteers and migrants chatting over a cup of coffee, playing soccer or dominos, or participating in other activities like yoga, watching soccer, arts or games.  

The small team of permanent staff is incredibly dedicated. They provide legal aid for migrants eligible for refugee status, denouncing crimes committed against migrants and documenting human rights violations. They accompany migrants with health services, emotional support and help them establish themselves. They work closely with government officials, fellow non-profits and universities to improve policy and security for migrants. They focus on community education about the migrants’ lives. They budget, receive donations, organize and train the volunteers, keep the lights on and publish academic research. They’re an impressive, hardworking bunch, accomplishing a lot with a small crew.    

Since starting in February, I’ve appreciated meeting, however briefly, the migrants as they pass through Guadalajara. I met a Honduran man that lived in Madison as a teenager. He attended East High at the same time I was attending West High. I’ve met many migrants that have spent time in the states, some recently repatriated or deported and heading home, others attempting the journey again. One man had spent 42 years in California, his entire adult life. Now he’s adjusting to living once again in Mexico. Another man lived for seven years between Florida and Louisiana. He shared that he plans to return to his daughter in the states and to work for his old boss, a long-established immigrant that treated his workers well. Many are also headed to the U.S. for the first time, making their first journey on the migrant trail. They leave their countries; their homes and their families in order to better support them.
One woman received a call from a friend about a job in a restaurant near the border and left for the train to be able to feed her little girls. Another young man hopes to find a job to support his wife, pregnant with their first child. Some are as young as 15 and 16 years old, traveling with family or traveling alone. Some meet up with other solo travelers for safety in numbers. One fifteen year old Honduran teen explained with tears in his eyes that he left home over a month ago but appreciated the company and security of the other older migrants that had taken him under their wing. A few contact the FM4 via Facebook after they reach their destination but most of their outcomes we won’t ever know. As I’m home in the evenings and early in the morning, I hear the train whistle from the comfort of my home and I think of them. I wish each of them the best in their journeys, may they find what they need in where they’re headed.  

I go to the FM4 for my regular volunteer shift on Saturday afternoons and I cover shifts for fellow volunteers whenever possible. In addition to keeping the Centro de Atención al Migrante open every day, the FM4 partners with Amnesty International for an awareness and sensitivity campaign in Guadalajara. I’ve brought friends to documentary nights and train track clean up brigades. My most treasured moment from one clean up event is sharing a big plastic trash bag with my fellow Wisconsinite Mandy and three recently arrived migrants from Honduras. Even as exhausted as the migrants were, having just arrived on the train that morning, we shared in that moment of working together for the betterment of migration for all.    Inside and outside of our shifts, the FM4 volunteers have become a second family to me. We joke around, go dancing, and eat tacos. I feel an acceptance among the teams, to be goofy, to be serious, to learn together, to make mistakes and grow. I am so thankful to be a part of this family, working together to serve because we are all migrants, todxs somos migrantes.        

• Enrique’s Journey: The Story of a Boy’s Dangerous Odyssey to Reunite with His Mother by Sonia Nazario

• The Devil’s Highway, a True Story, by Luis Alberto Urrea

• The Beast: Riding the Rails and Dodging Narcos on the Migrant Trail, by Óscar Martínez

• Documentaries and Movies: La Bestia, Who is Dayani Cristal? Sin Nombre