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Sister Yliana at the border
Sister Yliana Hernandez, who recently retired as principal at Nora Cronin Presentation Academy, is currently serving with the Kino Border Initiative. She is sending back updates of her time in ministry with immigrants in need of assistance. -
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Updates from Sister Yliana
November 2-6, 2022 - Last Reflection
At right, Dubuque Presentation Sister Marge Healy and Sister Yliana.
Ramona, a 24-year-old woman, arrived in Nogales in the late afternoon one day this past week crying and severely distressed. She went straight to the border patrol to surrender. She wanted to tell her story and, in her words, “No one listened. I begged them to listen but no one listened.” The border patrol took her personal information and fingerprinted her. She was kept overnight and released in the morning. The reason she left her town was similar to the many stories I have heard over and over again. Those involved in organized crime come and demand money, they kidnap or kill anyone who opposes them and then warn them that, if they report anything to the authorities, they will be killed. People are told if they try to leave they will be found no matter where they go.
In to order escape, Ramona’s family went in different directions. She was with her father, but somehow, they got separated. I put my arms around her; she sobbed and sobbed. She is terrified that she will be found. She wants to be with her family. She will be staying at the Kino shelter, and I assured her that she is safe here. Like so many others, like so many of us, like myself, a Cuban refugee, she wants to go to the United States for the opportunity of a new life, to be safe, to be free.
On November 3 we went to visit “Casa De La Misericordia y de Todas las Naciones” (House of Misericordia and to All the Nations). This shelter is located in an extremely poor neighborhood in Nogales and is administered by Alma Angelica Macias Mejia, a former woman religious who lives in the neighborhood. I was amazed at what she has been able to create and how God has worked to make this shelter possible. The space is large and was formerly part of a public “comedor.” Due to a series of family tragedies, the owner of the property where the shelter is now located had decided to sell the land. How fortunate it was for Angelica when the seller of the property found himself sitting in a plane next to a friend of Angelica’s who knew about her search for land. The rest is history.
This particular shelter is for migrants who need protection and are hiding either because organized crime has kidnapped or killed family members, the family has received death threats, or they have escaped after being kidnapped. Those staying in this shelter remain until asylum is approved. It holds about 80 women and children or families. Almost all the time it is filled to capacity, and there is a long waiting list.
The shelter is like a mini city with many buildings. It has a school approved by the state where children receive a certificate upon completion of elementary and secondary education, a playground, training shops for adults, ESL classes, and a “tortilleria” where people not only make tortillas for their own consumption but also to sell. The migrants make bread, cultivate the land and, thus, provide for most of their needs. Women from different nationalities take one day a week to cook the typical food of their country. Most families have their own sleeping room, except for new arrivals who share a large room until space becomes available. The residents take care of cleaning, maintaining and even building new spaces. Angelica is an artist and, with the help of the children and other migrants, has decorated the walls of the shelter, making it very homey. (When I saw this mini city, I couldn’t help but think of the Middle Age cities-states created by monastic communities.) Let us praise God for his help in creating this shelter space and for the many inter-religious organizations and volunteers that provide services and financial help.
This is my last reflection from Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, since I will be traveling home on Saturday, November 12. I am blessed with the opportunity to experience the suffering and hopes of migrants. I have received from them more than what I was able to offer. I am amazed at their strength, their courage and their trust in God. Their faith has enriched and humbled me. Let us unite our prayers and efforts to advocate for humanitarian border policies. Let us pray and work for an end to poverty and violence in all parts of our world. No one wants to leave their homeland or their families, except for what we all desire, a safe and better future. May our loving God bless us and them, for we are all members of the same human family, created by the one God and redeemed by Christ!
This link from Sister Tracy Horan, one of the Kino coordinators, with some helpful information about Title 42.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLoJVXjnmyI
Sister Yliana Hernandez, PBVM
“Not words but deeds” - Nano Nagle
October 26-20, 2022
Every day this week I have been involved in intakes. I have completed a total of 32 intakes consisting of 85 people arriving new to Kino. Although I complete one interview form per family, each person’s needs must be individually entered into the Google electronic form. Emotionally it is taxing to listen to their stories realizing that their dreams of arriving and living in the U.S. is almost nil. At the same time, it is very rewarding because I am the first person they encounter with whom they are able to tell their stories without fear and, hopefully, with a listening heart.
On the evening of Oct 29, Sister Tracy, one of the Kino coordinators, took the four of us to downtown Nogales to the fair. Here “El Día de los Muertos” (the Day of the Dead) is celebrated with great festivities that start weeks earlier. People create altars with pictures of their loved ones surrounded by flowers and food.
Above: An altar at KINO and the cross that illustrates the suffering of those crossing the desert.
In the center of town (the streets have a cemetery on both sides) are lined with shops and eateries, a beautiful remembrance of the communion of saints.
Below are two photos -
one of the Last Supper mural that decorates the all-purpose room here at Kino and a picture of the same room with people eating.
What has impacted me most this week was a woman from Guatemala and her four-year-old child who crossed the desert the day before, were caught by the border patrol, sent back to Nogales, and decided to cross again the same day. She said to me “I cannot go back home. I have no money. I know no one here. What else can I do but try again?” Her husband crossed the desert months ago and is now living in California. So far 700 deaths have been reported from the many desert crossings here in Nogales, but the actual number is estimated to be tripled due to unaccounted death reports.
Another group was an indigenous family of eight women dressed in their typical clothes, speaking in their native dialogue with only two women speaking some Spanish. Due to violence and the threat of death, they left their home almost two years ago, moving one month at a time from one town to another, getting a job, and then moving on. They hoped to arrive at the border, tell their story and be admitted into the United States. The father, a campesino, said that he could start working in the fields right away, but the social worker explained to him there are no fields in Nogales. Thank God they were able to stay at the Kino shelter or they would have been an easy target here in Nogales.
Above, pictured from left, at a dinner at the Missionary Sisters of the Eucharist: Sister Jan; Sister Mary; Sister Marylou and Sister Tracy (Providence Sisters); Sister Josephine (Missionary Sister of the Eucharist); Sister Marge (Dubuque Presentation Sister), Susie (a volunteer) and Sister Yliana.Once again, thank you for your prayers.
October 25, 2022
Kino was founded by the Jesuits about 15 years ago. Kino is located within walking distance of Mariposa, a border entrance. There is another legal border entrance in the downtown area of Nogales. Each day 40 or more new people come to Kino hoping to enter legally into the U.S. Federal Law Title 42, enacted during the COVID pandemic by President Trump, is still active and the border remains closed. Extreme poverty and violence, due to organized crime, continue to be the main reasons people are leaving their homes.
During the past four days, I did 19 intakes, totaling 55 people. Most of these were families that included children as young as one month old.
Kino has a shelter that accommodates 80 people, mainly women and children and has been full since I arrived. People are allowed to stay for 10 days and, if needed, the time can be extended up to an additional 10 days. People staying at the shelter do not have to leave at the end of the day, and three meals and snacks are provided daily. Chores are assigned to the people, such as cleaning up after meals, taking care of their living space, and sharing in the overall cleaning of the center. Mass is celebrated every Sunday afternoon.
There is another shelter in the area, called Juan Bosco, that accommodates 300 people. Here each person must enter the shelter by 5 p.m. each day and leave with all their belongings before 6 a.m. the following morning. Meals and bathing facilities are not provided, and the people can only stay for three days. Those staying at Juan Bosco, as well as other shelters in the area, come to Kino for meals and to use the showers. Kino provides food at 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. each day for those not staying at the Kino shelter. More than 400 meals are served each day.
Other free resources/services offered at KINO include clothing, phycological care, medical care and Mexican lawyers. They lawyers give legal advice and help get duplicates of documents back to the Mexican immigrants because often border patrols do not return the documents when they present themselves at the legal crossing or are caught illegally.
Legal advice is also offered to non-Mexicans who want to remain in Mexico. American lawyers explain the present reality about asylum and the difficulties of legal entry into the US.
Social workers help the people find jobs at the maquilladoras and housing in the local area.
Background Information:
The Kino Border Initiative, thanks to a grant from the Hilton Foundation, is offering women religious volunteer and advocacy training experience. This experience will be offered at Kino four times during the year. All travel expenses and housing are included for one month or more at Nogales, Mexico. At present there are four of us volunteering: Mary Mongomery, a Sister of Providence from Indiana; Jan Gregorcich, a Sister of Notre Dame from Wisconsin; Marge Healy, a Presentation Sister from Iowa and myself. A house has been rented for one year for this experience. It is located in a residential neighborhood about a 20-minute car ride from the Kino Center. Mary and I each have a private bedroom and Marge and Jan share a bedroom. There are two full bathrooms and a half bathroom, a living/dining room and a kitchen. The house has a refrigerator, an outside washing machine and a clothesline. We also have the use of a car to travel back and forth to the center. Internet at the house will be installed soon (We hope!). We usually have our main meal at Kino. Our day begins at 8 a.m. and ends about 4 p.m. We have two free days. Mine are Mondays and Tuesdays. We pray together in the evenings, play Farkle (a dice game) and laugh a lot.
There is a volunteer house for lay people about a 10-minute ride from us. The Sisters of the Eucharist, a Mexican foundation, have four sisters working at Kino and also live about 10 minutes from us. Tracy, a Divine Providence Sister who has been working at Kino for three years, lives on the U.S. side of the border with three of her sisters and is one of the Kino Center coordinators. There are many volunteers; some come for a day, weekend, week, month, year. Everyone is very friendly and helpful.
Kino, as well as other nonprofit organizations in Nogales, have been asked by U.S. immigration to collect, check and prepare lists of people who may possibly qualify for legal entrance into the U.S. (In the past this was done only by U.S. officials.) Approximately 20 people are chosen from those lists by U.S. immigration to enter daily. People entering now got on those lists back in December 2021. At present the list is closed.
Back home I have often heard people say they don’t mind immigrants coming into the U.S. as long as they come legally as their ancestors did. I have met no one yet who desires to enter the U.S. in any other way but legally. As soon as they arrive, they present themselves to the border crossing patrol asking for legal entrance. The border patrol turns them back to Mexico. Some, hoping that the border will open soon, will stay in the area; others decide to start anew in Nogales or nearby. Others, out of desperation, will try the dangerous and costly way of the desert crossing. Very few can go back home, because of extreme poverty and they have sold the little they had to make the journey north or for fear of death for themselves and their families by organized crime.
Let us pray and advocate for humanitarian immigration laws where all are treated with dignity as sisters and brothers, members of the one family of our loving God, for it is Jesus, himself an immigrant in Egypt, who calls us to welcome the stranger and the immigrant just as we welcome him.
Sister Yliana Hernandez
October 19 to October 23
Nogales, MexicoThis week my ministry at KINO has been to do “in-taking.” What is common in all the cases is the fact that each person, each family, comes with the hope of going into the U.S. in search of a better future - the American dream. Unfortunately, to each person I have to say that, due to the federal law, Title 42, the border is closed.
I have learned that the drug cartel controls almost every aspect of the economic and political life of Mexico. The cartel comes into a town/city and demands a certain amount of money (a quota) that each person has to pay or face torture and/or death. In reality, Title 42 has not stopped immigration but has enriched the drug cartels because even the illegal crossings are controlled by them.
Taking pictures is not allowed at KINO to protect the identity of the people it helps. When sharing their stories, I will change names and locations.
The following stories are of people I did “in-take” with who came to KINO between October 19-23.
Pedro, his wife Easter, and five children, ages 12, 8, 3 and 4-month-old twins arrived on October 21 after three days of land traveling. They are campesinos from a little village in the south of Mexico. One of the recently arrived cartel men in their town began to inappropriately touch their 12-year-old daughter saying he was going to take her with him. The child told her father, Pedro, who confronted the man and was then attacked, resulting in his hospitalization. There was no punishment for the perpetrator and his behavior towards the 12-year-old child continued. The family decided to carry what they could, without calling attention to themselves, and go north with the hope that the U.S. border patrol would understand their reasons for asking for asylum. Now they are here in Nogales, living at a shelter (the KINO shelter is full), coming each day at 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. for food. Pedro is hoping to find work at one of the maquiladoras in order to start again because they cannot return home.
Santiago, traveling from Guatemala, came to the Mexican border because a mudslide destroyed most of his town and the factory where he worked. He hoped to go to the U.S., get a job and send money home to his family. After I explained the reality at the border, he decided to ask Mexico for a working visa with the hope he will get a job and be able to save enough money to bring his family here.
Leticia, a widow, is 30 years old and comes from Guatemala. She came with her two children, Susan, age 10, and José, age 12. Their journey by land took them three months. The mother explained that she bought three bus tickets using all the money she had, then they walked for a distance, arriving at a town where she worked for a while. After saving some money she again bought three bus tickets, and walked a distance until they arrived at another town where she found a job. This pattern continued until they finally arrived at Nogales.
This is her story: One day, as her 16-year-old daughter was going to the store, a “marrero” (gang member) approached her with a cellphone and asked her to take it to a store owner. The man told her he would call the store owner asking for a quota and she was told to bring the money back to him. She refused because if she did it once she knew she would become a carrier for the gang. The following day two men came to her house, took her outside and killed her. The family went into hiding because the gang was looking for her 12-year-old son. Leticia gathered whatever they could carry and started the journey to the north of Mexico. When she arrived at Nogales yesterday (October 21) and inquired how to get to the border entrance, a young man offered his services for whatever amount of money they had. They arrived at the border entrance at about 4 p.m., were told they could not cross into the U.S. and the patrol agent told them to come to KINO. KINO was closed so they slept out on the street. I cannot describe how hard it is to tell the people that the border is closed! Leticia hopes to get a working visa allowing them to stay in Mexico. If she can find a job, the family will wait until they are allowed to go into the U.S.
Monica, a single mother, was deported more than a year ago. Her two children, born in South Carolina, came with her since they have no family in the U.S. Her children don’t want to leave her and she is not eligible to go back. I just wonder how many U.S. children whose parents have been deported are living in similar situations here in Mexico.
~Sister Yliana Hernandez
Sunday, October 16
On Sunday, Oct. 16 we went to Arivanca, Arizona, one of the desert crossings from Mexico into the USA. This desert is not an arid place but “a wet desert.” Although the ground is sandy, the place is covered with trees and a significant number of the trees have thorns. (I had thorns all over my clothes, even inside my shoes.) The ground is uneven due to an unusual amount of rain creating muddy conditions.
It takes five days to cross the desert at a fast pace. (I was only able to go one mile due to the dangerous path with deep down slopes). This desert area is also known for wildlife - snakes, coyotes, raccoons, etc. A significant number of immigrants attempting to cross the desert have died. They either get lost or are unable to keep up the pace. Some have fallen and are left behind with a broken foot, ankle, etc.; some are dehydrated; and others are attacked by a wild animal, etc. Those who make to it to USA soil also face the danger of being caught by migration patrols and are then deported.
Father Peter, SJ, told us about articles he has collected over the last 15 years that were left behind by immigrants: camouflage clothes, camouflage shoe coverings, water jugs, canned food, pictures, perfume, letters, phone numbers, a baby bottle, etc. All of these items must be carried in a bag back! He explained that camouflage clothes are needed to blend in with nature. Another set of clothes is needed to change into so they can eventually blend in with the people. Shoe coverings are used so as not to leave footprints, and a minimum of 10 gallons of water is carried. Perfume is used to camouflage the body odor upon leaving the desert after five days of no washing or eating food.
What impacted me the most was the baby bottle and the pictures. The photos showed a happy family, the home the person left behind and the memories of that home. Did the owners of those items make it safely to the USA? Or were they another statistic, just another number of those who died trying to find a better future for themselves and their family?
And the baby bottle… How can a mother with a baby cross the desert when I could hardly keep myself from falling?
Since Sunday I have been praying for the safety of those crossing the desert way. A person has to be desperate to take such a dangerous journey.
Sister Yliana Hernandez
First Day at Kino - Friday, October 14
8 a.m.: I helped in the kitchen, preparing food for the many immigrants who will visit today.
9 - 10 a.m.: I served meals in an outside room to about 400 people. The people are immigrants that are not staying at the Kino shelter. They bring their own containers and we fill them with rice, beans, some kind of toppings, salad, macaroni salad, bread, water and juice. These are the people who have been caught crossing the border and deported or people waiting to see if the border opens or if asylum is granted.
An additional 80 women and children who stay at the Kino shelter eat in the comedor.
11 a.m. – noon: I received training to do in-taking. This will be my main ministry from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. daily.
The first case I had was a man who came from Chiapas, Mexico. He hoped to get to the U.S. to work and send money to his family. He was detained at 1 a.m. by the immigration patrol. He was already on U.S. soil but was sent back to Nogales, Mexico. Kino gave him food, clothes and information about a local shelter for men. An appointment was made with a Kino person who will help him to find a job and get money to return to his family. When asked if he will try again the passage through the desert he said it was too dangerous to try again. To see him crying is beyond words. The border patrol kept him in custody for several hours. They left him in the street with no money and only the clothes on his back.
The second case was a woman with her 14-year-old son and 19-year-old daughter. They were from the south of Mexico. Both the mother and daughter cried the entire time. The drug cartel was looking for her son whose choice was either to join the cartel or be killed. She took her two children and went to Nogales with the intention of telling the border patrol her story and hoping that asylum would be granted. We had to inform her that asylum is a very difficult process right now. Kino offered them food, clothes and shelter for 10 days. Kino also has an immigration lawyer, social worker, psychologist and a person who will help her to find a job. She cannot go back home and the possibility of asylum is minimum. The details of her anguish about leaving home, the way north to Nogales, bringing nothing but what they had on, was something that really broke my heart. I cannot even imagine her anguish. She had a home, family, and friends and now she has nothing. Her hopes for going to the U.S. have been dashed.
Sister Yliana Hernandez -