Many children, adolescents and youth traveled unaccompanied in the migrant caravans that crossed Mexico in 2018 and 2019. For them, the caravan was a strategy for security, protection and autonomy. It also became a space of celebration and for them to make their own decisions and discover their own identity.
Dulce, Daniela and David have lived in sanctuary, together with their mother, in the Church of Holyrood in Manhattan, New York, as a strategy to protect themselves against a deportation order. “It’s like playing hide and seek,” they say. They experience a reality in which their liberty and family are at play.
Children that travel through Mexico are exposed to many dangers, threats, discrimination and xenophobic policies. The shelters run by religious communities and civil society represent sanctuaries, shelters and places of refuge where they can rest and feel protected.
During 2018 and 2019 the large Central American migrant collectives organized in caravans to walk together and protect themselves in their transit through Mexico. It was a phenomenon that caught the attention of the entire world. The stories of these boys and girls that formed part of this historical act of displacement provide us with an opportunity to understand this phenomenon from their point of view.
