The “BOSSES” of Veracruz
By David Triana
Las Patronas is a group of women from the town of Guadalupe in the municipality of Amatlán de los Reyes, Veracruz.
The group and its mission started almost by accident. As the story goes, on February 14, 1995, Norma Romero and her sister, were sent by their mother to the local store to purchase bread and milk for breakfast.
As they made their way back, they stopped at the side of the railroad tracks as the train popularly known as “The Beast” (some call it the Train of Death) passed by.
“The Beast” is a freight train runs from the southern border of Mexico towards the north and is famous because it is one of the most well-known methods of transportation by migrants from Central America and from Mexico that want to go to the United States.
According to Norma, as the train passed by, a group of people on top of the wagons shouted at the sisters: “Madre, we’re hungry.” Then, another group on top of one of the other wagons shouted the same thing!
Feeling sorry for those people and almost instinctively, Norma and her sister threw their bread and cartons of milk to the hungry riders.
When the sisters went back home that day, without the bread and milk, they explained to their mother, Dona Leonila Vazquez, what had taken place and were worried that she would punish them. Instead, their mother helped them to devise a plan to help those people the next day as the train passed by.
Little did they know, that the simple act of kindness and the plan they developed to help provide food for the migrants as the train passed by each day, would lead to the creation of what is now the world-renowned group called Las Patronas, a charitable organization that has helped thousands of Central American migrants.
Several other women from the village soon joined the effort. An effort that they accomplished using their own money, food, and just as a sheer act of kindness towards persons, the great majority of which, they will never get to meet. Many of the present day Patronas first started with the group as children and are now grown adults still committed to this worthwhile cause.
Each and every day for the last 26 years, rain or shine, on cold or unbearably hot days, the group prepares between fifteen and twenty kilograms of beans and rice and deliver hundreds of lunches daily. Each time The Beast passes by their town, they have approximately 15 minutes to throw the bags with food, as well as bottles of water, for migrants to catch them on the train.
The migrants riding The Beast will travel over 2,000 kilometers on a trip that may last 25 days. Although it is not a passenger train, violent gangs control things along its path and actually charge migrants to ride on it. There are also numerous cases of sexual assault, robbery, and murder that have taken place. The migrants, many of them women and children, are exposed to these situations each and every day.
The name Las Patronas has a religious connotation, patrona means patron saint in Spanish and is what Mexicans call the Virgin of Guadalupe (Virgin Mary). The name is apt, because to the migrants, the food and water rations they get from them can mean the difference between life and death as they may have to go days without food and water while they make their way north seeking the American Dream.
Their work towards the defense of the migrant rights has earned them several awards, such as the National Human Rights Award in 2013. The group was nominated for the Princess of Asturias Award in 2015, after a campaign in Change.org that collected more than 50,000 signatures in support.
Las Patronas are world-renowned and welcome donations from individuals and entities. For more information on how to donate, go here: https://lapatrona.wordpress.com/
To learn more about them, check out these videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMJ1JLWbbPkhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sq9foGuh9-0&t=355s