::: Guatemalan Consulate Visits Riverhead :::
Guatemalan Consulate Visits Riverhead
By Lisa Finn
It was only 8 a.m. on Saturday morning when Sister Margaret Smyth of the North Fork Spanish Apostolate arrived at St. John the Evangelist Church in Riverhead, but already there was a crowd of people waiting to enter the auditorium.
Men and women, children and babies, all of Guatemalan descent, were patiently standing in line outside in the cold. They were waiting to file in and receive a number so they could take a turn at meeting with members of the Guatemalan consulate who traveled to Riverhead last weekend to provide vital services.
And throughout the day and the day after, they kept coming, with over 400 Guatemalans in the packed-to-capacity auditorium on Saturday alone.
According to Rosa Maria Merida de Mora, consul general of Guatemala, who traveled to Riverhead to help, the event was part of a mobile consulate program, in place since 2001, that aims to help Guatemalans with services such as passports, ID cards, birth information, and marriage registration so that a United States union will be valid in Guatemala. A much-needed copy machine was on-site to aid individuals.
Although it was the 52nd such event the consul has helped orchestrate, including three in Brentwood and others in New Jersey, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, it was the first in Riverhead.
“We are very honored and happy to serve the people in the place where they live,” said the consul general. And Merida de Mora stressed how thankful she was to Smyth, who was instrumental in making the event happen.
Smyth was beaming as she headed out to pick up tacos and pizza for the crowd. “I’m thrilled,” she said. “So many people are pouring in. It’s wonderful.”
According to Merida de Mora, the unofficial number of Guatemalans living in the United States today is about 1,200,000.
And, according to Jorge Bethancourt, Wading River resident and member of the Asociation de Guatemaltecos-Morazanecos en USA, that number has surged in recent years as Guatemalans, driven by debilitating poverty, a raging civil war in the 1980s, and most recently, the devastation of Hurricane Stan last October, have sought refuge in the United States.
Bethancourt’s personal story reflects the sheer devastation that forces many Guatemalans to cross the border illegally, as he did when he left his town of Morazan in 1994. Bethancourt left behind his young son and pregnant wife to embark upon the dangerous journey. “The poverty had increased so much that it forced me to leave,” he said. “It was not an easy decision. I have not seen my daughter in 12 years.”
The sea of Guatemalans who strike out to seek a new life in the United States face tremendous obstacles. First off, said Bethancourt, the cost is prohibitive. When he came in 1994, the price was $6000, half up front.
Next, Bethancourt was contacted by someone who had more than 30 other Guatemalans to transport. The group was given Mexican currency and transported by bus to the Mexican border, where they began a draining, four-day journey from one Mexican city to the next, walking at night and sleeping by day. The group was trained how to act and speak as though Mexican.
Coincidentally, at that very moment in time, Mexico had seen a rise in guerilla warfare, another threat.
Finally, the shimmering border was in sight. There is a spot, said Bethancourt, in Nogales, Mexico, where it is possible to cross the border into Arizona, through a hole in the chain link fence.
Once they’d made it through, the plan was to take a taxi to a hotel, where they would stay, 30 people in a room, until word came about transport to Los Angeles. But, Bethancourt was one of three hiding in the trunk of a car when it was stopped by border patrol because it was too heavy. When caught, Bethancourt felt only relief. “I felt happy,” he said. “Thank God I’m getting out of this trunk.”
Because his documentation was Mexican, Bethancourt was sent back to a Mexican jail at the border. Eventually, Bethancourt was able to repeat the process and finally, landed safely in Los Angeles, where he caught a flight to New York. Even then, the flight delayed by the worst New York snowstorm in years, but undaunted, Bethancourt made it to the promised land.
Making a new life, Bethancourt worked first in a nursery and then in cons truction and home improvement. His wife was able to visit for two years on a tourist visa and today, the couple has three children.
Bethancourt is seizing his version of the American dream, even taking ESL classes at Suffolk County Community College; his car is loaded with textbooks.
But like most Guatemalans, most of his money is sent home to help his family and town. “Guatemala is receiving $8 million a day from immigrants [in America]” he said, more than the country makes on exportation. Should the move be made to deport Guatemalans living in the country illegally, “it will be chaos,” for those back home.
What his group is striving for is for the United States government to grant Guatemalan nationals now residing and working in the country Temporary Protected Status.
The TPS program was put in place in 1990 to aid countries that have fallen victim to natural disaster or civil war. TPS would enable Guatemalans to get driver’s licenses and insurance, to buy homes and cars, and to get better jobs.
Reverend William Wendler, pastor of the United Methodist Church in Glen Cove, brought Marco Tulio Suhul, the young Guatemalan man he said has been “adopted” by his city. Suhul, he said, came to the United States to escape a turbulent political situation and has flourished here.
The United States economy, he said, depends on immigrants, and the government should allow many to stay. “Some very fine people are being forced to leave. A little rationale and common sense is needed in the immigration process.”
Wendler suggests immigrants be allowed to pay a fine and be put on the road to legal citizenship.
As for Bethancourt, he said that through his mother-in-law and sister-in-law, the process has begun for his wife and children to receive documentation to legally enter the United States, after which he will have documentation.
“I know many people here who have stories like mine. They are afraid,” he said, to share them. He is not afraid of the repercussions of telling his story, but chooses, instead, to fight for TPS and for his people. “What else should I do?” he asks.
The event, said Smyth, was a mix of Guatemalans who were in the country both legally and illegally.
And the goal, said Merida de Mora, is to help. “These people are trying to be able to work.” And by staging the event, “I think they feel the consulate is working for them.”
...
By Lisa Finn
It was only 8 a.m. on Saturday morning when Sister Margaret Smyth of the North Fork Spanish Apostolate arrived at St. John the Evangelist Church in Riverhead, but already there was a crowd of people waiting to enter the auditorium.
Men and women, children and babies, all of Guatemalan descent, were patiently standing in line outside in the cold. They were waiting to file in and receive a number so they could take a turn at meeting with members of the Guatemalan consulate who traveled to Riverhead last weekend to provide vital services.
And throughout the day and the day after, they kept coming, with over 400 Guatemalans in the packed-to-capacity auditorium on Saturday alone.
According to Rosa Maria Merida de Mora, consul general of Guatemala, who traveled to Riverhead to help, the event was part of a mobile consulate program, in place since 2001, that aims to help Guatemalans with services such as passports, ID cards, birth information, and marriage registration so that a United States union will be valid in Guatemala. A much-needed copy machine was on-site to aid individuals.
Although it was the 52nd such event the consul has helped orchestrate, including three in Brentwood and others in New Jersey, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, it was the first in Riverhead.
“We are very honored and happy to serve the people in the place where they live,” said the consul general. And Merida de Mora stressed how thankful she was to Smyth, who was instrumental in making the event happen.
Smyth was beaming as she headed out to pick up tacos and pizza for the crowd. “I’m thrilled,” she said. “So many people are pouring in. It’s wonderful.”
According to Merida de Mora, the unofficial number of Guatemalans living in the United States today is about 1,200,000.
And, according to Jorge Bethancourt, Wading River resident and member of the Asociation de Guatemaltecos-Morazanecos en USA, that number has surged in recent years as Guatemalans, driven by debilitating poverty, a raging civil war in the 1980s, and most recently, the devastation of Hurricane Stan last October, have sought refuge in the United States.
Bethancourt’s personal story reflects the sheer devastation that forces many Guatemalans to cross the border illegally, as he did when he left his town of Morazan in 1994. Bethancourt left behind his young son and pregnant wife to embark upon the dangerous journey. “The poverty had increased so much that it forced me to leave,” he said. “It was not an easy decision. I have not seen my daughter in 12 years.”
The sea of Guatemalans who strike out to seek a new life in the United States face tremendous obstacles. First off, said Bethancourt, the cost is prohibitive. When he came in 1994, the price was $6000, half up front.
Next, Bethancourt was contacted by someone who had more than 30 other Guatemalans to transport. The group was given Mexican currency and transported by bus to the Mexican border, where they began a draining, four-day journey from one Mexican city to the next, walking at night and sleeping by day. The group was trained how to act and speak as though Mexican.
Coincidentally, at that very moment in time, Mexico had seen a rise in guerilla warfare, another threat.
Finally, the shimmering border was in sight. There is a spot, said Bethancourt, in Nogales, Mexico, where it is possible to cross the border into Arizona, through a hole in the chain link fence.
Once they’d made it through, the plan was to take a taxi to a hotel, where they would stay, 30 people in a room, until word came about transport to Los Angeles. But, Bethancourt was one of three hiding in the trunk of a car when it was stopped by border patrol because it was too heavy. When caught, Bethancourt felt only relief. “I felt happy,” he said. “Thank God I’m getting out of this trunk.”
Because his documentation was Mexican, Bethancourt was sent back to a Mexican jail at the border. Eventually, Bethancourt was able to repeat the process and finally, landed safely in Los Angeles, where he caught a flight to New York. Even then, the flight delayed by the worst New York snowstorm in years, but undaunted, Bethancourt made it to the promised land.
Making a new life, Bethancourt worked first in a nursery and then in cons truction and home improvement. His wife was able to visit for two years on a tourist visa and today, the couple has three children.
Bethancourt is seizing his version of the American dream, even taking ESL classes at Suffolk County Community College; his car is loaded with textbooks.
But like most Guatemalans, most of his money is sent home to help his family and town. “Guatemala is receiving $8 million a day from immigrants [in America]” he said, more than the country makes on exportation. Should the move be made to deport Guatemalans living in the country illegally, “it will be chaos,” for those back home.
What his group is striving for is for the United States government to grant Guatemalan nationals now residing and working in the country Temporary Protected Status.
The TPS program was put in place in 1990 to aid countries that have fallen victim to natural disaster or civil war. TPS would enable Guatemalans to get driver’s licenses and insurance, to buy homes and cars, and to get better jobs.
Reverend William Wendler, pastor of the United Methodist Church in Glen Cove, brought Marco Tulio Suhul, the young Guatemalan man he said has been “adopted” by his city. Suhul, he said, came to the United States to escape a turbulent political situation and has flourished here.
The United States economy, he said, depends on immigrants, and the government should allow many to stay. “Some very fine people are being forced to leave. A little rationale and common sense is needed in the immigration process.”
Wendler suggests immigrants be allowed to pay a fine and be put on the road to legal citizenship.
As for Bethancourt, he said that through his mother-in-law and sister-in-law, the process has begun for his wife and children to receive documentation to legally enter the United States, after which he will have documentation.
“I know many people here who have stories like mine. They are afraid,” he said, to share them. He is not afraid of the repercussions of telling his story, but chooses, instead, to fight for TPS and for his people. “What else should I do?” he asks.
The event, said Smyth, was a mix of Guatemalans who were in the country both legally and illegally.
And the goal, said Merida de Mora, is to help. “These people are trying to be able to work.” And by staging the event, “I think they feel the consulate is working for them.”
...
posted by Red por la Paz y Desarrollo de Guatemala at 6:28 AM
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