WEBVTT - She Migrates 0:00:00.760 --> 0:00:03.840 This is Latino USA, the Radio Journal of News and 0:00:04.000 --> 0:00:09.440 Kurturre Latino USA. Latino USA. I'm Maria Inojosa. We bring 0:00:09.480 --> 0:00:12.840 you stories that are underreported but that mattered to you, 0:00:13.000 --> 0:00:14.680 overlooked by the rest of the media. 0:00:14.480 --> 0:00:16.360 And while the country is struggling. 0:00:15.880 --> 0:00:17.880 To deal with these, we listen to the stories of 0:00:17.960 --> 0:00:22.440 Black and Latino Studios United, Latino Front, a cultural renaissance 0:00:22.800 --> 0:00:25.360 organizing at the forefront of the movement. 0:00:26.079 --> 0:00:28.600 I'm Maria Inojosa. Nose bayan. 0:00:30.920 --> 0:00:34.920 Ola Latino USA. Listener. Here's a show from the archives. 0:00:34.960 --> 0:00:37.960 This one won the twenty twenty two one World Media 0:00:38.000 --> 0:00:44.520 Award for Refugee Reporting. So here's this award winning episode. 0:00:44.520 --> 0:00:50.680 Women tend to stay in small rooms that are rented, 0:00:51.159 --> 0:00:53.239 you know, not so much in the shelters that they 0:00:53.280 --> 0:00:57.960 have the option. Women tend to try to get false 0:00:58.000 --> 0:01:01.560 documentation that will help them get on buses or ride 0:01:01.680 --> 0:01:07.080 in cars, or go around checkpoints walking that kind of thing, 0:01:07.200 --> 0:01:12.319 but in different routes then men would traditionally take. You know, 0:01:12.400 --> 0:01:14.720 the women who I've talked to over the years, they 0:01:14.959 --> 0:01:20.120 absolutely are thinking about how to protect their bodies, but 0:01:20.280 --> 0:01:23.840 also how to use their bodies to move through extremely 0:01:24.440 --> 0:01:27.199 difficult situations. 0:01:30.160 --> 0:01:34.360 From Fudro Media and PRX it's Latino USA. I'm Mariao Posa. 0:01:34.840 --> 0:01:39.639 Today she migrates the stories from women making journeys north 0:01:39.720 --> 0:01:49.360 to the United States. Before we start, there is a 0:01:49.440 --> 0:01:54.040 mention of sexual violence in this episode. In a new 0:01:54.240 --> 0:01:58.160 migration reality, the one that we're living through, women and 0:01:58.280 --> 0:02:02.800 children are requesting asylum in Mexico it higher rates than men. 0:02:03.640 --> 0:02:07.120 But even as more and more women are crossing borders 0:02:07.160 --> 0:02:11.000 on long and dangerous journeys, many hoping ultimately to get 0:02:11.040 --> 0:02:14.800 to the United States, you rarely hear about their stories 0:02:14.840 --> 0:02:18.720 and what it's like, specifically to migrate as an undocumented 0:02:18.760 --> 0:02:21.560 person when you're a woman or you identify as one. 0:02:22.480 --> 0:02:26.600 For women, their bodies take on a central role when 0:02:26.600 --> 0:02:30.600 they're in transit, regardless of their age. Some, for example, 0:02:30.600 --> 0:02:33.240 are forced to disguise their gender for their own protection. 0:02:33.800 --> 0:02:36.720 Others end up using it as a form of survival. 0:02:37.120 --> 0:02:40.960 But in the end, so many are victimized just because 0:02:41.400 --> 0:02:46.200 of their gender, and because so many of them are mothers, 0:02:46.240 --> 0:02:50.120 many will end up carrying their children with them. Latino 0:02:50.240 --> 0:02:54.760 USA editor Marta Martinez and reporter Alejandra Sanchez in SUNSA 0:02:55.160 --> 0:02:58.920 traveled to chap Us in southern Mexico. Here's their reporting 0:02:58.960 --> 0:03:03.120 about migrant women in different stages on their way north. 0:03:09.320 --> 0:03:15.560 Part one Girlhood, the body as a disguise and Marta 0:03:15.600 --> 0:03:17.240 Martinez is going to take it from here. 0:03:23.120 --> 0:03:30.119 It's midday in Palinke Chiappas, and it's very hot. There's 0:03:30.160 --> 0:03:33.080 a group of some eight boys sitting on the sidewalk, 0:03:33.240 --> 0:03:36.360 cramped under the shade of a small tree, just yards 0:03:36.400 --> 0:03:38.640 away from the migrant shelter where they spent the night 0:03:40.760 --> 0:03:43.800 a few days earlier. Last May, they had left on Luras, 0:03:43.880 --> 0:03:47.800 their home country, crossing first into Gatemala and then into 0:03:47.880 --> 0:03:51.600 southern Mexico. They walked more than one hundred miles through 0:03:51.640 --> 0:03:54.840 the humid, mountainous jungle to get to the city of Palinke, 0:03:55.280 --> 0:03:59.720 mostly known for its Mayan ruins, but also especially two migrants, 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:02.920 as one of the few cities along Mexico's southern border 0:04:03.040 --> 0:04:09.000 with shelter facilities. The boys are between fifteen and twenty 0:04:09.040 --> 0:04:11.920 one years old. They all have the same destination goal. 0:04:12.400 --> 0:04:15.200 One of them even wears it stamped on his converse sneakers, 0:04:15.560 --> 0:04:18.279 the red, white and blue pattern of the US flag. 0:04:19.920 --> 0:04:22.880 One of the boys has a fresh haircut, the bottom 0:04:22.920 --> 0:04:25.720 half of the skull shaved, the top half tied in 0:04:25.760 --> 0:04:28.479 a high bun. It takes a while to realize that 0:04:28.640 --> 0:04:34.039 he is actually a girl. Her name is Amaya. Amaya 0:04:34.040 --> 0:04:36.920 recently turned fifteen, but she didn't celebrate with a big 0:04:36.960 --> 0:04:39.680 party like girls in Latin America usually do when they 0:04:39.680 --> 0:04:42.960 turn this age. Less than a month after her birthday, 0:04:43.240 --> 0:04:45.480 she packed her things in a backpack and left her 0:04:45.520 --> 0:04:48.880 parents home in a rush, joining a couple of friends 0:04:48.960 --> 0:04:52.920 and two distant cousins. She left with five thousand lampitas 0:04:53.040 --> 0:04:56.360 some two hundred dollars, but when we talked, she already 0:04:56.360 --> 0:04:57.400 had no money left. 0:04:57.960 --> 0:05:13.360 Co suky oh no, yeah, different, Amilia. 0:05:14.600 --> 0:05:17.239 Her dream is making it to the United States, where 0:05:17.360 --> 0:05:20.040 she believes she'll be able to work and earn more 0:05:20.080 --> 0:05:23.840 money than she could ever do in Honduras. In her 0:05:23.839 --> 0:05:28.279 hometown of Santa Barbara, there are no jobs. There's nothing. Amaya. 0:05:28.360 --> 0:05:37.080 Sasas is the most unequal country in the Americas. Sixty 0:05:37.120 --> 0:05:40.240 percent of the population is poor, and for over a decade, 0:05:40.360 --> 0:05:42.880 the country has held one of the highest murder rates 0:05:42.920 --> 0:05:46.560 in the world, especially against women, and one in six 0:05:46.640 --> 0:05:52.120 girls has experienced sexual violence. Its population is also very young. 0:05:52.880 --> 0:05:56.560 Almost half of all Hondurans are younger than twenty, but 0:05:56.640 --> 0:06:00.720 the increasing violence by organized crime, the unsustainable stortion and 0:06:00.760 --> 0:06:05.200 recruitment by street gangs, high unemployment and inflation are leaving 0:06:05.240 --> 0:06:10.560 young Endurance without opportunities in their home country. If all 0:06:10.640 --> 0:06:14.159 that wasn't enough to push thousands of Hodurance to migrate 0:06:14.240 --> 0:06:17.800 every year in twenty twenty, the COVID nineteen pandemic and 0:06:17.920 --> 0:06:22.200 two devastating back to back hurricanes sun Conduras even deeper, 0:06:22.880 --> 0:06:26.360 driving even more people like Amaya to leave. In the 0:06:26.400 --> 0:06:29.520 first seven months of twenty twenty, nine hundred and four 0:06:29.600 --> 0:06:33.880 unaccompanied minors requested asylum in Mexico, almost double the number 0:06:34.160 --> 0:06:38.000 for all of twenty twenty. The vast majority were Hondurant children. 0:06:39.200 --> 0:06:41.440 Amaya had her hair cut for free at the migrant 0:06:41.440 --> 0:06:44.160 shelter in Balinki the day before we met her her 0:06:44.200 --> 0:06:45.400 big sister Verlo. 0:06:47.360 --> 0:06:52.840 Okay, as you know, I think muchon yeah, Maria Jongwood. 0:06:52.839 --> 0:06:56.160 I mean the short hair is an advantage, Amaya says, 0:06:56.279 --> 0:06:59.039 because she doesn't stand out on the road. She wears 0:06:59.040 --> 0:07:02.320 a gray hat, only the shaven half of her head exposed. 0:07:03.040 --> 0:07:05.920 Her black T shirt is actually more revealing. It has 0:07:05.920 --> 0:07:08.919 a mini mouse bow printed on her chest and the 0:07:08.960 --> 0:07:11.440 pink brass trap picks out from her t shirt neck. 0:07:12.600 --> 0:07:15.240 On the migrant road, being a young woman is an 0:07:15.240 --> 0:07:17.000 added risk, and Amaya knows it. 0:07:17.320 --> 0:07:45.520 Calica cont. 0:07:34.840 --> 0:07:34.920 Yo. 0:07:36.880 --> 0:07:39.520 Amaya knows that men pray on girls like her and 0:07:39.560 --> 0:07:42.600 that she must stay alert at all times. She feels 0:07:42.600 --> 0:07:45.000 safe with this group of boys, though she says she 0:07:45.080 --> 0:07:48.800 trusts they won't abandon her when they walk together. She 0:07:48.800 --> 0:07:52.120 always walks in the middle on their long tracks across 0:07:52.120 --> 0:07:55.440 southern Mexico. Migraines try to walk in big groups to 0:07:55.480 --> 0:07:59.680 avoid getting mugged, kidnapped, or worse. Women and girls are 0:07:59.720 --> 0:08:04.239 also overwhelmingly exposed to sexual abuse and targeted by traffickers. 0:08:04.560 --> 0:08:07.680 It's hard to find reliable data on sexual violence against 0:08:07.680 --> 0:08:10.960 migrant women because they don't usually talk about it and 0:08:11.000 --> 0:08:14.480 they're often too scared to file police reports. According to 0:08:14.520 --> 0:08:18.760 Mexico's National Health Institute, almost half of women migrating through 0:08:18.800 --> 0:08:22.200 the country have been sexually abused or have exchanged sex 0:08:22.280 --> 0:08:25.920 for food, shelter, and anything else that would help them 0:08:26.000 --> 0:08:29.560 along their journey. It's even harder to find data on 0:08:29.680 --> 0:08:33.439 human and sex trafficking. One of the most obscure criminal 0:08:33.480 --> 0:08:37.480 networks in Mexico and in many other countries. One of 0:08:37.480 --> 0:08:41.280 the few reports available is the US State Department's Trafficking 0:08:41.280 --> 0:08:45.200 in Persons Report, which shows that in twenty twenty, almost 0:08:45.240 --> 0:08:49.440 eighty percent of six hundred and seventy three victims identified 0:08:49.480 --> 0:08:54.160 in Mexico where women and girls. The figure barely scratches 0:08:54.200 --> 0:09:07.640 the surface. Advocates say when Amaya left Onduda's she had 0:09:07.679 --> 0:09:10.480 already dropped out of school. She says that it took 0:09:10.520 --> 0:09:12.600 her half an hour to get there, and she didn't 0:09:12.640 --> 0:09:16.080 like her classes very much either. She enjoyed babysitting, though, 0:09:16.440 --> 0:09:18.960 especially taking care of her niece, who still calls. 0:09:18.760 --> 0:09:25.800 Her mom is Mama, I won't dabia. 0:09:26.440 --> 0:09:29.280 Amaya says she'd like to have children one day, but 0:09:29.400 --> 0:09:32.000 not until she's twenty five because it's a lot of 0:09:32.000 --> 0:09:32.480 hard work. 0:09:33.320 --> 0:09:38.719 Leventi sinko yeah, mayor de la momentore. 0:09:40.000 --> 0:09:43.120 In Honduras, one in four girls has been pregnant at 0:09:43.200 --> 0:09:58.400 least once before turning nineteen. The morning after we meet 0:09:58.440 --> 0:10:01.520 Amaya and her group at fourth in the morning, one 0:10:01.559 --> 0:10:06.880 of the years, but enough it's still pitch dark upside, 0:10:06.920 --> 0:10:09.200 but they want to get going before the sun is 0:10:09.240 --> 0:10:11.960 too harsh. Their goal for the day is getting to 0:10:12.000 --> 0:10:15.280 Salto Iagua, which is thirty five miles away, because that's 0:10:15.320 --> 0:10:20.400 where the next migrant shelter is. They sip some black 0:10:20.400 --> 0:10:23.679 coffee in plastic cups and smoke cigarettes. The group has 0:10:23.679 --> 0:10:26.680 shrunk a bit. Some didn't want to wait and decided 0:10:26.720 --> 0:10:30.160 to leave the evening before. There are now six boys 0:10:30.240 --> 0:10:34.640 Plasa Maya. Their ultimate goal is to jump on La 0:10:34.720 --> 0:10:38.640 Vestia or the Beast, the train heading to northern Mexico. 0:10:39.480 --> 0:10:42.319 Part of the train route in Chiapa's has been discontinued 0:10:42.480 --> 0:10:46.640 to give way to El Trenmaya, a big federal infrastructure project, 0:10:47.360 --> 0:10:49.520 so now migrants have to walk an addition of two 0:10:49.640 --> 0:10:52.600 hundred and twenty miles to the first train station in 0:10:52.679 --> 0:10:58.840 quat Sa Quadkos. The group walks following the train tracks, 0:10:58.840 --> 0:11:01.880 increasingly covered by weeds and stones due to the lack 0:11:01.920 --> 0:11:05.640 of use. Several of them, including a maya whole thick 0:11:05.679 --> 0:11:09.280 woodsticks the size of baseball bats to protect themselves in 0:11:09.320 --> 0:11:17.520 case they're attacked. And that sound in the background, those 0:11:17.559 --> 0:11:25.280 are the hauling monkeys hiding in the luscious trees. You 0:11:25.360 --> 0:11:28.360 rarely see women walking on the train tracks by themselves, 0:11:28.520 --> 0:11:31.960 let alone teenage girls like Amaya, and when they do, 0:11:32.240 --> 0:11:45.920 they hide their gender. We meet the group again in 0:11:46.000 --> 0:11:48.839 Salta the Iyawa the day after their fourteen hour track. 0:11:52.360 --> 0:11:55.839 There are now only four boys plus a Maya. Two 0:11:55.920 --> 0:11:58.560 of them decided to continue on their own no breaks, 0:11:59.120 --> 0:12:01.959 but Amaya isn't feeling well. She needs to rest a bit. 0:12:02.440 --> 0:12:05.240 She looks exhausted and her feet are very swollen. 0:12:08.559 --> 0:12:08.880 Am I. 0:12:11.840 --> 0:12:15.080 You know? 0:12:15.200 --> 0:12:17.680 Amaya says that for a moment she thought she wouldn't 0:12:17.720 --> 0:12:20.080 be able to make it. Her friend had to drag her. 0:12:20.480 --> 0:12:23.280 She got some burned, her head hurt. She tells us 0:12:23.320 --> 0:12:25.559 that she needs a favor, but she's ashamed to tell 0:12:25.640 --> 0:12:41.880 us what it is. Has just gotten her period and 0:12:41.960 --> 0:12:44.600 asks if we could help her get contraceptive pills to 0:12:44.679 --> 0:12:47.720 make her period stop. A similar hike awaited them the 0:12:47.760 --> 0:12:50.840 next day and she couldn't walk like this anymore. We 0:12:50.920 --> 0:12:53.880 tell her that pills won't really stop her period right away, 0:12:54.040 --> 0:13:07.600 but what about tempons? Amaya has never used a tempon 0:13:08.440 --> 0:13:11.360 the shelters. They only have sanitary towels, and Amaya says 0:13:11.360 --> 0:13:13.439 they're very uncomfortable in this hot weather. 0:13:22.679 --> 0:13:28.000 As people grow, especially in adolescents, women are so so vulnerable. 0:13:30.280 --> 0:13:33.360 This is Gretchen Kuhner, director of the Institute for Women 0:13:33.400 --> 0:13:35.080 in Migration based in Mexico. 0:13:35.440 --> 0:13:39.760 We've seen all different kinds of violence, you know, starting 0:13:39.760 --> 0:13:42.960 with extortion, which is just the highest, and then women 0:13:43.040 --> 0:13:47.880 also have the extra vulnerability of sexual violence. 0:13:48.480 --> 0:13:51.760 Many times though women don't realize when they're victims of 0:13:51.840 --> 0:13:52.720 sexual violence. 0:13:53.400 --> 0:13:58.440 Some women are so accustomed to being touched. Other women 0:13:58.920 --> 0:14:02.800 will say, well, the truck driver gave me a ride 0:14:03.160 --> 0:14:08.720 from Tabacula to Saltillo, and so of course in exchange 0:14:08.760 --> 0:14:11.080 for that, I had to sleep with him. But that's 0:14:11.120 --> 0:14:13.840 not sexual event, that's sexual violence. 0:14:14.120 --> 0:14:18.280 A recent change in Mexico's immigration law has directly impacted 0:14:18.360 --> 0:14:22.200 girls and boys traveling alone. Since January of this year, 0:14:22.600 --> 0:14:26.480 minors cannot be held in immigration detention centers. Now they 0:14:26.560 --> 0:14:30.840 must remain under the supervision of Mexico's Child Protective Services 0:14:31.160 --> 0:14:35.280 known as DIEF. Child rights activists have been pushing for 0:14:35.320 --> 0:14:38.520 this for over a decade, but its implementation has not 0:14:38.600 --> 0:14:41.360 resulted in the kind of change advocates expected. 0:14:41.840 --> 0:14:44.560 What we have is a situation in which there's especially 0:14:44.560 --> 0:14:48.920 in Chiapas, you know, whether there's just the largest flows, 0:14:49.360 --> 0:14:51.680 a lot of confusion about who should be doing what, 0:14:52.520 --> 0:14:54.200 insufficient resources. 0:14:54.840 --> 0:14:58.800 Because child protective services are overwhelmed, they sent many of 0:14:58.800 --> 0:15:03.200 these children to private shelters for immigrants, which are also overcarded, 0:15:03.560 --> 0:15:06.440 and we're living conditions might not be up to standards, 0:15:06.560 --> 0:15:10.640 especially for an accompanied children. During our reporting in Chapas, 0:15:10.720 --> 0:15:14.080 two shelter coordinators said that they had stopped accepting an 0:15:14.080 --> 0:15:17.880 accompanied minors from THEEF because they were quote too hard 0:15:17.920 --> 0:15:21.920 to deal with. Many have suffered violence or sexual abuse. 0:15:22.400 --> 0:15:25.960 They can be aggressive or unruly due to that violence 0:15:26.160 --> 0:15:30.400 and need special attention, the coordinators say, and the shelters 0:15:30.440 --> 0:15:33.680 don't have enough resources nor trained staff to help them. 0:15:34.160 --> 0:15:37.680 Some of them they receive a cursory interview and then 0:15:37.680 --> 0:15:41.080 they're turned back over to the National Immigration Institute and 0:15:41.120 --> 0:15:44.400 they returned to their countries of origin. The word I 0:15:44.440 --> 0:15:48.200 think that everyone understands would be deportation. But I also 0:15:48.280 --> 0:15:52.440 have the sense that, especially with unaccompanied children, that some 0:15:52.520 --> 0:15:54.920 of them are being released because if they can't be 0:15:55.000 --> 0:16:00.360 an immigration detention, there's no capacity to go through the 0:16:00.480 --> 0:16:04.360 correct system, then they're being released. 0:16:05.200 --> 0:16:08.960 Still, Gretchen things, keeping miners out of the tension centers 0:16:09.360 --> 0:16:10.480 was the right thing to do. 0:16:10.920 --> 0:16:13.520 So we have the right framework now, but we don't 0:16:13.560 --> 0:16:17.880 have the right resources. And there's also, you know, the 0:16:18.040 --> 0:16:21.480 larger issue, which is that we have to think regionally. 0:16:22.240 --> 0:16:26.040 A lot of parents and family members of children in 0:16:26.080 --> 0:16:29.400 our region are in the United States, and if it's 0:16:29.400 --> 0:16:33.320 in their best interest to be reunited with those family members, 0:16:33.800 --> 0:16:37.360 we need to accept that as a region, because there's 0:16:37.480 --> 0:16:40.960 regional responsibility for the reason that we're in the situation 0:16:41.080 --> 0:16:41.880 in the first place. 0:16:49.440 --> 0:16:52.200 Coming up on let you know usay the rise of 0:16:52.320 --> 0:16:56.760 migrant child trafficking, and then a group of women and 0:16:56.800 --> 0:16:59.520 the choices they make when their body is the only 0:16:59.560 --> 0:17:04.040 current they have to pay for the journey north. Stay 0:17:04.080 --> 0:17:49.840 with us notes, Hey, we're back, and before the break, 0:17:50.000 --> 0:17:54.240 we met Amaya. She's a teenage girl from Ondudas, migrating 0:17:54.320 --> 0:17:58.119 on her own and hiding her gender for protection. We 0:17:58.200 --> 0:18:01.840 continue the journey across southern Mexico now to learn about 0:18:01.880 --> 0:18:06.359 the experiences of migrant women. Now in the city of Tapachula. 0:18:07.119 --> 0:18:09.640 Editor Marta Martinez picks up the story from. 0:18:09.560 --> 0:18:14.879 Here at Jesus Elwen Pastor shelter in Tapachula, the city 0:18:14.920 --> 0:18:18.320 with the highest number of migrants and asylum seekers. We 0:18:18.359 --> 0:18:21.520 meet another fifteen year old girl from Honduras who is 0:18:21.600 --> 0:18:26.680 also on her own. We're gonna call her Christina Aga Sanchez. 0:18:26.720 --> 0:18:29.679 The coordinator of the shelter, says that a coyote had 0:18:29.760 --> 0:18:32.119 charged the girl two thousand dollars to get to the 0:18:32.240 --> 0:18:35.000 United States, where she has a brother she's trying to 0:18:35.040 --> 0:18:38.760 reunite with, but the coyote tried to sell her and 0:18:38.800 --> 0:18:43.240 then abandoned her in Whatatemala. The coordinator says, Christina is 0:18:43.320 --> 0:18:44.719 shy and afraid of talking. 0:18:45.800 --> 0:18:49.320 Well, no, I'm familia manna intensiforess. 0:18:50.080 --> 0:18:52.639 Her parents abandoned her when she was a child. She says. 0:18:52.960 --> 0:18:56.600 She grew up with her grandmother. More recently, a criminal 0:18:56.640 --> 0:18:58.160 gang started harassing her. 0:18:58.320 --> 0:19:06.600 For quego lasi interns and nan fear in Ternsi and 0:19:09.560 --> 0:19:12.520 matan in ternsi the America. 0:19:13.040 --> 0:19:15.800 The gang members tried to rape her, Christina says, and 0:19:15.880 --> 0:19:18.119 they threatened to kill her if she didn't leave the country. 0:19:18.200 --> 0:19:25.119 The next day, Alista and Maleta tredia caminando Ilo and 0:19:26.840 --> 0:19:29.240 in Esol, she. 0:19:29.320 --> 0:19:32.280 Packed her things and left. She walked and hitch hiked 0:19:32.400 --> 0:19:36.000 for three days. During those three days, Christina says she 0:19:36.080 --> 0:19:36.880 didn't sleep. 0:19:40.400 --> 0:19:47.280 With one pass ombresi internsi. 0:19:48.480 --> 0:19:50.960 Christina says she didn't sleep because she had heard that 0:19:51.119 --> 0:19:54.400 men could attack her. Auga says the number of teenagers 0:19:54.480 --> 0:19:57.080 arriving at the shelter has grown in twenty twenty one, 0:19:57.680 --> 0:19:59.520 and so has seinage trafficking. 0:20:02.040 --> 0:20:10.480 Liscente yesta or momentous. 0:20:11.000 --> 0:20:13.560 She's been doing this job for over thirty years, and 0:20:13.680 --> 0:20:17.000 she says it's never been this dangerous for migrant teenagers 0:20:17.119 --> 0:20:20.720 and children before. The shelter rarely commits to taking in 0:20:21.000 --> 0:20:24.720 an accompanied teenagers because they can guarantee their safety. 0:20:29.520 --> 0:20:40.439 Persi lot tratas persis the best part. Mafioso traffickers are 0:20:40.480 --> 0:20:41.200 waiting for them. 0:20:41.600 --> 0:20:46.480 They go after them. Alga says, when traffickers see migrants, 0:20:46.720 --> 0:20:48.280 they see money Science. 0:20:54.920 --> 0:20:58.480 Part two Adulthood the body as currency. 0:21:06.760 --> 0:21:13.359 The main square in Tapachula is always busy. Many of 0:21:13.400 --> 0:21:16.720 the people sitting on the benches selling food or cleaning 0:21:16.800 --> 0:21:20.280 the sidewalk are migrants from Central America and the Caribbean, 0:21:20.760 --> 0:21:24.560 but also from farther away, including African countries and India. 0:21:26.000 --> 0:21:29.000 Tapatula is also a big bottleneck for people who cross 0:21:29.040 --> 0:21:32.040 into Mexico through its southern border, often on their way 0:21:32.119 --> 0:21:35.000 to the US, which is still more than eleven hundred 0:21:35.080 --> 0:21:39.399 miles away. The majority of migrants asking for asylum in 0:21:39.520 --> 0:21:42.320 Mexico do it in this city, but the number of 0:21:42.400 --> 0:21:45.720 requests has grown so much in recent years that the 0:21:45.800 --> 0:21:48.440 process can take up to a year. That's why so 0:21:48.600 --> 0:21:51.600 many of them get stuck here too. In the first 0:21:51.680 --> 0:21:55.200 half of twenty twenty one, Mexico received nearly fifty two 0:21:55.240 --> 0:21:58.879 thousand asylum requests, and more than thirty five thousand of 0:21:59.000 --> 0:22:04.040 those in Tapatula. The numbers are already twenty five percent 0:22:04.240 --> 0:22:07.959 higher than those of all of twenty twenty. The country 0:22:08.040 --> 0:22:11.520 with most applicants is on Duras with forty four percent, 0:22:12.119 --> 0:22:18.040 followed by Haiti, Cuba, El Salador and Venezuela. But Chiappas, 0:22:18.119 --> 0:22:22.080 where Tapatula is located, is also the poorest state in Mexico, 0:22:22.640 --> 0:22:26.679 so job opportunities are really scars for migrants who are 0:22:26.800 --> 0:22:30.320 waiting for their humanitarian business or simply making a stop 0:22:30.440 --> 0:22:33.560 to earn some money after having spent everything they brought, 0:22:34.000 --> 0:22:37.600 or being extorted by the local police in Guatemala before 0:22:37.640 --> 0:22:42.480 they crossed into Mexico. For some migrant women, their body 0:22:42.600 --> 0:22:46.320 becomes currency. Some choose to look for clients on their own, 0:22:46.760 --> 0:22:50.280 often not the main square. Many others are forced into it, 0:22:50.800 --> 0:22:54.200 but it's hard to know exactly how many. Here's Gretchen 0:22:54.320 --> 0:22:56.680 Kuhner from the Institute for Women in Migration. 0:22:56.800 --> 0:23:02.840 Again, we've seen all different kinds of trafficking along the 0:23:02.960 --> 0:23:10.159 migration route in Mexico. So little is known about the 0:23:10.320 --> 0:23:16.080 different types of criminal structures that exist that force women 0:23:16.320 --> 0:23:20.600 into trafficking situations. Who might begin in a situation in 0:23:20.640 --> 0:23:23.760 which they're leaving their country, maybe they're traveling with a smuggler, 0:23:24.440 --> 0:23:28.639 and then from the smuggling situation they're trafficked. Then it 0:23:28.720 --> 0:23:33.639 could be in Tapachula, you know, or other towns along 0:23:33.880 --> 0:23:37.960 the southern border of Mexico. We've also had some a 0:23:38.040 --> 0:23:41.600 couple of cases of women who are kept in safe 0:23:41.640 --> 0:23:44.920 houses so they're not allowed to leave, so they're in 0:23:44.920 --> 0:23:49.280 a trafficking situation, but their job is either sex trafficking, 0:23:49.560 --> 0:23:54.160 you know, for the smugglers themselves, or it could even 0:23:54.240 --> 0:23:57.280 be you're not allowed to leave and you have to 0:23:57.440 --> 0:24:02.760 help us cook or clean or other kinds of domestic 0:24:03.280 --> 0:24:06.720 work that is needed in any kind of a situation, 0:24:06.880 --> 0:24:08.560 even if it's a criminal encampment. 0:24:09.440 --> 0:24:12.480 But for migrant women, there are also situations where the 0:24:12.560 --> 0:24:15.480 way they use their bodies as a currency is blurrier. 0:24:16.080 --> 0:24:21.280 Taskuanitas is one of those places. It's early on a 0:24:21.320 --> 0:24:24.399 Wednesday afternoon and the waiters are setting up for the evening. 0:24:24.480 --> 0:24:27.800 At this bar in the north of Tapatula. Some four 0:24:27.880 --> 0:24:31.160 girls in tight pans and lay stops or mini dresses 0:24:31.480 --> 0:24:35.240 start coming in. They wear heavy makeup despite the unbearable 0:24:35.440 --> 0:24:39.160 humid heat. They sit around one of the wooden tables 0:24:39.840 --> 0:24:42.040 and for the most part they look at their phones. 0:24:42.920 --> 0:24:45.280 A woman in a breezy white dress and curly hair 0:24:45.520 --> 0:24:48.159 is behind the counter. Her fingers are full of rings 0:24:48.240 --> 0:24:51.200 and her nails are long and monicured. Her name is 0:24:51.280 --> 0:24:54.320 Floor and she's the owner of the bar. She explains 0:24:54.359 --> 0:24:55.920 how Laskubanitas works. 0:25:00.280 --> 0:25:17.760 Jes gulfstan jests any sales is the refresco Navaho yes 0:25:17.840 --> 0:25:22.320 Eccellina un. 0:25:25.720 --> 0:25:29.240 According to Donia Floor, she pays the women who work 0:25:29.320 --> 0:25:32.600 for her a basic daily salary of two hundred pesos 0:25:33.080 --> 0:25:36.320 some ten u s dollars for eight hours of work, 0:25:37.359 --> 0:25:44.760 but they make most of their money off taps clients. Basically, 0:25:45.000 --> 0:25:48.119 men can buy the women drinks, but only if the 0:25:48.160 --> 0:25:52.959 women want to. Donia Floor says. The women's drinks are 0:25:53.200 --> 0:25:56.600 much more expensive than the regular ones, which costs one 0:25:56.680 --> 0:26:00.520 hundred and eighty five pesos so a little overnight dollars, 0:26:00.960 --> 0:26:03.399 almost as much as what Donia Floor pays them for 0:26:03.480 --> 0:26:06.320 a day of work. The women get to keep one 0:26:06.400 --> 0:26:09.360 hundred and sixty five pisos or a little over eight 0:26:09.440 --> 0:26:13.400 dollars from every drink Donia Floor takes the rest. Most 0:26:13.440 --> 0:26:16.040 of her profits really come from the drink's clients order 0:26:16.160 --> 0:26:21.000 for themselves. Both Donya Floor and the women told us 0:26:21.119 --> 0:26:23.800 that only if they choose to in exchange for the 0:26:23.920 --> 0:26:26.600 drinks men buy for them, they spend some time chatting 0:26:26.640 --> 0:26:30.120 with them, having a love Sometimes the women also dance 0:26:30.160 --> 0:26:33.439 with them or they let them touch their bodies. At 0:26:33.520 --> 0:26:35.800 any time. The women can leave the table if they 0:26:35.800 --> 0:26:39.480 feel uncomfortable. Both Donia Floor and the women say the 0:26:39.560 --> 0:26:42.760 waters at Las Cuanitas are all men, and they also 0:26:42.840 --> 0:26:46.160 keep an eye on the women who work there. Whether 0:26:46.280 --> 0:26:49.160 or not women have sex with clients, that's up to them, 0:26:49.359 --> 0:26:52.200 Donia Floor says, and they cannot leave the bar during 0:26:52.200 --> 0:26:56.120 their working hours. There are some ten women currently working 0:26:56.160 --> 0:26:59.560 at Lascuanitas, but despite the name, only two of them 0:26:59.840 --> 0:27:04.000 are actually from Cuba. Most of them are from Central America. 0:27:06.400 --> 0:27:17.560 Yes DNN, the Sentra America Albunasavena, Salida Delante, Lucha Boro 0:27:18.880 --> 0:27:22.160 Borguea with the ISSIL. 0:27:22.680 --> 0:27:24.959 Many of the women have children who depend on them. 0:27:25.040 --> 0:27:27.760 Donia Flor says that's why they have to do whatever 0:27:27.920 --> 0:27:29.639 job they can or decide to do. 0:27:36.520 --> 0:27:40.880 The Sionastos. 0:27:41.480 --> 0:27:44.800 Two girls started working at Laskuanita's just five days earlier. 0:27:45.160 --> 0:27:47.760 One of them is Kati. She's from Hondudas and she 0:27:47.880 --> 0:27:50.840 wears a nudleg stop that matches her high heeled shoes. 0:27:51.640 --> 0:27:55.479 Her nails match her clothes too, an intricate design in gold, 0:27:55.680 --> 0:27:59.200 orange and brown tones. She has been living in Tapachula 0:27:59.280 --> 0:28:01.680 for over a year and a half. Her dream, though, 0:28:01.920 --> 0:28:04.840 is making it to the US. Katy says this is 0:28:04.880 --> 0:28:07.320 the first time she's doing this kind of work and 0:28:07.440 --> 0:28:08.240 she doesn't like it. 0:28:09.160 --> 0:28:09.200 No. 0:28:22.480 --> 0:28:24.560 Katy says she's doing it because she has to take 0:28:24.600 --> 0:28:27.320 care of her six year old daughter, pay rent, and 0:28:27.400 --> 0:28:30.479 send money back to Ondua's. Her older child, an eight 0:28:30.600 --> 0:28:33.120 year old boy, is still there living with her mother. 0:28:34.080 --> 0:28:37.600 Life in tegui Alpa, the capital of Honduras, became unsustainable 0:28:37.680 --> 0:28:40.160 for Kati when a gang began forcing her to pay 0:28:40.160 --> 0:28:48.440 an extortion fee. They asked for one hundred dollars a month, 0:28:48.760 --> 0:28:52.120 an amount she couldn't make by selling tortillas. Her life 0:28:52.200 --> 0:28:54.440 was in danger, so she left the country with a friend. 0:28:59.440 --> 0:29:02.400 I do this if you're not support abercn coming as 0:29:02.400 --> 0:29:02.720 a pal. 0:29:03.600 --> 0:29:06.400 But shortly after Kati went back Toudas to pick up 0:29:06.440 --> 0:29:09.240 her daughter. The girl missed her too much and would 0:29:09.240 --> 0:29:11.600 cry all the time. It was the first time they 0:29:11.640 --> 0:29:15.480