Julio...

Tonight I met Julio.  He works with Jenny and drove her home after a meeting at their school.  Nice guy!  He speaks English quite well.  I'm glad he does because, boy, did he tell us quite a story.  It seems that about 4 years ago, Julio decided that he would go to the United States to get a job.  Nope, he didn't plan on going there legally.  He figured he'd do what so many others have done: go wetback.

As Julio continued his story, Jenny and I were both intrigued.  He told us how he left a note in his room, knowing that his friends would find it long before his mother would know he was missing.  Julio told us about walking through the mountains, across the Honduras/Guatemala and then the Guatemala/Mexico borders.  They walked through torrential downpours so hard that you had to hold on to the person in front of you or you'd quickly get lost.  Julio told us about walking day after day for 20 hours each day, just to make progress.

Jenny and I sat at the table in rapt attention as Julio told us the story of a young girl from San Pedro Sula who joined them on their journey.  The girl was 17 years old and 6+ months pregnant when they started out.  It turns out that this girl's baby was fathered by a gang member who told her to get an abortion and that if she had the baby, he'd kill her.  So she did the only thing she thought she could: leave the country.  Julio told us that once they were in Mexico, they had been walking for several of their 20-hour days with no breaks.  They came upon a small village and found an abandoned shack where they decided to get some sleep for a while.  Julio said that most of the others fell asleep right away, but he couldn't, because of the thickness of the mosquitoes.

After a while, he heard that the girl was crying and rubbing her belly.  Julio knew that wasn't good, so he sat next to her and started to talk to her to try to help take her mind off of the pain.  When it was light enough, Julio and the girl's brother, who was also traveling with her, went out to look for someone who might be able to help.  They happened upon an old woman, living with "many animals; many, many animals", as Julio said.  They told the old woman what was happening to the girl and were instructed to bring her to the old woman's home, which they did.

Yes, you probably guessed it: the girl had gone into premature labor.  Julio and the girl's brother got to assist in the baby boy's delivery, which freaked out Julio so much that he bolted during the delivery.  When he finally went back inside, after the screaming subsided and he decided that it was safe, Julio was soundly insulted by the old woman for "being such a wuss".  (That's my paraphrase, as I don't want to write the truly colorful words that Julio used.)  Since the baby arrived roughly two months early, the old woman rigged up a type of incubator and told the girl and her brother that "her work was done, and now they needed to find someone who could take care of the baby."

The old woman, it turns out, was 98 years old, and well known in her small village as being the only one who could have helped in this situation.  Wow!  Talk about God's mercy!  After that, the brother found some sort of social service agency that was going to help with the baby and his care.  Julio didn't see them again, as he continued on with the group while the girl, her baby, and her brother stayed behind in Mexico.

While they were in Mexico, they jumped trains several times.  Julio told us of the banditos who would rob them, or try to rob them.  He also told of one village which, as the train was passing through, people from the village would come out and give food to the people who had jumped the train, encouraging them on in their journey to the U.S.

For the sake of brevity, I'll jump to the end:  Yes, Julio was caught.  He was in Texas and had been without food or water for almost a full day.  Most of his traveling companions had been caught the day before, but somehow Julio had managed to outrun his pursuers.  When he came out of hiding, he was turned in by someone who had seemingly befriended him.

To hear Julio tell it, he was treated quite well by the police and INS. He tried to pass himself off as Mexican, so that he would only be sent back to the town he was claiming to be from.  He had even spent quite a bit of time while still in Honduras doing his homework: he knew many of the Mexican presidents, knew about the various Mexican states, learned regional words and phrases, and even learned to sing the Mexican national anthem.

During his time in custody, Julio was interviewed by a Mexican to determine if he was really from Mexico.  The guy told Julio that he had all the right answers, but he still didn't believe that Julio was from Mexico. It was only while they were searching through his backpack that the officials found a piece of clothing that linked him to Honduras.  Looks like it's "game over".  So, Julio was eventually flown back to Tegucigalpa, Honduras.  He once again lives here in Comayagua with his family.  Julio has a good job as a teacher, has a small side business repairing computers and has even been able to buy a car for himself.  It looks like even without getting to the U.S., Julio is doing alright.

But, wow, it was a crazy story to hear.  I suspect that Julio will come for dinner again.  In fact, we'll probably make sure of it.