Rescuing My Deported Aunt Martha From a Hole in the Tijuana Canals Yaveth Gomez - New America Media
go to original June 14, 2013

My aunt Martha was deported to Tijuana, where she joined a community of homeless deportees who live in the canal on the border between Mexico and the United States. When we saw her on a Televisa news program about the homeless encampments, we knew we had to go rescue her. My mother, Rosa Osegueda, took pictures and video of our trip in April 2013, when our whole family piled into a car and drove to Tijuana to find Martha. (New America Media)

We took Interstate 5 South on a mission to rescue my tía Martha. After 30 years in the United States, she was deported three years ago to Tijuana, the bottom of California - el culo del diablo. We hadn’t heard from her since.

It was because of the Mexican TV news program, Televisa, that we were able to find her.

A reporter for Televisa, Vanessa Job, did a report on the ñongos - undergound bunkers in the canals of the Tijuana border, where camps of deported and homeless people are living in subhuman conditions. The term ñongo has several definitions in Spanish, including being in a dificult situation. Growing up, I knew the term to mean a knot - a tight spot, between a rock and a hard place.

Televisa interviewed my aunt in March 2013. A month later, after stumbling upon a rerun of the program, my aunt’s sister-in-law contacted Martha’s oldest son Lupe to show him where his mother was.

Read the rest at New America Media

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