Interviewer
Alejandra Zavala and Dr. David Romo
Project
Seeking Refuge
Summary of Interview
Freddy was born in Honduras and some of his memories of his childhood were playing with their brothers and helping her mother. Freddy had two sisters and two brothers, which lived together and were a very humble family. Freddy used to spend many time with his mother and enjoyed spending time with her and asking her how she was doing.
Both of Freddy’s parents worked, but his dad worked even more. When Freddy was 5years old his dad went to the United Stated to try and send money to his family back in Honduras. The first months of his dad being absent were very sad for Freddy because he was missing him very much. A couple years later some of her brothers went to the United States too, they went there to look for a better future and get a job to earn money, because back in Honduras there were no jobs.
Freddy didn’t know what his dad worked on, but he thinks that her dad used to cut trees.One memory that Freddy has very present is his dad calling him every day to ask how they were doing and how school was working out for Freddy. During that time Freddy was very introvert and he only used to talk to his mom and kept everything for himself.
A couple years later Freddy started getting in his head the idea to go to the United States just as his dad and brothers did. Freddy saved up money for a while to be able and go. His mom wasn’t very okay with the idea of Freddy going from country to country to get to the US. Freddy ended up leaving Honduras, but before leaving he talked to many different people on how to get there because it was very difficult and a long journey.
Freddy had to take a train while it was going for him to be able to get to the US through the train. At the moment when he was supposed to get to the train he didn’t had the guts to do it so he started to just walked trying to get to the US.
Freddy got very attached to the people he was with during his long trip to the US. He had to say good-bye to everyone once he arrived at Reynosa he turned himself in at the immigration facility. One of the main reasons he left Honduras was because it was very unsafe, he couldn’t-even go to the grocery store without getting robbed and even at his school the gangs would try to get kids to join. Freddy once was beaten up on his way to the corner store after leaving school for the day and at that time it was when he decided to leave Honduras.
During his time at the immigration facilities he got very into the scriptures, Freddy is now very interesting in becoming maybe a pastor or predicator of the word. He mentioned in his interview that he feels very connected with some of the scripts. Some of the stories he feels are parallel to his life and his dreams.
Freddy spend many time at the immigration facility, after a couple of months they told him that he was going o receive asylum. When Freddy got to the asylum facility it was nothing like what he imagined. He described the facility as if was a jail full of bars and jail cells. He didn’t understand were he was or why he was there. He started taking to people in there and realized that many of them were there for weeks. After being there for a couple of hours he started to loose his dreams and faith in everything.
Some of Freddy’s most traumatizing moments t the asylum was when after two days of being there he decided to ate the food they gave him because he was starving. He mentioned that the food was rotten and expired, but he was so hungry that he had to eat it to survive. After a couple of weeks Freddy finally got out and realized that there were people out there that care for them and were advocating for them.
Over all Freddy’s experiences coming to America were very harsh, but he know that he is strong and very faithful in God. He knew that if it weren’t for God, he would even be able to get to Reynosa. He didn’t regret his journey and he is conscious that sometimes people will look down on him, but he will continue to be proud of his experiences.
Date of Interview
4-13-2019
Length of Interview
1 hour, 55 minutes
Listen to the Interview
Tape Number
No. 1707
Transcriber
Andrea Santos
Interview Number
No. 1707
Terms of Use
Unrestricted
Recommended Citation
Interview with Freddy --- by Alejandra Zavala and Dr. David Romo, 2019, "Interview no. 1707," Institute of Oral History, University of Texas at El Paso.
Comments
Andrea Santos transcribed the coversheet of the interview. There is no transcription of the interview.