MEXICO CITY — Yecenia Lazcano Soriano left behind a 4-year-old daughter in her house city of Tehuacan, Mexico, when she set out virtually in secret to succeed in america.
The final message she despatched to family members was a coronary heart emoji. Days later, on the California coast, two small boats carrying her and different migrants capsized in tough surf off a seaside in San Diego.
The 22-year-old’s physique was certainly one of eight recovered shortly after the accident final Sunday at Black’s Seaside, one of many deadliest maritime smuggling occasions close to U.S. shores.
A single mom, Lazcano Soriano’s story was virtually a microcosm of the desperation that drives many migrants to america. Practically 129,000 migrants have been stopped making an attempt to cross the U.S. border in February.
At age 15, Lazcano Soriano went to reside with the daddy of her baby, however he was kidnapped and disappeared, like over 112,000 different Mexicans who’ve vanished since drug cartel violence picked up in 2006.
Lazcano Soriano dreamed of opening her personal retailer in Tehuacan, a poor agricultural city mendacity between the cities of Puebla and Oaxaca in south-central Mexico. Most there make a tenuous residing rising flowers or corn. The one mom offered fruit and greens at an area market.
However with jobs scarce, she determined to comply with her aunt, Wendy Valencia, who left Tehuacan to to migrate to Dallas six years in the past.
Lazcano Soriano left Tehuacan weeks in the past, telling solely two of her family members. The final message she despatched was a coronary heart emoji to Valencia. After that, there was silence, till the chilling information got here: Authorities had recognized her by ID paperwork discovered on her physique.
“She wasn’t afraid of labor,” Valencia mentioned in a phone interview. “She was a warrior, a girl who was accustomed to wrestle.”
She left her daughter within the care of her 72-year-old grandmother and two different aunts, however had hoped to be reunited with the woman.
“Her objective was to present her daughter a greater future, an ample house,” Valencia mentioned. Life was by no means that sort to Lazcano Soriano; her companion’s disappearance was by no means solved.
A complete of 23 folks have been thought to aboard the 2 boats that capsized off San Diego. Lots of the different passengers are believed to have made it to land and escaped.
Mexican authorities mentioned preliminary identification primarily based on information discovered with folks’s our bodies point out seven of the eight lifeless have been Mexicans.
Simply 25 miles (40 kilometers) from Tehuacan, within the city of Tlacotepec de Benito Juarez, the tragedy touched the household of Alma Figueroa Gorgoria.
Figueroa Gorgoria would have turned 18 subsequent week. She had set out for america along with her aunt, Ana Jacqueline Figueroa, 23. Each of their our bodies have been recognized in San Diego.
Simply seven miles (12 kilometers) within the different path, the close by farming group of Santiago Miahuatlan was the hometown of Guillermo Suárez González, who additionally risked touring within the boats to succeed in america. A employee at an area export meeting plant, the 23-year-old dreamed of a greater life; he left behind 4 kids. Eloy Hernández Baltazar, 58, additionally lived in Santiago Miahuatlan, and was additionally among the many lifeless.
The Puebla state migrant help workplace mentioned the paperwork has been submitted to return Suárez González to his house city for burial.