Evangelina describes living conditions in the Mesa Grande refugee camp in Honduras.
- Chapter:
- Chapter 4: Refugee Experiences
- Interviewee:
- Evangelina
Transcription
[I'd also like if you could tell me more about your life in Mesa Grande and the 14 months that you lived there.] [What activities did you and your family carry out in Mesa Grande?]
Look, we only went there to stay for a while. They only gave us a tent, a stove they had made out of a metal sheet. There they gave us a bed, some blankets, They gave us clothes to wear, because we had nothing when we arrived. And they gave us food. They gave us beans, rice, corn. Everything. Everything you need to eat. And they gave us fish. The first people that arrived wasted the opportunity, because they even threw away some of the fish they got, one after the other. They basically didn’t suffer much. For those of us who arrived last it wasn’t the same, but it was okay. We couldn’t leave, though, because if we stepped outside the fenced area at all, there were soldiers roaming around.
[Soldiers from El Salvador or from Honduras?]
If you got out, they would capture you, take you away, make you disappear. You couldn’t leave. We were imprisoned there, with the people who were there in the refugee camp. We didn’t have the need to go outside the camp either. You just couldn’t. You had everything you needed. They gave you everything. They had machines for our sewing and embroidering workshops. Everything. They had animal farms, so they could give them to people in rehabilitation. They took them there and gave them food. So in that way, it was nice, but we didn’t have the freedom to go outside, even to fetch a piece of firewood. I felt like I was suffocating, as if I was being choked like this. It was worse when my son died. I couldn’t, I couldn’t be there anymore. So we came here, and we’re still here telling you the story.