Americas

Home page

Americas

Guatemala, Mexico families mourn missing teenage sons after migrant tragedy

01 July 2022 00:43 (UTC +04:00)

Some of the youngest migrants thought to have died in a suffocating trailer in Texas this week set off from poor towns in Guatemala and Mexico, following in the footsteps of relatives seeking a better life in the United States, APA reports citing Reuters.

On Thursday, residents in Nahuala, Guatemala mourned Wilmer Tulul, 14, and Melvin Guachiac, 13. The two cousins left home with dreams of learning English and reuniting with family, only to die in the deadliest U.S. human smuggling tragedy on record.

At least 53 people lost their lives in the ordeal.

Home to an indigenous Quiche community, Nahuala is a town where little Spanish is spoken and which many migrants have departed. Some have sent back remittances that helped a few families build upscale homes. Still, most families in Nahuala earn a living growing corn and beans on small plots of land.

"My grandson said he had a dream," Wilmer's grandmother Pascuala Sipac said, speaking in Quiche through a translator. "He made the journey but (the dream) never arrived."