From the LA Times:
“The Vatican has said that Pope Francis’ journey through Mexico, which takes him from the southern state of Chiapas to the northern border with Texas, symbolically traces the route of migrants trying to reach the United States.
Five Central American migrants attempting that journey reflect on their faith and the pope’s visit and explain why they left their homelands. They asked that their last names be withheld because they crossed into Mexico illegally and fear gangs will retaliate against their families back home.
Daniel, 45, Honduras
Translation: “I feel happiness, and I feel as if I’m closer to the help that God gives to migrants, because I believe in that, because I believe in the Catholic Church and in God. I have always believed that the pope is a disciple of God on Earth — no, he is the maximum authority of God on Earth — and he’s also a disciple of God, a missionary of love and peace.”
Daniel used to own a little farm in the Honduran countryside. He raised chickens, cows and pigs, and grew vegetables and fruit to feed his family. But over time, he’d sold a chicken here, a piece of land there, to fund the education of his three children.
“It happened slowly,” he said. When he was a child, Daniel’s parents didn’t have the money for him to continue his studies. As he watched his land and animals being depleted, he accepted that the cost if it meant his kids would have something different. “I was left with practically nothing. But it doesn’t bother me, because I’m a responsible father, you know? I did it all for my kids.
“Every one of us who leaves our country has a story, a bitter story, you understand?”