Juarez City.- 63-year-old Marina Moncayo waited with tears for the moment to be able to hug her 42-year-old son Sergio Quiñonez for six minutes, after more than 20 years without being able to see him physically.
Divided by the Rio Grande and only a few meters away, they greeted each other by raising their arms, waiting for their turn to pass to the middle of the river, a place that was adapted for the Abrazos no Muros event, where families could see each other for that short time.
Marina lives in Juárez and her son in Denver but does not have papers to cross the border.
“I have not seen my son for many years, 23 years old, I am very happy but I am also sad because he is going to leave again but I thank God for what they are doing so that we can see each other,” he said through tears.
Marina was accompanied by her two daughters, who were also crying before they could hug each other, as well as her grandchildren.
“My son already has four children and has a granddaughter,” he said as his face lit up, only Sergio, his wife, and their youngest daughter attended the event.
“There he is, look, it’s that big guy there, I’ll be able to see him, I’ll be able to hug him, he’s always looking out for me,” he said as his son raised his arms in the distance.
“We are very happy and very nervous because we have not seen him for many years, but I don’t know how to explain it to him,” said Graciela, who together with her sister Lidia dried her tears.
The Hugs no Walls event is organized every year by the Border Network for Human Rights, on this occasion they brought together 900 people from both sides of the border, a total of 150 families, as indicated.
However, Fernando García, leader of that civil organization, said that in the 10 years that they have held the event, this 2023 has been the most difficult of all due to the militarization of the border.
“On one side we have armed soldiers and on the other migrant families,” he said.
He also denounced that they had to change the place where it would take place, because, despite the fact that they had the permits, the Texas National Guard placed barbed wire so that on this occasion it was carried out in the vicinity of the House de Adobe and wood was placed so that families could meet in the middle of the river.
Marisol Pérez Carreón, along with her parents, siblings, sons and nephews, also came to see her brother Emilio who lives in El Paso but cannot cross the border so they have not seen him for five years.
“I feel sad, nervous at the same time, happy, there are many mixed feelings, we saw it before the pandemic, we also came to this event, we saw it a little more because we were the last family, it was a very beautiful moment because that time we brought my mother was sick with cancer and he had not seen her bad, ”he said.
On this occasion, they take their father, already healthy after three years free of cancer, so when they came down they hugged, cried, kissed and took pictures.
