Episode 25: The New Underground Railroad of Central America

On today's episode I have Bessy Martinez. She is the Latina behind Austin Latina Bloggers. Her madre's story comes to us from El Salvador. Her story is part of a collective book of refugees stories. In this episode we have a detailed account of her mother's experience during this trying time in El Salvador. Her story as a refugee and how the church constructed an organized Underground Railroad for these individuals.

The things that her mother saw made her fight for the injustices in El Salvador. She continued her work in the United Stated by speaking out against these tragedies. Bessy and I discuss her feelings of being a refugee child and some of the struggles she had to overcome. Living in South Texas came with being surrounded by other Latinos, but it also came with hiding who she really was. The nothing of, "why them and not me" was something she had to deal with as her story was being told in newspapers and tv news reports.

Our community is yearning for our stories to be told. We crave to share our beautiful culture and bring light to its intricate story here in the United States. Even though Bessy and my story are both vastly different we still understand that our mother's sacrifices amount to so much. They amount to way more than we can be thankful for, but we are striving to make something out of their teachings.

Follow Bessy Martinez @austinlatinabloggers on Instagram.

The book we mentioned is called Sanctuary: The New Underground Railroad. It can be purchased on Amazon here.

The YouTube video called Sanctuary Movement-Freeman Reports: Stacy Merkt can be seen here.