I’m originally from El Salvador. I left my country because my partner came to the U.S. a year ago. He sent me money twice, then I didn’t hear from him. Some cousins that live here in the U.S. told me he had found someone else. That is why I decided to come. I entered Mexico through El Ceibo with many other people, in the hill a group of raiders came and made me get naked and wanted to rape me, but I had my period so they desisted. They let us go. We got to Tenosique, in the train station, around 11 am, a van picked me up and around 25 more people. We crossed the whole country, we got to Tamaulipas. First they took us to a house where there were more than 200 kidnapped people, I knew the number because since I got there I was placed to work in the kitchen and I prepared food only once a day for that number of people.

Since I was behaving well, they told me they had another job for me. I had to hit the other roommates who did not obey or didn’t give information about their family. They were hit with a piece of wood in their buttocks, they had told me that if I didn’t do it well, I would be hit. Then I found out that there was another “safety house” very close to where we were and that there were another 200 people. They got me to the “other side” because I was always well-behaved. They threw me close to the border. There I was caught by the “migra gringa” (border patrol) and sent back to El Salvador...

And after all that has happened to you, why did you come back?
Because I have two young kids that I have to provide for...