![\"las_patronas\"](\"http:\/\/www.bradbrace.net\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/las_patronas.gif\")
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Do\u00f1a Leonilda V\u00e1zquez.<\/strong> She, her daughter and other 13 women founded the group known as Las Patronas in 1995. Their mission is to provide free food for undocumented migrants crossing Mexico between the Tierra Blanca and C\u00f3rdoba train stations.<\/p>\n Migrants hopping aboard the moving cargo trains face many dangers along the way. From amputation or death if they fall or are pushed from the train, to kidnapping, rape and extortion at the hands of the gangs and organised crime groups that control the routes.<\/p>\n La Patrona Mexico.But in the Mexican state of Veracruz, a small group of women have dedicated themselves to feed the migrants as the trains pass through their small town of La Patrona. Driven only by kindness, the small group now known as \u201cLas Patronas\u201d is made of about 14 wives and mothers that spend each day of the week cooking for migrants.<\/p>\n Coordinated by the founder Norma Romero V\u00e1zquez,<\/strong> they prepare hundreds of bags of rice, beans and tortillas<\/p>\n \u201c(\u2026) more people will become aware, join forces and show support to the needy, the vulnerable, the brother migrants, the elderly, the sick, the prisoners, the unemployed and the destitute. When they cross our path let\u2019s not be indifferent and overlook them, oblivious to the cause of their problems. Let us take the time to listen to them, respect them, love them and help to find a solution to such a problem. We are human beings and we should not remain indifferent.\u201d (Traduction NADJA)<\/p>\n The reward for their selfless and hard work? The gratitude and blessings from migrants they may never see again.<\/p>\n Julia Ram\u00edrez<\/strong> has been a volunteer with the group for 17 years. She is in charge of cooking every Tuesday, and fulfills other duties during the rest of the week. She works every day, even on Christmas and New Year\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n Ram\u00edrez lives near the train tracks, and remembers one Sunday when \u201cLa Bestia\u201d stopped its march. A 16-year-old boy came knocking on her door asking for food. The first thing that came to her mind was her son, who was of a similar age at that time. \u201cIt really moved me to tears,\u201d she recalls. She took the boy in and fed him tortillas, beans, and eggs\u2014a fast meal before the train continued with its journey again. \u201cThank you mother. God bless you,\u201d the immigrant said.<\/p>\n Before leaving, the young man asked for her blessing. \u201cMay God bless you and the Virgin Mother be always with you on your journey,\u201d she told him. That same day, she went and joined Las Patronas.<\/p>\n La Patrona,<\/strong> a community in Amatl\u00e1n de los Reyes, in the center of the Veracruz state. Bernanda is one of the 14 women who are part of a group that is known around the world as \u201cLas Patronas,\u201d an organization that for the last 20 years has been feeding Central Americans immigrants who travel on top of a freight train known as \u201cLa Bestia\u201d that\u2019s bound for the United States. These men, women, and children travel out of necessity due to the tremendous violence and economic crises that grip much of Central America. The meals provided to them by Las Patronas are the first they will have for days, or even weeks. Nobody knows when will they eat again. The lunches are made out of beans, rice, bread, tortillas, and tuna, or sometimes, boiled eggs, vegetables, or fruit. Sometimes a local bakery will donate a pie, but that doesn\u2019t happen very often. Las Patronas\u2019 20 years of experience is reflected on a board that hangs in the kitchen. Each day of the week, one of them is in charge of preparing at least 100 lunches. (In earlier times, they had to prepare 800 a day.) Others will be in charge of packaging the food, or washing plastic bottles and filling them with water to later tie up in pairs (to make the delivery easier). They also pick up bread donations at different supermarkets and produce from a market in Cordoba.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Do\u00f1a Leonilda V\u00e1zquez. She, her daughter and other 13 women founded the group known as Las Patronas in 1995. Their mission is to provide free food for undocumented migrants crossing Mexico between the Tierra Blanca and C\u00f3rdoba train stations. Migrants hopping aboard the moving cargo trains face many dangers along the way. From amputation or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","spay_email":""},"categories":[155,6,123,177,143,14,118,26,42],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8454"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8454\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}