from France 24

‘Twelve Apostles’ help migrants cross Mexico

© AFP | Undocumented migrants climb on a train known as “La Bestia” (The Beast), in the town of Las Patronas in Mexico’s Veracruz state hoping to reach the US

CÓRDOBA (MEXICO) (AFP) – It is pouring rain, but Norma Romero is standing by the train tracks as she does every night, ready to hand food to migrants crossing Mexico on the freight train known as “The Beast.”

In a few minutes, hundreds of undocumented migrants chasing the American dream will ride by atop the train as it passes through her village, Cordoba, crossing the eastern state of Veracruz on its way to the United States.

Romero is part of a group of 12 women who pass bottled water and bags of food up to the migrants to help them on their dangerous journey.

For years, she thought the men clinging to the cars were Mexicans train-hopping their way to another town instead of taking the bus.

Then one day “The Beast” ground to a halt in Cordoba, and the men jumped to the ground and begged her for help.

“They had Central American accents,” says Romero, 48.

“They were hungry. I had some bread and milk I’d just bought, and they asked me if they could have it.”

When she got home, she told her mother the story, and the two decided to cook the clandestine travelers a meal.

That was 23 years ago.

Every day since, Romero and a group of like-minded women dubbed “The 12 Apostles” have handed out food to the migrants to help them flee the poverty and gang violence ravaging their home countries.

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