I suspect that many Americans have a similar story of desperation in their Family Tree. That if not for the relative freedom and opportunity on American shores, they would have been born into intolerable living circumstances, in the land of their ancestors.
Some people however, say No that destiny -- and "Let's Go For It" ... go for the hope that exists across the sea.
Driven by crime, immigrants risk runs to America
by Albeto Arce, The Associated Press -- June 27, 2014
[...] He [a 30-year-old mechanic from El Salvador] explained that he wanted to leave behind his workshop in the capital, San Salvador, because extortion made it impossible to earn a living.“If you buy a car, they come to extort you. A machine for the workshop, they come to extort you. If they see you put on some nice pants or sneakers, they come to extort you,” Lemus said. “You can’t work like that. You go bankrupt.”
He said that after taking his wife and children safely north he would wait in Mexico for a chance to cross on his own and hopefully not get caught.
[...]
Of course "intolerable living circumstances" may vary from person to person, desperate story to story, victim to officially forgotten victims ...
Murder in Guatemala: 'I won't allow my daughter to become another statistic'
by Nina Lakhani, Guatemala City, theGuardian.com, 18 June 18, 2014
Since 2005, Jorge Velásquez has devoted his life to seeking justice for his daughter, Claudina Isabel Velásquez, a 19-year-old law student who was raped, shot in the head and dumped in an alley in Guatemala City.Less than 1%.Her murder, like those of thousands of other women in Guatemala, remains unsolved. The official investigation was marked by incompetence, inaccuracies and missed opportunities. It almost broke the Velásquez family.
[...]During the country's 36-year civil war, 200,000 people were killed or disappeared. A quarter of the victims of abuse and torture are estimated to have been women, according to a report of the Historical Clarification Commission, established through the Oslo peace accords in June 1994 to investigate rights violations during the conflict. The commission concluded that the "rape of women, during torture or before being murdered, was a common practice aimed at destroying one of the most intimate and vulnerable aspects of the individual's dignity". The majority of rape victims were Mayan women, it added.
Less than 1% of civil war crimes documented by the UN have been properly investigated and perpetrators held to account, establishing a climate of impunity and indifference to violence that continues to blight society.
[...]
That means 99% of the Guatemalan criminal-class get away scot-free. That should be intolerable, by any gauge of humanity.