Las Patronas: The Mexican women helping migrants

The Romero Vazquez sisters have been helping migrants for almost two decades

Will Grant, BBC Mundo, 31 July 2014

Nineteen years ago, the Romero Vazquez sisters were standing at the side of the railway tracks with their grocery bags, waiting to cross.

Little did they know that the approaching train would change their lives.

"We'd gone to buy bread and milk for breakfast," Norma Romero remembers, nodding towards a small yellow store on the other side of the tracks.

"As it came past, a group of people on one of the wagons shouted at us: 'Madre, we're hungry'. Then another group passed by and shouted the same thing: 'Madre, we're hungry'."

"So we threw them our bread, and then our cartons of milk."

That simple, instinctive act of kindness by the young girls was to lead to the creation of Las Patronas, a charitable organisation which has helped tens of thousands of Central American migrants over the past two decades and which was awarded Mexico's most prestigious human rights prize last year.

The village of La Patrona lies in an otherwise forgettable corner of the eastern state of Veracruz…

United Nations Report on International Migration 2013

United Nations Report on International Migration 2013
The number of international migrants worldwide reaches 232 million- The number of international migrants world-wide reaches an all-time high. In 2013, the number of international migrants worldwide reached 232 million, up from 175 million in 2000 and 154 million in 1990. Between 1990 and 2000, the international migrant stock grew by an average of 1.2 per cent per year. During the period from 2000 to 2010, the annual growth rate accelerated, reaching 2.3 per cent. Since then, however, it has slowed, falling to around 1.6 per cent per year during the period from 2010 to 2013. In 2013, 136 million international migrants lived in the North, while 96 million resided in the South (figure 1). Since 1990, the share of international migrants living in the developed regions has increased. In 2013, the North2 hosted 59 per cent of all international migrants; up from 53 per cent in 1990.
United Nations Report on International Migration 2013