The Trauma Behind the Smiles
What fate awaits asylum seekers now, as Trump continues to deport traumatized families back to their countries of origin, where they fled for their lives. Global trauma escalates, while the US border remains closed. Overcrowding in refugee camps and detention centers can only end badly with the spread of the corona virus on the rise. Let us remember why our global brothers and sisters are politely knocking on our door for asylum.
It’s been about a year and a half since my attention was drawn to the border. Initially, the nonprofit I formed, Casa de Paz SLV, was meant to be a post-acute holistic trauma support center for asylum seekers in transition, as they become new immigrants. Because of the high suicide rates, bullying and school shootings in the US, it seemed important to create a place for asylum seekers to heal from their immigration journey before entering society. The US does not need more mental health crisis’. It soon came to light that new immigrants were maintaining a low profile, earning a living and not feeling safe to travel for a retreat. For this reason, Casa de Paz SLV continued to serve in, what is now known as, the Matamoros Refugee Camp in Mexico.
Casa de Paz SLV volunteer teams have consisted of artists, musicians, art educators, yoga instructors, nurses, therapists and bodyworkers. In the beginning, we offered our services alongside existing programs, like the sidewalk schools, at shelters for asylum seekers and at the bus station, where asylum seekers were dropped off after being in detention.
Soon we found a location for our base of operations, where we offer yoga classes, art therapy and private sessions simultaneously. During these sessions, we provide healthy snacks like almonds and coconut water. We also distribute medicinal herbal sun tea kits and aromatherapy sprays and roll ons for calming, sleep, digestion, women’s health and immune boosting. To our surprise, our services have been very well received. Natural medicine is the norm in most Central American villages. Many even understand the concepts of energy healing.
Most of our clients are families. Single mothers, their children, teens and some fathers and single men. Initially, many of our clients had serious untreated conditions like cancer, the flu and thyroid issues. Tension, fear and anxiety are chronic mental health issues among the refugees. When they were with us, receiving our services, they are able to leave all that behind or transform it.
We work hard carrying supplies, setting up our pop-up retreat center and serving approximately 100 or more refugees per service day. Although always greeted with a smile and gratitude, we also have the privilege of witnessing their immigration stories.
What have we witnessed behind the smile?
Children and parents who do not know where their next meal will come from. Anxious parents. Hungry children.
Early on, we would see young single mothers with a baby on their breast, and often with another young child in tow. These mothers were too weak and hungry to even move. They would ask for help, as they sat on the sidewalk unbathed and in dirty clothing.
During her private session, one mother, who had just arrived at the camp with her two tween aged children, said that receiving the private session was, “like a dream”. It had been SO long since she had any time to herself.
During our first mission, a tween girl from Guatemala helped us gather a group for yoga. She wore a conservative Guatemalan dress, was very confident and enthusiastic. She told me that she was at the camp because a gang wanted her parents to pay them with her and her sisters. The next time I saw her at the camp, about 2 months later, she was wearing tight leather pants, a short leather jacket and sneakers worth over $100. Later that week, when we talked at the laundry washing station, an older unfriendly woman (about age 40) hovered over us. “Unfriendly” was rare to experience. The girl was not able to talk freely or attend our program. The older woman would not talk to me. My best guess is that she may have been her pimp.
Another young girl about age 8, with dirty face and dusty rags for clothing, grabbed one of our new yoga mats from the cart at one of the sidewalk schools. When I asked for it back and told her it was for the classes, with an angry face, she refused to give it back and ran off with it. She was so desperate for something of her own.
Usually, none of the children or adults ever ask for anything during our classes. When offered something, they only take one. They leave our programs giving us hugs and smiles of gratitude for the classes, private sessions, healthy snacks, drinks, aromatherapy and medicinal herbal sun tea kits we gave them.
Children and adults caught between two evils. When we asked our clients to draw a safe place, they often did not know what to draw. Some drew their homes in Central America, knowing that was no longer a safe place. Some drew their dreams of being in the US. A safe home. A playground. Some drew pictures of a river between them and the US. The river had a shark in it. To the credit of our program, by the end of our second mission, most of our students drew pictures of the pop-up retreat center that we created for them. They drew people on yoga mats surrounded by candles and holding art.
While one tween girl attended our 10-day program, her brother was murdered back in Honduras because a gang was looking for her and she wasn’t there.
One of our young male clients, shared his story of being held in a detention center in Louisiana. He said his wrist and ankles were always in chains and he even had to eat with his hands chained.
A dirty young girl, about age 6, wandered the streets alone. She radiated to what was inherently good. She attended all our programs, every mission. She told me she has no mother. She is with her father and her sister. I was always worried about her safety.
Most who received chair massages, would moan in gratitude. There are always long lines for massages. Mothers would pass off their babies to their older child, so they could receive. Some would receive right after telling their immigration story to the attorney’s helping them to get asylum. These refugees often appeared as if they had just relived that past trauma. Exhausted and depressed. Their stories often included being physically or sexually abused by gang members, coyotes and government officials. Some withstood multiple experiences like this and had the physical and emotional scars to prove it.
Much of the trauma we witnessed was also the result of family separation. Some family members were able to cross into the US for medical reasons or because the trauma they experienced was bad enough to be granted asylum. However, their spouse and certain children were unable to cross into the US. So many suffered as they waited, with one child, for their court case to be approved. Some gave up, sent their child across alone and went home to whatever fate awaited them.
When we arrived at the camp, we were always greeted with smiles and hugs. When we left, we would see the reality in their faces. Desperation. Depression. Lost hope. Parents holding their children to comfort them, but also to comfort themselves.
Gina Barrett is the Volunteer Acting Director, Founder and Board Chair of Casa de Paz SLV, a non-profit organization based in Crestone, Colorado. The Casa de Paz SLV mission is to provide post-acute holistic trauma support to asylum seekers and new immigrants. Gina laid the foundation and led three 10-day missions over the course of the past year to provide holistic trauma support services to asylum seeker families living in the Matamoros, Mexico Refugee Camp. Now, Gina directs a team of holistic trauma support volunteer educators and practitioners that offer weekly services to asylum seekers online and in person. To date, Casa de Paz SLV has provided basic needs and holistic trauma support services to over 3000 asylum seeker families waiting at the Texas/Mexico border. To learn more about the services offered by Casa de Paz SLV, to volunteer or donate, visit www.casadepazslv.org