Historia Viva: An Oral History of Covid-19
Help us document this historic moment for the binational community.
Photo by Adam Nieścioruk on Unsplash
We moved from Austin, Texas, to Mexico City in July of 2019. My husband had wanted to return to Mexico after living in the United States for more than 20 years. And we wanted our 11-year-old son to attend school in Mexico and have a bicultural upbringing. We never could have imagined a deadly pandemic that would close down borders and restrict us to our small apartment in Mexico City for the foreseeable future.
What I’ve discovered during our time in self-isolation, is that the anxiety and uncertainty is twice as stressful if you’re following the grim advancement of the pandemic in two countries. I’m constantly checking in with my elderly parents and friends in the United States, which has now surpassed China in the number of infections, while anxiously awaiting what will happen in Mexico as the deaths here continue to mount exponentially each week. It feels like watching a slow-moving tsunami rolling toward you.
But we are still luckier than most. We have passports and the privilege to move freely across the border when it is open. There are many families with relatives on either side of the border who cannot travel freely, even when there isn’t a pandemic. Many of these families have been hit hard by job losses and illness and have very little, if any, safety net to fall back on.
What is certain is that this pandemic will transform society, geopolitics and the economy in ways we cannot even imagine. It will also change the way we relate to and travel across the U.S.-Mexico border, which was already under intense political pressure before Covid-19 took hold of the world. This oral history — what we are calling Historia Viva — at the North American Project, is an attempt to document this historic moment for the binational community as it unfolds. We plan to keep a Covid-19 weekly update in the Historia Viva section as the pandemic continues. Please send your experiences in English or Spanish — however brief or long — to us at editor@NorthAmericanProject.com
Gabriel España, investment consultant for Latin America, Bethesda, Maryland. I left Mexico City on March 10. The next day Maryland went into quarantine. I started having arguments with my friends and family in Mexico on WhatsApp, telling them they had to take this pandemic seriously because social events were carrying on as usual there. A cousin went to the Vive Latino concert, then I called my family in Coyoacán, and my sister was planning the Sunday lunch with our parents who are in their eighties. I told her, “Are you crazy? Our parents are very vulnerable. You have to keep them isolated, so they don’t get sick.” Part of the problem is that the message has been very mixed from President Lopez Obrador on the seriousness of the pandemic. He’s telling people to keep giving hugs and kisses and to go out to restaurants and spend their money. I’ve even heard Mexicans here in Washington D.C. say they think the pandemic is fake news. The message delivered from the National Palace in Mexico has an impact all the way up here in Washington D.C. I think it’s irresponsible.
We don’t know when this will end. We have to deal with two very difficult situations. One is the health crisis. The other is the economic repercussions, which in my view are the toughest ones. I work with Mexican entrepreneurs, and I think the impact of the crisis in Mexico is going to be huge, and I think a lot of people may not be able to continue working in the informal sector. I don’t want to say the market is going to collapse to zero, but it’s going to be greatly reduced in size. A recent report by the Bank of America forecasted an eight percent decrease in GDP for Mexico which we haven’t seen since the Great Depression. In the United States it is forecast to reduce by as much as four percent. I don’t want to say it’s scary, because I try to be optimistic, but it’s scary.
Maggie Loredo, co-director of Pocha House which aids Mexicans deported from the United States, Mexico City. We’ve started a fund to support people who’ve lost jobs because of the pandemic. We’re also monitoring any information and resources that might be coming from the government since everything is happening one day at a time, so we can support people both financially and emotionally. Most people who have been deported are working informal jobs. They’ve recently arrived and are sending any money they make back to family in the United States or in Mexico. Deportations are still happening even with the pandemic going on. I think the whole health infrastructure in Mexico is very weak, so it’s going to hit us very hard. I honestly don’t think Mexico is ready to respond to the crisis or to the economic impact which is going to be even stronger. The people who we serve will be some of the most vulnerable.
Jose Muñoz, DACA recipient and national communications manager for United We Dream, Washington D.C. The U.S. Supreme Court will issue a decision any day between now and the end of June on whether to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy. I think of myself and the more than 700,000 other DACA recipients and we’re in the same moment as the rest of the world in dealing with Covid-19. There are at least 250,000 U.S. citizens who have a parent who is a DACA recipient so issuing a ruling during a moment of crisis like this, especially as we think of the potential consequences such as deportation, losing your work permit and your access to health care, makes its especially important that the Supreme Court recognize this moment that we’re in. My family is originally from Mexico, but all of my immediate family is in Minnesota and California. Right now, I’m bunkered down in Washington D.C. and can’t go out and the grocery stores are limiting supplies. We’re still just at the beginning of the pandemic so it’s hard to see what will happen in the future. But what we would like is for the Trump administration just to be clear on what it plans to do after the Supreme Court issues its ruling.
Hugo Maguey, journalist, Mexico City. My parents run a grocery store at the public market in la colonia Escuadron 201 in Iztapalapa, which is very busy and one of the poorest neighborhoods in the city. They’re very active. They also help my brother with two hamburger stands that he owns. When they first started hearing the news stories about coronavirus, they asked me if I thought it was serious? I told them that it was and that they had to be careful because they are in their seventies. And so, they stopped shaking people’s hands and kissing people on the cheek and stopped going to things that weren’t absolutely necessary. About 14 days ago, they realized that it was necessary to self-isolate but what worried them most was their grocery store because they live more or less day to day, and most of their earnings come from the store. So, my brother and I started working at the store while they self-isolate. We are lucky that we are a big family. There are five of us children, so we are sharing the expenses among us. My brother had to close one hamburger stand and the other stand is only open for takeout, but the demand has really gone down.
I think this has the potential to go on for a long time. I spoke with some friends recently who are working in Silicon Valley in California. They’ve lived with the pandemic a lot longer than we have. And speaking with them was like having access to a time machine. They are telling me what our future will be like. I believe it’s going to be very difficult but hopefully among the family we can survive by sharing the burden.
Robert Valencia, chairman of the Pascua Yaqui tribe, Tucson, Arizona. It is our ceremonial season and many of our ceremonies are about giving blessings and good health, so it’s particularly hard for our elders who can’t attend. We are trying to do social distancing, limiting access to the ceremonies and it’s been difficult to explain to them that they are vulnerable and could catch the virus and should stay home. I was speaking to a couple of our elders the other day and they said the pandemic was worse than when we fought the Mexicans 100 years ago. At least then we were able to determine who the enemy was but now our enemy is invisible. There are about 23,000 Yaquis on the U.S. side of the border and another 40,000 in Sonora, Mexico. The Yaquis who had come from Mexico for the ceremonial season had to return early or didn’t come at all.
We’re also making a lot of sacrifices revenue-wise since we had to shut down our two casinos, which are the main source of our revenue. That is millions of dollars that we will never collect now that would have gone to education, housing and to providing services to members of the tribe who live outside the reservation. We are trying to buy testing kits now for Covid-19 but are having trouble finding any on the market. We have to have faith and work together and pray together so that we can fight this pandemic.