Every year, more than 400,000 migrants catch a ride on La Bestia (The Beast), one of Mexico’s largest freight trains that runs from the southernmost state of Chiapas to Mexico City where it links up with a series of other freight trains.
The trip is very tough, but there is one group that is actively rooting for the migrants. Since 1994 a group of female volunteers called Las Patronas has been providing migrants with food and water as they pass through their town. The group has been internationally recognized and in 2013 was awarded the National Human Rights Award.
In February of 1994, while returning from the market, Leonila Vázquez and her daughter Norma received pleas for food by the migrants riding atop La Bestia. Not knowing who these people were instinct took over and Leonila and her daughter threw their newly purchased food to the migrants as they passed by on the moving train. It’s this same spontaneous act of kindness that they now practice every day. This volunteer group of women now prepares around 40 pounds of rice and beans every morning resulting in 300 meals on a daily basis.
As the migrants make their 15-minute pass through Amatlàn on the back of La Bestia they are confronted by a gang of loving women with no other agenda than to aid strangers on their journey on what they hope to be a better life.
