The American dream has become for many families a nightmare from which they sometimes never wake up. In Cartagena, the Flórez Salcedo are witnesses of that. They suffer from the death of José Gregorio, one of his members, who drowned along with his sentimental partner, Angie Madelaine Gutiérrez Aguilar, crossing the Rio Grande, in northern Mexico.
José Gregorio and Angie undertook a journey from the San José de Los Campanos neighborhood to reach the United States as “wet” and when there were only a few kilometers left to achieve it, death prevented them.
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“A fighter”
José, 30, Angie and their families arrived in 2018 from Venezuela to Cartagena to seek a better future. A relative of ‘Goyo’ tells us, as he was affectionately called, that “in Maracaibo he was a timbal lover. His passion was music, especially salsa, but when he arrived in Colombia things changed and he had to work hard”.
“First we went to live in the Paraguay neighborhood, there he swept terraces of houses in exchange for coins, then he was a security guard, a bricklayer and finally a motorcycle taxi driver, managing to buy his little things and have his apartment in Los Campanos,” he added.
José and Angie were childless and focused all their energies on getting ahead. “They wanted a good future for their home” and they thought that in the land of Uncle Sam they might achieve it.
wet crossing
After several weeks thinking regarding it, on May 18 they left the Cartagena Transport Terminal towards the borders with Panama.
The relative relates that: “from Panama they came to Honduras and from there to Mexico. They went with a group of people from different places, they passed jungles, they walked a lot until they reached the north of Mexico. They were helped by the so-called ‘coyotes’”.
José and Angie separated from the group because they obtained permission to pass through Mexico legally. In Río Bravo or Río Grande, which divides Mexico from the United States, the tragedy occurred.
saving his love
“It was 7:30 pm on June 24 when they reached the river. They went with other groups and three by three they crossed the tributary. That river is long, but not very wide; however, it has a strong current and eddies are also formed,” added the relative.
When it was the couple’s turn, they opened the gates of a nearby dam and the river swelled. Angie slipped across some rocks and was swept away by the current. José went to save her, but she too disappeared into the water.
“Since that day we have been looking for them, we thought that the authorities had them detained, but on July 16 some ‘coyotes’ called us to tell us that they were dead, that my brother tried to save his wife and the water took them away,” he added. .
José’s body was found in the Piedras Negras town of Mexico, but Angie’s is still missing.
José’s body remains in a morgue in Mexico and, according to the family, they charge $2,000 to repatriate it. “We call the Embassy and they don’t answer, nobody helps us and we don’t have that money. We want them to put their hands on their hearts, he does not deserve to be in a common grave,” said the relative.
Last Sunday, in the Parque Lineal de Crespo, his family paid an emotional farewell tribute to the couple.