Yvonne Romero. (Photos/ Morgan Smith)
Morgan Smith/ [email protected]
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Who are the heroes who bring dignity and support to impoverished communities on the border? Here are three heroic women who make life bearable along the border. I salute their work and their heroism.
Yvonne Romero
The Pink Store or Tienda Rosa is the key business in Palomas with a wonderful restaurant and a large store where ceramics and crafts from all over Mexico are sold. During the most violent years when no tourists went to Palomas, Yvonne Romero and her husband, Sergio kept the Pink Store open out of loyalty not only to their immediate employees but also to the artisans all over Mexico from whom they bought crafts.
Lorena Solares
For seven years, Lorena Solares has been the teacher at the one room school for Tarahumara kids on the west side of Juárez and lives in a casita in the school’s small compound. It’s an area of dirt streets, shacks, mud or dust, and extreme poverty. Many of her students speak only their Tarahumara dialect and have to learn Spanish as well as their regular courses. Assuming that she must feel totally isolated, I asked her if she missed her family in Chihuahua. She pointed to her students and said, “This is my family.”
Viridiana “Viri” Torres
Viridiana “Viri” Torres, a patient at Vision in Action has struggled with mental issues but has a knack for numbers and manages the finances for the asylum. When José Antonio Galván, the founder and director had to quarantine because of the virus, it was Viri who managed the asylum with its 120 patients.
Morgan Smith has been documenting border conditions for the last decade.
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