Depression And Uncertainty The Double Exile Of Mexicans

The war led her to put her life on hold Without projects or objectives, stuck in a monotonous routine, far from her husband, her two dogs and the country that welcomed her for 27 years, the Mexican Larissa García entered a depressive stage.

Gallery: The war in Ukraine is one year old The conflict led her to take refuge in Bucharest, Romania, together with her 13-year-old daughter Miroslava, where although they have peace and tranquility, for Larissa it has been like a prison in freedom, "like being in a beautiful limbo.

" “A forced migration is very hard They kicked us out of our home, they took our family from us.

I have not learned Romanian except to say hello and goodbye; I have not looked for a job nor have I continued with my cosmetics import and distribution company It has been very hard psychologically and emotionally, It is as if I had pressed the pause button”, he details in an interview with La Jornada.

One year after the start of the conflict that turned everything upside down, this 51-year-old woman allowed herself to speak to this newspaper again, just as she did at the beginning of March 2022, in the Romanian border city of Suceava – when together to other compatriots received support from the mission sent by the government of Mexico Her life became one of coping with the day to day.

“All you do is wake up, then have breakfast, clean the apartment, eat, clean again, watch a series, check Twitter, read the news, sleep You just survive.

My only distraction was going to the park, sometimes I have been able to travel to other countries in Europe, but you don't enjoy it I exist, but I do not live.

Her reflections have made her conclude that, given normality, people don't realize that part of being alive is having dreams and goals, and working to achieve them; inclusive, that there are problems and design strategies to solve them Little by little she realized that she was plunged into depression and sought help from a specialist.

It was thanks to this process that she was able to reflect and reassess her priorities Thus, she is already analyzing the return to kyiv despite the risks.

It will be in April that she and Miroslava are back in her house, together with her husband and/or father and her dogs "This is not going to end in two or three months, it will last as long as it has to last.

" Hundreds of thousands had to flee the conflict just like Larissa Data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (Acnur), as of February 21 of this year, there were 8 million 87 thousand 952 displaced by this war.

Ismael Torrentera is one of the dozens of Mexicans rescued on two humanitarian flights sent to Romania last year by the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador This 40-year-old man, who lived in that country for seven years, settled in his native Tlaxcala, accompanied by his wife and her mother, both Ukrainian.

His stay in Tlaxcala came to fruition thanks to a job opportunity offered by the state government He is a computer specialist and was supported by a position in charge of an area dedicated to that discipline.

At the moment they do not have medium and long-term plans “Our only project now is to take out the day to day.

The second plan is maybe to settle in Ireland, but it's all confusing We will have to start not from zero, but from minus one.

We don't have anything concrete yet Our dream is to return to Ukraine.

" At the start of the invasion, Alex Ricalday, a 38-year-old Mexican, left Ukraine by his own means with his wife, who was seven months pregnant at the time First they were in Poland, but they finally made it to the United States.

Today they live in Alabama and work from home, remotely His baby was born on American soil and is nine months old today.

Although life changed them, today the priority of both is the little one “It was difficult for us to adapt, but it was a relief to know our son was safe.

A few months ago we were able to visit kyiv for my wife's family to meet him We were five days.

And although the capital is apparently safer, we prefer to stay in the United States We are surviving, waiting for the war to end to return," says Alex, who also spoke to La Jornada a year ago, just as he was fleeing the country by car.

Mónica Vázquez, a Mexican who has been collaborating for six months at the UNHCR office in Moldova, a nation bordering Ukraine, recounts that in this time two experiences have marked her: the separation of families and the complexity, especially for the elderly "It's hard for everyone to start over, but doing it at 85 is even harder.

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