Illegal Immigrants&The American Dream

"Why can’t we live that dream in our own country, without moving far away from our families? Are we scared to invest in our own land? We have so many resources out there waiting for us to develop and take advantage of them, but we do not do it."

                                                                    By José Reyes Murillo

     The four largest groups of illegal immigrants from Central American countries were Mexicans (6.7 million), El Salvador (530,000), Guatemala (480,000), and Honduras (320,000), according to the Department of homeland Security report.
     For many decades, live in the United States has been a dream for many immigrants from all over the world. The reason they came to America is to seek a better economic opportunities and support families in home country.

     The Honduras began sending immigrants to the United States in the 1990s, during the turmoil of independence from Spain and founding the republic of Honduras. Many Hondurans are migrant farm labors; the total population is difficult to measure because many of them are illegal residents in United States. The reason Hondurans want live in America is to help their families and escape political turmoil in Honduras. Many of them usually send a large part of their income back home to support their poor families.

       Five Honduras immigrants lying under a Honduran flag have been holding a hunger strike in front of the White House in 1998. They said they won’t eat until the American government stops deporting illegal immigrants back to Honduras. (By Pamela Constable, Washington post staff writer.)

The Smallest Ethnic Group- The Tawahka

     The Tawahkas are the smallest and isolated ethnic group in Honduras. Today, there are less than 1000 Tawahkas live in Tawahka Asangni 

(traditional Tawahka territory). They were the last Honduras indigenous groups that contacted by European explorers, and the last indigenous to be converted to Christianity. During the colonial era, the European colonizers introduced them to gold and plantations in central Honduras, which brought a source of extra income for some Tawahkas. Most Tawahka remain illiterate; a study found that 95% of men and 100% of the women could not read. Few children attend school beyond the third grade.

Thousands of Street Children

Street children live in a sad life struggling for survival

        According to the United Nation Children’s Fund (UNICEF), there are more than 100,000,000 street children in the world; around 60 percent of the total population of these children was in Latin America.
       Honduras has a population of 7.3 million people, but almost half of the total population is sixteen years old or younger. There are approximately 8,000 street children in Honduras, and most of them live in the capital Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula, two largest cities in the county. These streets children are orphans or abandoned children, who had no choice but to live in the streets without families’ take care. These street children are abjectly poverty; they beg, steal and dig through trash during the daytime in order to survival, and sleep in junk boxes, parks or on the streets itself at night. Because of the stark poverty, the majority of these streets kids live no longer than eighteen years old.

"Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind...For as the days of a tree, so will be the days of my people...they will not toil in vain, or bear children doomed to misfortune...before they call, I will answer; while they are still speaking, I will hear." -Isaiah 65

"Beautiful child, why have you shut your eyes for the last time? Even so, your wide, innocent eyes and your little boy smile will remain in our hearts forever. " -Photo from the crisis center of Honduras. 

This Street girl is showing she is pregnant, which means, if her baby survives, he or she will grow up in the misery of street life. 

Note: These photos are from the crisis center of Honduras.

Homosexuals in Honduras

      "We want our right to life to be respected, for the police to stop killing homosexuals in Honduras.”

---By Honduras homosexual organization

      Homosexuality will never be accepted in Honduras. This is partly due to the fact that the country has a Christian cultural basis and people are religiously conservative. The Honduras government strictly enforced draconian laws against homosexuality; over the past years, homosexuals have been suffered from physical and sexual abuse, social exclusion, discrimination, even harassment from community, church, political and police. It is not surprised that the majority of them have not confessed publicly about his or her homosexual tendencies. There is a rumor circulated for years in Honduran society, said that a former Honduras president is a homosexual even though he is a married man and professes the catholic religion. Whether it is true or not, it is understandable in a conservative society why homosexuals were regarded as abnormal and subject to abuse.

      The Honduran governmental authorities provide no protection to the country’s homosexual community and community organizations. Three years ago, LGBT population (The lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transsexual) joined together, and led a public protest to demanding their human, since many of their members are frequently suffered harassment and intimidation from government and police, including murder, beatings, and other mistreatment.

The Banana Production in Honduras

      Honduras is normally considered the poorest country in Latin America. The economy is mainly based on agriculture, which accounts 65% of the major export revenue. It's leading export includes bananas, coffee, sugar, textiles and many metals such as gold, silver and copper. Because of the poor economy and low labor wages in Honduras, many United States companies have taken the advantages of these conditions. They move down to Honduras, and provide people jobs, but pay much lower wages than they could cost in the U.S.

      For example, the banana production, which takes place along the country's northern coast, is controlled by two U.S. companies, Chiquita Brands International and Dole Food Company.

      On the one hand, it is true that the companies provided more opportunities for Honduras, but on the other hand, it also means that more and more money for those United States companies who move down to Honduras.

From the heart of the green filed, the men appear with enormous bunches, containing about 230 bananas each, which they later transport to the packing plant.

After arrival, a chain of people separates the bananas, then wash, cut, and weight the bunches, wash off the natural plant fluids.

Lastly, adhere the Dole company stickers and then package place the bananas into a container. In the picture, the man called Agenor, with smile on his lip and says, " The more we export, the more money we receive.

MS 13 Gang In Honduras

Gang Violence

      Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) is one of the most dangerous criminal gang in Central America. The earliest (MS-13) members were Salvadoran children of refugees from Los Angeles. As the new immigration laws in 1990s, the MS-13 gangs jumped to Central America and quickly spread around all countries. Today, there are more than 30,000 young people are considered to be gang members in Honduras.

    Honduras former president, Ricardo Maduro, his son was killed by gang members in 1997. Then, Maduro adopted strict anti-gang policies known as Mano Dura, which dramatically increased penalties for gang related crimes. Between 1998 and 2004, more than 2000 children and young adults have been killed in Honduras, but a study found at least 20% of the killings was conducted by the police, government may be using 'death squads' to cope with the problem.

      The murder rate of Honduras remains one of the highest in the world.

Delicious Honduran Staples&Specialiteis

       Despite Honduras ethnic diversity and other cultural influences, people never developed their own local cuisine. However, the seafood from the North Coast is extremely fresh and varied, especially fish, shrimp, and lobster.
      A typical breakfast for Hondurans including eggs, beans, fried plantains, cheese, cream, a piece of sausage or bacon, served with tortillas or bread and drink. A lunch plato tipico includes a piece of beef, pork chop or chicken, served with beans, rice and tortillas or bread. Dinner dishes might be more involved preparation, such as encebollado(covered in grilled onions) or entomaatado(covered in tomato sauce.When it comes to fish, it usually be prepared fried or with garlic in Honduras.
      Enchiladas, tacos tamales, burritos and tortillas are the stamp food of Honduran food. One of the popular example is the enchiladas. In Honduras, an enchilada is a fired corn tortilla topped with meat, boiled egg, cabbage, cheese and ketchup. Honduran burritos are usually two flour tortillas filled with fried meat, avocado, dry cheese and re-fried beans on top. Tamale is one of the very traditional national foods in Honduras. A banana leaves filled with chicken, green peas, carrot bits, and rice or potato.

An example of encebollado, covered in grilled onions.

The most famous and popular Enchiladas.

Tamales is the national food of Honduras.

A Must Have- tortillas

The Indigenous Groups In Honduras.

This map shows where these ethnic groups live in Honduras today

        Honduras is one of the most diverse nation in Central America.  There are 10 distinctive ethnic groups, including five indigenous and five emerged from pose -Conquest mixing and immigration.  

        One of main group are ladinos or mestizos, people are descended from intermixing among European explorers and the indigenous people they encountered. Mestizos accounts for over 93% percent of the total population of Honduras. Besides mestizo, there are other groups who from native tribes that were in territory before the Spanish arrived. They are Lencas, Tolupanes, Pechs, Chortis, Miskitos and Garifunas. 

        The Lenca is Honduras' largest indigenous group, and about 300,594 of the total population of Honduras. They have descended from Chibcha speaking Amerindians of present-day Colombia who immigrated to Honduras around 3000 years ago.

        The Chorti is the 3rd largest Honduras's indigenous group, probably around 37,052 of the total population of Honduras.These people live in the Copan Valley, they are descended from the builder of the great Copan temples. Today, Chorti group are overly poor, due to the drugs and alcohol, land loss and unemployment problems.       
        The Pech and Tawahka indigenous groups are both found deep in the interior of La Moskitia and they have a common history background. Both groups descended from the Chibcha-speaking migration from South America around 1000 BC. The Pech community are about 4,138 of the total population of Honduras and the Tawahka are around 473,530. 

The Lenca is Honduras' largest indigenous group, and about 300,594 of the total population of Honduras. They have descended from Chibcha speaking Amerindians of present-day Colombia who immigrated to Honduras around 3000 years ago.

The Chorti is the 3rd largest Honduras's indigenous group, probably around 37,052 of the total population of Honduras.These people live in the Copan Valley, they are descended from the builder of the great Copan temples. Today, Chorti group are overly poor, due to the drugs and alcohol, land loss and unemployment problems.

 The Pech and Tawahka indigenous groups are both found deep in the interior of La Moskitia and they have a common history background. Both groups descended from the Chibcha-speaking migration from South America around 1000 BC. The Pech community are about 4,138 of the total population of Honduras and the Tawahka are around 473,530.

Irresponsible Government

       The Honduras local government do a terrible job of providing people the most basic public services, such as roads, water, electricity, garbage collection system or maintain streets and other services that people need. In this modern day, many Honduras people still don’t have any of these and they almost get nothing from the government. 
       The government proposes raising taxes, but they don’t pay for those services for citizens. Corruption is inevitable in government, but the problem is severe, they may lead to discontent and unnecessary suffering by the population.

Poor families build temporary shacks like this in order to survival. 

Terrbile sewer system in Hondura. 

The Garifuna Dance

     Dance is very popular in Honduras. Most notable are the Garifuna people, who live along the North Coast and practice the Punta and the Wanaragua dance.
    The Punta, also called bangidy is the most well-known dance in Honduras and its originated from West Africa. This dance performed between a man and a woman, shaking their hips and moving their arms to a throbbing sound made by two drums.
    The Wanaragua is a warrior dancing. This dance tells the story of Garifuna soldier disguising themselves as women to avoid being attacked by British colonizers. This is a very flashy dance and characterized by strong knee and open arm movements. 

The Punta Dance

The Wanaragua Dance

Beautiful Honduras

Honduras is a country of great contrasts. Those scenes of poverty are played out amongst breathtaking beauty.

This is the Cathedral of Comayagua. It was the first capital of Honduras. 

Mahogany bay. Tourism and fishing are the important sources of income of islanders.

Beautiful Lady of Sorrows. This historic downtown church was built in 1732. 

This old church is located in Choluteca. Now is a church school for kids. 

San Lorenzo. A lot of people work in seafood industry like fishermen, Shrimp farms, shells, etc.

Beautiful Faces. 

The Republic of Honduras

President Profirio lo bo Sosa

        The Republic of Honduras is located in the heart of Central America,between the two countries of Guatemala and Nigicaragua. The capital city and largest city is Tegucigalpa, and it located in the central part of the country. Even though the Honduras has a population of 120,0000 people, it is still one of the poorest and least industrialized country in the Central America. About 80% of Hondurans are bearing down by universal poverty illiteracy and repression. Due to the low income of residents, the death rates are very high in Honduras. Spanish is the leading language in Honduas and is spoken by all Hondurans,only the Anglo-African Caribbean ascent on the Bay Island are English speakers. Neverthless, the English speaker are somewhat more furtunate, for them have the opportunity to work as sailors on the International merchant ship and earn a higher income than others. As a result, It is very important to have the ability to speak and understand English, not just important on the job, it can also help you get a job. 

Honduras National Symbols

Orchid-National Flower of Honduras

Pine Tree-National Tree of Honduras     

 National Shield of Honduras 

Honduras Flag