an aerial view of a riverbed with many people bathing
San Pedro Tapanatepec, Oaxaca, Mexico. October 28, 2018. Hundreds of Central American migrants cool down, bathe, and clean their clothes in the river Novillero in the town of San Pedro Tapanatepec, in Oaxaca, Mexico. The migrants stayed in San Pedro for two nights before resuming their way north toward the U.S. border.

Caravan of hope

Photographer Moises Saman captures the toll of living with poverty and violence in Central America or leaving everything behind in search of the unknown in the U.S.

ByDebra Adams Simmons
Photographs byMoises Saman
Published February 14, 2019
12 min read
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National Geographic: How long have you worked as a photographer? When did you begin shooting for National Geographic?

Moises Saman: I started working as a photographer almost 20 years ago. I photographed my first story for National Geographic in 2016.

NG: What were you hoping to capture in your coverage of the caravan? How would you describe the images you were able to capture?

MS: I was interested in capturing photographs that humanize a story that has become a political issue. My attempt was to capture photographs that described the desperation, resilience, hope, and day-to-day dynamics taking place along the caravan and in the lives of the migrants taking part in it.

woman wearing a blue skirt sitting on a bed with a lace mosquito net over herself
Magazine

A mosquito net protects María Agustina Márquez in the home she shares with her husband and granddaughter near Intipucá. Many there rely on remittances from relatives in the U.S. Read the full story here.

NG: How do the images you photographed of the caravan juxtapose with the images you photographed in El Salvador prior to the caravan? Did you find a greater sense of urgency in your coverage of the caravan? A greater sense of hope?

MS: I think they are inseparable aspects of the same story. In El Salvador I witnessed some of the precursors that led to the creation of these caravans, such as an endless cycle of violence, endemic poverty, and an overall sense of hopelessness.

NG: Many of your El Salvador images point to violence as part of the culture of the place. How did you wrestle with the violence happening around you? One of your images, of a dead man on a bus, was particularly gripping. How did you respond to photographing a violent death up close? How were you able to build in a search for humanity in spite of the violence?

MS: I suppose that after 20 years working in conflict and post-conflict areas I have developed ways to compartmentalize my emotions by staying focused on what my role is as a photographer and journalist. Violence is a daily occurrence in El Salvador and it has found a way to reach most of Salvadoran society. Unfortunately, scenes such as the one in the bus have become quite normal, to the point that they don't illicit much of a reaction from the local population. I find this normalization a much more relevant question, one that I have struggled with while working in many different places around the world where extreme violence becomes routine.

NG: Were you able to find hope and happiness in spite of despair? How did you identify happiness/special moments/reasons to be hopeful in spite of everything else happening in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras?

map of north and central america highlighting honduras, guatemala, and el salvador
Most of the migrants to the U.S. come from El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala.
NGM Maps

MS: I did encounter a certain joyfulness and feeling of empowerment from the migrants in the midst of a very difficult journey, in the sense that some of the migrants spoke about joining the caravan as an act of rebellion against their status quo, allowing them to take charge of their own lives regardless of the uncertainty of the outcome. I also witnessed moments of tension, despair, humor, camaraderie, and a general sense of purpose that comes from leaving everything you know behind for the pursuit of a better future.

NG: What was your guiding principle for this assignment? What did you set out to achieve? Did you accomplish what you had hoped to accomplish?

MS: Before joining the caravan I had spent about a month in El Salvador trying to understand the history and contemporary social dynamics fueling decades of continuous migration to the United States. The caravan was the culmination of some of the challenges that affect this country, and as such I felt the need to document it in order to tell the larger story of El Salvador.

young men getting on a truck and holding onto the frame of the truck
Los Corazones, Oaxaca, Mexico. October 27, 2018. A group of Central American migrants, part of a caravan of thousands, catch a ride from a passing truck near the village of Los Corazones, in Oaxaca, Mexico.
a women climbing over a wire fence with men assisting
Tecun Uman, Guatemala. November 2, 2018. Salvadoran migrants rush to jump a fence at a restricted border crossing area between Guatemala and Mexico in Tecun Uman.
a police officer leaning against a fence with men waiting behind the fence
Tecun Uman, Guatemala. November 2, 2018. Salvadoran migrants gather near the official border crossing in Tecun Uman, hoping to be allowed to cross legally into Mexico as they make their way north toward the U. S. border.
a group of young men outside waiting
Tecun Uman, Guatemala. November 2, 2018. Starting at 5 a.m., migrants lined up at the border in Guatemala waiting for officials to let them cross into Mexico. When it appeared they wouldn’t legally be let in, hundreds of people walked across a shallow section of the river into Mexico.
people walking across a river as a group of men support a woman
Suchiate River, Guatemala-Mexico border. November 2, 2018. A caravan of Salvadoran migrants cross the Suchiate river from Guatemala into Mexico after Mexican immigration authorities declined their request to legally travel through Mexico.
the back of a man wearing a backpack holding a cardboard box over his head
Tecun Uman, Guatemala. November 1, 2018. Salvadoran migrants arrive in the Guatemalan border town of Tecun Uman as they make their way north in a caravan of about 1,500 people.
Tapachula, Mexico. November 4, 2018. Salvadoran migrants walk under an overpass on their way to the border city of Tapachula, Mexico.
two men, one in a white hat, inside a container
El Gulsnay, El Salvador. October 31, 2018. Two Salvadoran men ride inside a container trailer on their way to the El Salvador-Guatemala border.
men in a container and a man in white leaning against the container
El Gulsnay, El Salvador. October 31, 2018. Dozens of migrants, part of a caravan of hundreds of migrants from El Salvador making their way toward the United States, ride inside a container trailer on their way to the Salvador-Guatemala border.
a shirtless man sitting and a man laying down covered by a blanket at night outside
San Pedro Tapanatepec, Oaxaca, Mexico. October 28, 2018. Migrants sleep outdoors in the courtyard of a house in the village of San Pedro Tapanatepec.
men outside at night standing and waiting on gravel
Tapachula, Mexico. November 4, 2018. A caravan of mostly Salvadoran migrants takes a break during their five hour walk from Metapa to Tapachula.
men and a women with a white backpack walking next to a graffitied wall and a palm tree
San Salvador, El Salvador. October 31, 2018. Carrying little more than backpacks, migrants relied on the kindness of people in the towns they passed for food, clothing, and a place to rest.
a man in black and white
PHOTOGRAPH BY LORENA ROS

Moises Saman is a documentary photographer and a member of Magnum Photos. His work has focused on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and more recently the turmoil of the Arab Spring and its aftermath.

In 2011, Moises relocated to Cairo, Egypt, where he was based for three years while covering the Arab Spring. His book Discordia documents the tumultuous transitions that have taken place in the region. In 2015, Moises received a Guggenheim Fellowship to continue his work in the region.

Moises Saman’s work on El Salvador is featured in the March 2019 issue of National Geographic magazine.