Both were young, disciplined, intelligent and workers who fulfilled one of their dreams of life: traveling inside the school ship Cuauhtémocthat dream that would travel 15 countries in 254 days. A journey in the seas to which very few in the world can aspire. And yet America Yamilet Sánchez, 20, originally from Xalapa, Veracruz, and Adal Jair Marcos, 22, from San Mateo del Mar, in Oaxaca, succeeded. Their deaths have caused shock in Mexico and a feeling of injustice and frustration in their families. “They handle it as an accident, but I don’t know,” said Rocío Hernández, mother of America Yamilet on an interview on Monday, aiming at negligence.
On the banks of the emblematic Brooklyn bridge, in New York, a mariachi sings Cute Cielito The morning of this Monday. In the background, the voices of some Mexicans who hum, in tears, one of the most popular songs of the Mexican tradition are heard. They are part of a group of people who have approached to pay a tribute to the two dead young people and the injured of the accident. Cardboard with condolences and several branches of flowers and candles frame the metal fence.
About 4,000 kilometers away, the morning of this Monday, the parents of some of the cadets that were on board the ship, and that were injured, waited for their children in Veracruz. The mother of one of the companions who shared Camarote with América Yamilet confesses to the local media cameras that at the time the accident happened, the mother of America called him to ask if he knew what had just happened. “She did know where her daughter was going to be, she did tell her where she had to be: at the top,” he says.
According to the first testimonies, América Yamilet was in one of the masts of the ship from the first hours after the incident, his family claimed that the Secretariat of the Navy (Semar) would help them move to recover their daughter’s body and assured that they learned about the tragedy through the media.
America Yamilet was the pride of his family. I was about to turn 21, and since childhood, when she became an excellent swimmer, she wanted to be a naval engineer, a career she already played and of which she only had a year to conclude. In the house where he grew up, in the Emiliano Zapata neighborhood, in the Veracruz capital, his relatives placed photos of when he turned 15, and turned candles while waiting for the arrival of his body. “He was in what he wanted, he was always clear that dream, and with the help of his parents and grandparents he was granted. It was where he wanted to be,” says one of his aunts.
Adal Jair Maldonado Marcos was 23 years old. He was already a sailor, and for a few months he was traveling as part of the crew on the school ship. It was originally from San Mateo del Mar, in which the majority of the population belongs to the autonombramed native groups such as Ikoots, Huaves or Mareños.
Under those traditions will be received in a private ceremony, as the family has informed the municipal president of San Mateo del Mar, Raúl Rangel: “We have the entire dismayed municipality … [la muerte] of a young man who barely started his dream of being a sailor, ”he said Monday for the chain Telemundo. Also on the morning of this Monday, the governor of Oaxaca, in session with his cabinet, has asked to keep a minute of silence before the death of the young sailor and has assured that he is in contact with his family to carry out the necessary efforts.
Maldonado Marcos, according to local media, followed his dream of being a marine, like his father. He studied at the Federal High School of the Isthmus (ESFI) of Salina Cruz, in Oaxaca, and in 2021 he entered the Heroic Military Naval School. “The sea saw him born and the sea witnessed his life delivery … We all know him we will remember for his example of an intelligent young man,” their teammates published.
SEMAR has officially reported that 22 crew members were injured, 19 of them receive medical attention in local hospitals, and from them, three present “consideration wounds.” “No element fell into the water, so the activation of rescue operations was not necessary,” they published this Sunday.
Aboard. The ship sailed from the port of Acapulco, in Guerrero, on April 6, with the mission of “exalting the marine spirit” and “bringing the message of peace and good will of the Mexican people” to the world. On his journey he was going to visit 22 ports in 15 countries. Before arriving in New York, he had been in Jamaica and Cuba. The trip included 170 days in the sea and 84 days in ports.
