“In recent years, my birth city has experienced growing rates of unemployment, poverty, and crime, becoming one of the most dangerous cities in the world with a murder per capita of 59 per 1,000 people as of 2016. This is especially true after the 2009 U.S. backed coup to remove democratically-elected Manuel Zelaya from the presidential office. Corrupt post-coup governments have been closely linked with police and drug cartels, which have only exacerbated the inequity, violence, and poverty in Honduras, leading many people, including unaccompanied youth, to embark on dangerous journeys to the North. I often wonder what my life would have been like had we stayed in Tegucigalpa, yet the social and political context of Honduras at the time drove my mother’s hard decision to leave and subsequently shaped the experiences of my family.”