8 APRIL 3-9, 2025 westword.com WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | homeland with his family in late 2018, shortly after Maduro was re-elected, and landed in Peru. Seeking a better opportunity for his children, he joined the exodus of Venezu- elans trekking towards the United States, walking from Peru through Ecuador and the jungle between Panama and Colombia known as the Darien Gap, then through Central America and Mexico. The whole journey was “bien duro,” but the Darien Gap and Mexico were the tough- est. “The jungle, it was just trees everywhere, and well, that’s when people started to die,” Ramos says. “I was bringing a one-year-old kid with me,” he recalls. “Mexico was intense. We had to grab the train. We traveled by train six days and six nights. While we were in Mexico City, someone threatened my wife and kids. It was real tough.” Ramos arrived in Denver with his wife and two daughters in December 2023. By then, Denver had already been dealing with the migrant crisis for a year, and the number of Venezuelan migrants arriving in the city was reaching new highs every week. He and his family lived for four months at a motel near East Sixth Avenue and Federal Boulevard that the city had converted into a shelter for migrants. Ramos recalls the other families staying there, and the sad faces of their kids. “It wasn’t an adequate environ- ment for them,” he says. But the location was right cross Sixth from the baseball diamond at Barnum East Park. While Ramos waited out the cruel Denver winter, he began to imagine leading a baseball practice for the kids at the shelter to cheer them up. He just needed to fi nd gear. “It was really cold, though, because we showed up in the middle of December,” Ramos says. “Once the sun started to come out, I started writing to a Facebook group here in Denver, and they helped me with sports gear: gloves, bats, balls.” For months, Venezuelan migrants had already been relying on this same Facebook group known simply as the Highland Moms. They’d been helping the migrants take care of their pets, fi nd winter clothing, fi nd odd jobs and start businesses while they waited for federal work authorization. The Highland Moms helped Ramos gather the basic gear he needed to practice with the kids. But once spring came and the cold weather let up, the City of Denver began closing shelters and moving migrants. Ramos and his family found a home in Lakewood, and near the end of last summer, Ramos was asked to coach a team for migrant children from Ven- News continued from page 6 Derek Perez Leal scoops up a ground ball and throws it to his coach, Edgar Ramos, at fi rst base; Edgar Ramos coaches a team of Venezuelan kids who walked from South America for a better life in the U.S. continued on page 10 BENNITO L. KELT Y BENNITO L. KELT Y Call Elaine Lustig, PhD .......................................................... at 303-369-7770 Needing Your Emotional ....... Animal W/ You? For eligible people who need their emotional support animal to accompany them at/or away from home, I am available to provide the documentation and counseling. CREDIT CARDS ACCEPTED
