The Nicaraguan community in the Region of Murcia is devastated. At least five of the thirteen missing in the fire that devastated three nightclubs in Atalayas on Sunday are from Nicaragua, according to relatives consulted. Among those who were inside Fonda Milagros, one of the premises devastated by the flames, relatives and acquaintances identified Marta Hernández and her children Sergio Silva and Erick Torres. The latter was celebrating his 30th birthday, along with his girlfriend, Orfilia Landón, mother of a girl who stayed in Nicaragua. Another girl named Tania, who was at the party, also shared nationality with them.
Marta, Erick and Sergio were born in Chinandega, the second economic city of the Central American country, located four hours from Managua, the capital. This Monday they are mourned by family and friends from Murcia, where they have resided for several decades. The first to arrive in the Region, between 15 and 20 years ago, was her mother and later, the family and, over time, many compatriots gathered around her.
Little by little, relatives continued to arrive in Murcia, settling wherever they found work, in Yecla, Murcia… The women, as domestic workers, usually work all week as boarders and reserve Saturdays and Sundays to spend with the family. and with friends, in meetings organized in homes; at the La Perla restaurant, del Infante, or at La Fonda Milagros, in Puente Tocinos (Calle Quiles, 34).
The Region closed 2022 with 3,647 Nicaraguans registered, of which, 206 have requested political asylum since 2021; another 499 requested it in 2020 and 407 began processing it in 2019. The arrival of Nicaraguans to the Region of Murcia began to be noticed in the census from 2018. By then, Daniel Ortega had revalidated his second term, closer to the model of Cuba and Venezuela, than that of the West.
Guests who did not go to the birthday party
Griselda is a Nicaraguan, from Chinandega, resident in Murcia and friend of five of the disappeared. This Monday she was “fatal” because she had been invited to celebrate Erick’s birthday at La Fonda Milagros and she couldn’t go because she had to work.
She used to meet a lot with Marta, Erick, Sergio and Orfilia to celebrate birthdays, which, as she explains, are a “special event” for the community. “Many of us work as interns and we get together to make meals on the weekends, at home or at the club.”
Griselda arrived in Spain and went to Burgos, but moved to Murcia because she had a cousin here who knew Marta and her children, who are now missing. «Last weekend I saw them. “I always went out and woke up with them,” she says while lamenting that Erick has a 10-year-old girl and his girlfriend, another girl in Nicaragua. He suffers for both of them in such a difficult moment.
A close relative of Marta, who prefers not to identify himself, is one of the group of relatives who stayed all Sunday at the Sports Palace, where they received psychological assistance. «I feel terribly. I don’t assimilate it. I can’t sleep. One of Marta’s daughters, who was in France, is on her way. She also has a granddaughter from Italy and another daughter from Zaragoza. So far they have not informed us that they have identified them among the people they have located,” she said. «They met a lot. Marta was the third or fourth of the family who came to Murcia almost twenty years ago. She invited me to her birthday, but I couldn’t attend. “How awful! “You never recover from that,” she said.
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