Drs. Heydi Coronel and José Luis Goncalves perform a C-section on Nersis Arrieta as Arrieta’s cousin, Keyla Rodríguez, caresses her face. Coronel and Arrieta were doctors in Venezuela, but Arrieta hasn’t yet been given permission to practice medicine in Peru. (Photo by Anya Magnuson/Cronkite Borderlands Project)
A child of two nations: Hope for ‘democracia’ in Peru spurs new parents
By Anya Magnuson/ Cronkite Borderlands Project |
LIMA, Peru – The decision to leave was almost inevitable. Nersis Arrieta and Edil Aguilar had lived through the shortages, the canceled university classes, the throttling of political dissent, the grim economic reality of Venezuela. They were married and hoped for children.
But as a doctor, Arrieta had seen the vaccine shortages, the lack of medicine and the absence of basic sanitary supplies firsthand. She and her husband wanted their child to be born safely. They wanted their child to be born “en la democracia,” as Aguilar said.
When the couple left their troubled country in January 2018, they packed their lives into three suitcases and sold the rest of their possessions to buy bus tickets for their six-day trip to Lima, where they joined hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans starting new lives.
They spent the first month with family members who had immigrated the year before. Arrieta started the long process of trying to get her medical credentials recognized in Peru. Aguilar found a job in a call center. Less than six months after arriving in Peru, Arrieta became pregnant.
The couple found a doctor who was willing to waive his delivery fees, cutting the cost of the birth significantly. Aguilar saved his wages from a call center job, gathering just enough money to pay for the Cesarean section that Arrieta would need. On the day of the surgery, there were three doctors in the room: Arrieta and the two performing the operation. All were Venezuelans.
New parents Edil Aguilar and Nersis Arrieta leave the Clínica Porvenir on March 4, after their daughter was born. The clinic charged 1,650 Peruvian soles, and the anesthesiologist charged 1,100. It took Aguilar five months to save the money working at a call center. (Photo by Anya Magnuson/Cronkite Borderlands Project)
Coming home
Two days after the surgery, the new parents returned to their small studio apartment in the working-class port city of Callao.
“We’re worried that she will grow up with discrimination,” Arrieta said, referring the increasing pushback against Venezuelan immigrants in Peru, whose numbers ballooned from 500,000 to more than 700,000 in just a few months.
For now, the couple is trying to cope with the immediate future. They’d like to move into a slightly larger apartment in a safer neighborhood. Arrieta plans to continue trying to get her medical license recognized in Peru — not a simple process.
They say they want to return to Venezuela but have no idea when that might be possible. For now, they’re focused on their healthy daughter and hoping for the future.
READ MORE IN THIS SERIES: With Venezuela in turmoil, migrants and refugees turn to Peru
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