Hope for Miami

Hope for Miami

Lauryn Garcia

04/17/2023

After so many days of walking and so many cold nights spent together, I thought that they were going to deny us access to the city. I mean, we have a sick person here; we need to get to a hospital as soon as possible.

Hope: “I can't believe that this is happening right now.”

She was convinced that it was her fault that now Cesar was getting sick, and if she hadn't agreed to start this journey maybe they would be able to go to the hospital near her city and get treatment.

Cesar: "It's ok Hope, I should have paid more attention to the water I was drinking. To ​think I was even offering it to you guys, I feel so stupid. Have I not learned anything by ​now?”

It all started on a hot weekend in October when Hope decided to go fishing with her dad at a nearby bay. The day seemed humid, but it was still sunny that morning. Hope’s dad, Mr. Castaño, had a strong build for his age and brown features just like his daughter, he prepared the canoa while Hope let her mom know that they would be on their way to catch some fish. The bay wasn’t too far so it only took them about 20 minutes to get there. Her father commented on how the water seemed more polluted lately, and that is why they should stop fishing by their house.

Hope: "The bay is cleaner anyways, and I always get to meet new people".

Plenty of fish seemed to be passing by that bay - more than usual anyway - so fishing went by pretty fast. By the end of the afternoon, they were both already home and getting ready to prepare dinner. It was nighttime, and Hope was in her room organizing her jewelry, when she noticed through her window a storm forming not too far away.

She alerts her parents of what could have been just a stormy night. However, an hour passes by and now water is starting to creep into their house flooding everything. The wind is getting stronger, they're losing signal and electricity. They failed to realize that the storm was a forming hurricane and next thing they knew the entire house was detached from the base and started running down the river.

From the coast of Miami Shores all the way up to what used to be Aventura, their house floated until the hurricane left it stuck in the mud. Hope thought the place was going to crumble over her head or get completely destroyed, exposing her and her family to the madness of this hurricane. The hurricane had passed by, and the sun came out as if nothing had ever happened. Still in shock, Hope and her parents took the time to open what was left of the door and look around. To their surprise, they found some other residencies close by that were also severely affected by the hurricane. In just a few hours people manage to gather resources and assist those who had been hurt. Everything was covered in mud and flooded but at least they were able to walk around instead of having to use a canoa.

Since their place was falling apart, Hope and her family were welcomed to stay at another house while they figured out what to do and how to get back home. This was the second time in less than 3 months that a hurricane had passed by that year. At this point rescue emergency services weren't available, people kind of had to solve their issues by themselves.

The Castaño family stayed with the Valenzuela family where Hope met Cesar for the first time. It might have been his hair or the way his eyes almost closed when he smiled, but Hope fell for Cesar the moment she saw him. Cesar’s family was also going through a hard time not just because of this hurricane but because there were some resource shortages in his city that the previous hurricane had left. At some point, the Valenzuela family mentioned that they had been planning to move to the northern side or higher side of Florida. Down here conditions were only getting worse, houses and establishments were all flooded it was hard to live there. Apart from the truistic side of Miami, which is now known as the new Venice, everything else was being destroyed by climate change. At first Hope and her family did not know how to feel about the idea, especially because moving out of the swamp they now live in would definitely be a challenge. Where would they go? Will they be allowed to stay there? How can they start a new life in a place they’ve never been to before?

Hope had had enough of the constant threat that climate change had on the wellness of her family and her future, so she was the first to agree to the plan. Her family thought about it some more but finally decided that taking that risk would probably be the best option and so they started preparing for the trip with the Valenzuela family.

The goal was to establish near Gainesville, which could take them about a week. The land in South Florida was too bland for cars. Railroads, airports, highways, etc., didn’t function the same either. Because of their economic condition, they definitely did not have enough money to go by sea either, so their best bet was to just go by 'land' and hope that maybe they could stop and spend their nights in a different city every day.

The other impediment was that since North Florida was now overpopulated, it could be hard to even find a place. Guards tend to send people or immigrants down claiming there is no more room for them there. However, they had to try, even though they knew there were going to be rough times.

Their journey started early in the morning, about a week after Hope and her family had moved in with the Valenzuelas. Cesar and her were now very close and even packed together the night before.

Cesar: “I will be taking this in case we get bored… and some of my favorite chips too. Oh, I ​almost forgot my soda, please tell me you like soda”.

Apart from being handsome, Cesar was really friendly and had a lot of common interests with Hope. She kept staring at him with a silly smile on her face wondering how he could be the same age as her and still be so clumsy and naive sometimes.

Cesar: “Hello,” he said mockingly, “Do you want to pack this or not?”

Hope: “Oh yes, sorry I zoned out. I just feel really nervous about this trip for some ​reason”.

Then Cesar went and grabbed Hope some water to drink so she could feel better, but she refused and decided that the best would be to take a nap since they will be leaving early.

It was a long and hard journey. So far, they had only made it to Okeechobee Lake, which, like every other body of water, had extended a lot in the last hundred years. While they attempted to go around the lake, the soil under them started becoming more and more humid. They couldn’t avoid it anymore so they decided to just try and go through the lake to get to the other side. Cesar noticed in the distance that there was an abandoned airboat not too far from them. Making their way through all the grass they got closer and realized that the boat seemed a little rusty but still could work. It was stocked in the mud so they all tried to push it to the water, which wasn't too far.

Ms. Valenzuela: “What was… that? You guys don't hear it?”.

Both Ms. and Mr. Valenzuela were very intuitive people, and they were ready to fight any kind of inconvenience.

All of the sudden a small alligator crawled out of the boat, scaring everyone. Everything was silent no one made a move until Hope noticed the grass moving from afar. She screamed in fear and started pushing the boat harder.

Hope: “A bigger one’s coming! Hurry, hurry!”

They all manage to get to the water and jump inside the boat right before this huge alligator attacked any of them. It was Hopes first time seeing an alligator, and she was amazed and frightened at the same time by such a beautiful creature.

They manage to get past the whole lake until they were able to start walking comfortably again. From the distance, they notice a gas station that seemed to be functional so they go in the look for more resources. There they found some other people from Miami that were also immigrating to a higher place. There were two children, Timothee and Sabrina, who were now being sheltered by another family because they had lost their parents in a building collapse. They all had a long conversation that made Hope feel even more moved about how much the world and her community had changed in just a few years, and how Florida had been absolutely destroyed by all of these climate phenomenons.

Hope: “There has to be something we can do, so many years have passed and still we ​have not figured out a way to reverse the effects of climate change or at least learn how to ​live with it".

Everyone agreed with her but, right when Cesar was about to share his opinion, he started getting dizzy and almost collapsed. Hope rushed to help him and immediately noticed that he had a really high fever. Locals told them that there weren't any functioning hospitals nearby and all they could do was give him some medicine for the night. The next day Cesar felt slightly better and insisted that they all continued the journey and go to a hospital nearby Gainesville. Hope’s mom, Ms.Castaño, who was a retired nurse, immediately recognized Cesar's symptoms. She claimed that he might have hepatitis, which is caused by drinking polluted water. She had gone through the same a few years ago, and although the body cures itself it can take several months and the side effects are just terrible.

It's already been a week since they left, and public transportation will finally be accessible once they pass Ocala. It should’ve only taken about 2 hours for them to get to Gainesville, but the road was kind of bumpy.

Cesar’s fever wasn’t getting any better and his parents were getting worried. To make things even worse the car they were all going in got stopped by some guards.

Guard: “Where are you all coming from, and what are you planning to do here?”

Even though it is a tendency for people to get interrogated sometimes even for days when they immigrate to a higher area, thanks to Mr. Valenzuela and some old connections that he had, they were able to bypass that. Cesar's situation was also a big factor, they all had to rush into the hospital and, as expected, Cesar was diagnosed with Hepatitis A.

Luckily he was given the right medicine and was able to recover quickly and was soon discharged from the hospital.

After a few weeks, both families were allowed to stay in Gainesville and so they decide to slowly start working towards building a new future.

But Hope couldn’t just move on with her life like nothing ever happened. She knew that there were still a lot of citizens, from small children to the elderly, who were struggling with the changes in the climate down on the Southern side. So Hope decided to start streaming online all that she had to go through, and the reality that most residents in South Florida were living. One day her videos turned viral, and she started getting the attention of some of the state and city candidates that were willing to work with her to make changes and bring resources - and hope - back to the community.