Saul Flores embarked on the long and dangerous 5,328-mile journey, “The Walk of the Immigrants,” from Ecuador to North Carolina this summer and shared his story with an audience of about 100 students and faculty members on Thursday.
He walked from Quito, Ecuador, to Charlotte with only a camera, a backpack and a couple of changes of clothes.
He said his goal was to raise awareness of the dangerous journey that many Latin American immigrants make to the United States. He also wants to raise money to rebuild the school of General Emiliano Zapata in Atencingo, Mexico, where his family is from.
“I wanted to experience the journey of a migrant and translate it to the American public,” Flores said.
Flores is a senior Mexican-American student at N.C. State University.
He said he started his journey May 17 and finished Aug. 11. He walked, hitchhiked and took buses across borders of 10 countries with limited budgets and resources.
Despite his struggles to get to the U.S., he said he was grateful for the generosity of the members of the communities where he had to stay. They offered him places to sleep and food.
But Flores ate only once a day, enough to have the strength to keep going.
He lost 20 pounds.