TLAPA DE COMONFORT, Mexico—When Claudio Ortega Maldonado was 17, he left his home in the mountains of Guerrero, never to return. Ortega knew what awaited him if he stayed: He grew up in poverty in a family of seasonal farmers and began working as a child. He hoped to offer his parents and 11 siblings a better life with the money he sent home from New York City, and to build a house in Mexico that he could eventually return to. After 13 years away, he wanted to surprise his family and come home on Mother’s Day this year. Instead, Ortega died of the coronavirus on April 22 in a Brooklyn hospital at the age of 29.
In New York, Ortega had quickly landed a job as a cook, though he was undocumented. He worked 10-hour shifts six days a week, earning $3,000 a month—and sending $450 each month to his family. He sent presents for his siblings such as clothes and shoes and kept a close eye on his parents’ well-being. Every payday, he would buy a lottery ticket, dreaming of buying his parents a house in Mexico City and returning home to sell produce. Ortega, more than 2,100 miles away, was his family’s main provider.
