Matías Romero, in Oaxaca, is associated with a pivotal stage in Maria Elena Dominguez’s displacement: after soldiers took her from her family in Chiapas, she was brought to a Franciscan-run orphanage on the town’s outskirts. She refused to regard herself as an orphan and repeatedly tried to leave, making the institution a temporary stop rather than a settled refuge.

Setting and Role

The book identifies Matías Romero through the orphanage at its outskirts, where Maria Elena arrived several days after her removal from Chiapas. The older driver who transported her had treated her kindly and shared his food with her. Beyond this institutional setting, the account provides little description of the town itself; its significance lies in the place it occupies in Maria Elena’s journey.

Maria Elena’s Time at the Orphanage

In retrospect, Maria Elena recognized that the orphanage had not been a bad place in itself. Her refusal to remain there came from her conviction that she was not an orphan, not from a judgment that the facility was cruel. She ran away twice, but each time was found and returned before she could make it back to Chiapas. The repeated returns mark the distance between institutional placement and the home she still sought.

A Waystation in a Longer Displacement

After her third escape, Maria Elena was caught and sent to a juvenile detention center in Colima. Later, for reasons that none of those involved understood, she and two other girls were taken north by bus under guard to El Asilo Seguro outside Hermosillo. Matías Romero therefore stands at the beginning of a sequence of transfers: the orphanage briefly held Maria Elena after her family was taken from her, but did not end her attempts to return home or the institutional movement that followed.