For some North Texas families, a trip to DFW International Airport marked the end of a decades-long wait.<\/p>\n
Families gathered to welcome elderly loved ones from Mexico. Some saw their mothers, grandmothers and other relatives for the first time in 20 to 30 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of emotions because my cousin gets to see his mom after 23 years,\u201d Erika Hubka, who was waiting for her aunt, said.<\/p>\n
For months, the families worked toward the reunions.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy husband hasn\u2019t seen his mother in 20 years,\u201d Vanessa Calixto, who was waiting for her grandmother and mother-in-law, said. <\/p>\n
Phone calls and video chats helped families stay connected, but Calixto said it was no replacement for being together in person.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey always speak over the phone, there are video calls, but there\u2019s nothing like a hug. That you miss from your mother,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
As relatives walked through the doors at DFW Airport, years of separation gave way to tears, laughter and long-awaited embraces.<\/p>\n
Lazos De Oro, led by director Jaime Damian, helped make the reunions possible. The group went through an 18-month visa application process to bring the families together.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has been a mission,\u201d Damian said.<\/p>\n
After seven years of witnessing reunions, Damian said the emotions still get to him.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes tears come out of your eyes, and that’s okay,\u201d he said. \u201cIt’s a lot of joy.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the families waiting at DFW Airport, decades of distance finally ended in an embrace.<\/p>\n
This story was originally reported for broadcast by NBC DFW. AI tools helped convert the story into a digital article, and an NBC DFW journalist edited it again before publication.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For some North Texas families, a trip to DFW International Airport marked the end of a decades-long wait.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":468262,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[5721,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-468261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-dfw-airport","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}