How the Key Bridge collapse impacted Latino communities far beyond Baltimore

High above the Patapsco River early Tuesday, a group of men fixed potholes on the Key Bridge, which is used by 30,000 motorists every day.

They were fathers, husbands and sons who had traveled far from poor villages in Honduras, El Salvador, Mexico and Guatemala.

Now they were the centerpiece of a global disaster, with loved ones left wondering what they must have felt in those terrifying final moments before tumbling several stories into the cold river.

One of the people pulled out alive from the water was a worker from the Mexican state of Michoacan, which said in a statement the three Mexican bridge workers were related.

Authorities have told the families they haven’t given up on recovering their loved ones from the twisted wreckage in the waters of the Patapsco, but they aren’t sure when that process will begin. Debris must be removed from the water before more bodies can be recovered.

“We know our people are involved,” Rafael Laveaga, chief of the Mexican Embassy in Washington’s consular section, said of the immigrants who died working for a living.

On Friday, a massive crane was being moved to the scene of the collapse. It will be part of the massive effort to clear up to 4,000 tons of debris that has hampered search crews.

“It was a crew who was repairing parts of the potholes on the bridge, and they’re the ones who are going to build the bridge again – the Latinos," Laveaga said.