In Honduras she had run a stall selling pupusas, a local tortilla, but been forced to shut down after being extorted by street gangs.

"If you don't pay them they kill you," said the woman, drawing a finger slowly across her throat. "It's like a tax of war, money to bandits, and you can't not pay.

"They made me pay 300 lempira a week - $12. To you it does not sound like a lot, but for me it was a lot. I had to close."

After shutting her stall three months ago the 35-year-old, who gave her name as Carolina, decided to head north. She had seen Honduran television coverage of the US-bound migrant caravan that was then just forming.

She brought her four-year-old daughter and a small bag of clothes. There was no room for toys. The girl caught a fever as they crossed the Mexican border, and cried the whole way as she was pushed in a stroller.

"I've been walking so I don't know what Donald Trump is saying at the moment," said Carolina. "I know he doesn't like me. There is nothing I can do about it. But I will keep going until I get to the United States. When I get there I will open a pupusa stall."