Wednesday, January 16, 2008
By J.B. Smith
Tribune-Herald staff writer
Call it an act of faith. Call it desperation.
One day last July I picked up the phone and ordered a plane ticket to Mexico City, not knowing where my journey would lead from there.
My goal was to track down the families of Mexicans who died crossing into the United States and whose bodies had been identified through the DNA forensic work of Baylor University scientist Lori Baker. But when I booked my ticket July 18, nine days before my departure, I still had no clue who I would talk to or where I would find them.
The writer (center) with Rene and Alfredo Sanchez, brothers of Fidel Sanchez Rosas, who died in the Arizona desert. The brothers took Smith whitewater rafting on the Filo-Bobos River, where they work assisting raft tours. Their faces are smeared with gray mud from the banks of the river, mud that is famous for soothing the skin.
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The idea had been simmering in my mind a couple of years after reporting on Professor Baker’s work. In March 2007, I turned the proposal into a last-minute application for a World Affairs Journalism Fellowship from the International Center for Journalists, which underwrites travel for international journalism.
They loved the idea as much as I did. If I could find families willing to talk, I was almost guaranteed a great story.
A big if.
It turned out that Dr. Baker, who contracted with the Mexican government to do the work, couldn’t give me a list of the deceased or their families. The medical examiner in Tucson, Ariz., could give me only names, ages and case numbers. It took months of barking up wrong bureaucratic trees to find the guy I needed: Jeronimo Garcia Ceballos, a helpful official at the Mexican Consulate in Tucson. Three days before I left for my three-week trip to Mexico, he got me permission to talk with three families in three states. It so happened that each was within a day’s drive of Mexico City.
Doors were opened . . .
It wasn’t the last time in reporting this piece that I had to depend on the kindness of strangers. In the mountain town of Real del Monte, I interviewed the family of Olaf Avila Gonzales, a 19-year-old who died in the Arizona desert. My girlfriend and I enjoyed a mini-vacation there, visiting old silver mines and eating trout wrapped in maguey leaves.
Then on the journey back down the mountain to the city of Pachuca, I managed to leave my laptop and video camera on a regional microbus.
My girlfriend, Bethany Wilson, got the lucky job of searching the back seats of each returning bus in Pachuca. I went back to Real del Monte and did the same, with the help of a sympathetic tamale vendor who helped me flag down drivers.
- International Center for Journalists, Washington, D.C.
- Lori Baker, Baylor University
- Faustino Francisco/Maximino Hernandez family, Tehuacán, Mexico
- Fidel Sanchez Rosas family, Tlapacoyan, Mexico
- Rosa and Diana Avila Gonzales, Real del Monte, Mexico
- Paulina Torres Casco, Veronica Chavez, State Commission for Immigrant Assistance, Tehuacán and Puebla
- Maria Luisa Ruiz Aponte, Tehuacán, Mexico
- Agent Sean King, U.S. Border Patrol, Tucson, Ariz.
- Bruce Parks and Bruce Anderson, Pima County Medical Examiner's Office
- The Rev. Robin Hoover, Mike Humphrey and Barbara Marshall of Humane Borders, Tucson.
- Jeronimo Garcia and Alejandro Ramos, Mexican Consulate, Tucson
- Gary Christopherson, University of Arizona, Tucson
- Gwen and Gary Kane, Tucson
- Bethany Wilson, Waco
“I hate to tell you this, but this isn’t like being in America,” she said. “People there are honest. It’s not like that here. If they see something like that, they’ll just take it. I don’t have much hope for your computer.”
So imagine my relief when, after two hours, an approaching bus driver motioned to me and handed me a note from Bethany: “I’ve found the computer. Come back.”
It was the same bus on which I had left the computer that morning. He gave me a lift and what seemed to be a proud rebuttal to the tamale lady.
“You see, we Mexicans are very honest,” he said.
I saw Mexican hospitality in action over the next two weeks, as I rode buses to the towns of Tehuacán and Tlapacoyan.
Hearts were opened . . .
The officials with the state immigration assistance office in Puebla and Tehuacán helped me arrange interviews with the families of Maximino Hernandez and Faustino Francisco. Not only that, they drove me from Puebla to Tehuacán — more than an hour’s distance — and took me to the impoverished neighborhood where the family lived. And I can’t fathom the hospitality of the families themselves, who gave several hours of their time when the pain of their loss was still raw.
In Tlapacoyan, Veracruz, the family of Fidel Sanchez Rosas, yet another victim of the Arizona desert, not only talked to me but took me on a whitewater rafting trip down the Filo-Bobos River, where the boy had worked as a guide. His brothers staunchly refused any pay.
Traveling to Arizona, I found people who devoted hours to explaining the humanitarian crisis in the desert: volunteers with Humane Borders, Border Patrol Agent Sean King, Jeronimo Garcia at the Mexican Consulate and Dr. Bruce Anderson with the Pima County Medical Examiner’s Office. My editor’s Tucson friends, Gwen and Gary Kane, not only took me out for carne seca enchiladas but lent me a couple of Arizona books that mysteriously vanished a few days later. (This apparent pattern of losing things is pure coincidence.)
Eyes were opened . . .
Only once in this whole odyssey did I feel fear, and it was in Arizona, not Mexico. West of Tucson, I climbed a ridge to snap pictures of the desert sunset. Coming down, I somehow strayed off the path and down a steep mountainside in the gathering dusk.
My feet slid with each step. Thorns scratched my ankles. My mouth went cotton-dry and my heart raced. In my dumb panic, I began running to beat nightfall. I slipped and cut my hand. I saw the lights of the highway and I realized I was overreacting: My rental car was only a quarter-mile away.
Recovering from the primal terror of being alone in the desert at night, I understood. After a hard day, an American journalist in Mexico or Arizona could retreat to the safe cocoon of a hotel room or car, or go have a beer in a nice cafe. The people I wrote about could not. I could leave a laptop on a bus and it would ruin my day’s travel plans. They could leave behind a water bottle and die. Whatever challenges I faced in my journey to chronicle their disastrous journeys, there was this difference: I could tell my story as comedy but theirs only as tragedy.
jbsmith@wacotrib.com
757-5752
Comments
By nancy
Feb 12, 2008 9:40 PM | Link to this
I think the article was really something to think about.And that when someone under age died,because of the decision that an adult like in this case made,should of been sent to jail,even if it was a relative.The border patrol could of given the dad tresspassing charges and perjury when he lied to the border patrol.The truth would of saved the kids.
By "WHITE CRACKER"
Jan 30, 2008 1:05 PM | Link to this
YEH,THATS WHAT YALL ARE IF YOUR AGAINST AMNESTY, A BUNCH OF WHITE FREELOADING WHITE CRACKERS, ONES AGAIN WE ARE THE MAJORITY AND WILL ALWAYS BE THE MAJORITY,AND "ARE" GONA TAKE OVER!!!
By Cornelio III
Jan 28, 2008 10:45 PM | Link to this
legalatina wrote:
"Let's get to the root of the problem here...it is greed. The greed and arrogance of the Mexican elite who use their populace as goats to be slaughtered for the profits of easy remittances that keep flowing into Mexico. And what is there to show for it? Are schools being built, jobs being created, hospitals and healthcare provided?"
You know there was a Mexican President, Lızaro Cırdenas back in 1934-1940. He was all about putting power and resources back into the people of Mexico. He was for nationalizing all Oil Companies and industry. Guess what? The U>S boycotted it and if i remember correctly convinced others to boycott. He had not choice but to buy supplies from anyone who would sell them to him and turns out COMMUNIST HAD NO ARGUMENTS WITH DOING SO. Then the U.S got even more butt hurt. My purpose for saying this, yes those in power, those higher up are greedy and they want money. Why do you think they let foreigners with money get away with so much.
You want to also place more blame, lets blame on yourselves. You want cheap stuff, and bam THERE IS SOMEONE THEIR TO PROVIDE IT. Either to work it or to produce it. Then not only do you want that, but you want to make money off of your own products and ship it into mexico, selling it for cheaper, and forcing the smaller farmers,e ct out of business, making them look for other types of work. Were else do they turn to besides North.
And once again, I see some arguments that my brothers, sisters, cousins from the south are "sucking" dry our resources and freeloading. Well ya know what, the money they spend, the tax's they pay ONCE AGAIN, THEY DONT SEE THAT MONEY BACK, it goes back into the government. SO look into the U.S government for that stuff.
By legalatina
Jan 28, 2008 6:37 PM | Link to this
Honestly, another sob story regarding illegal aliens who place their families in jeopardy to cross the border. How about spend some time interviewing Mexican government officials and asking them why they aren't instituting immediate reforms and humane laws that provide economic opportunities, jobs, education and health care for their underclass? Let's get to the root of the problem here...it is greed. The greed and arrogance of the Mexican elite who use their populace as goats to be slaughtered for the profits of easy remittances that keep flowing into Mexico. And what is there to show for it? Are schools being built, jobs being created, hospitals and healthcare provided? Why of course not,....no need American taxpayers provide for all of that here. It's time to turn the tables on Mexico and make them account to their own people...that is what Calderon, Hernandez and Fox are very afraid of....and why they come to the U.S. to pander to our politicians. Secure the border, enforce the law. Don't hire illegal aliens and don't patronize businesses that do. Report and deport. Ya es hora! Si se puede!
By julie
Jan 28, 2008 5:50 PM | Link to this
Here is where we draw the line, weather yall like it or not, 1.The majority in this country are latino,even if yall build the "muro" fence,add more security @the border,whatever....A-Later in the future latinos will take over everything, for example-our latino kids will be the children of the future,and be up there in congress, in office-get it??? B-The catch to trying to keep us out of the country is pointless because YOUR OWN AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE LETTING US IN VERY SAFETLY AND "ILLEGALLY"- $$$$$ TALKS BABY.. WEATHER YALL LIKE IT OR NOT....AND GUESS WHO SENDS US THAT $ TO OUR COUNTRIES- OUR LOVED ONED HERE IN THE US.
By USPatriot
Jan 28, 2008 5:35 PM | Link to this
What is the purpose of this series ? Is it intended to divert Mexico's responsibilty to ALL it's citizens,not just the rich,and make American Citizens the scape goats.
If so you have failed miserably and in fact are making MORE Americans angry.
We are tired of paying for IA's and it is time they take responsibility and revolt against their useless government and stop blaming American Citizens.We have NO control over Mexican Government or their policies.
Oh Yes and maybe you might take a look at how Mexico deals with Illegals and how non-citizens of Mexico are not allowed in any way to protest or have any say in Mexican Government.
By CM in FL
Jan 28, 2008 4:36 PM | Link to this
It seems a lot of people are sympathetic to the plight of the Illegals and to some extent so am I.
Are you people angry with Mexico's Government for not providing jobs for their people and do you know the richest man in the world is Mexican ? Do you think the IA's should take any personal responsibilty since.
#1 They are breaking our laws ?
#2They know how dangerous it is to try and cross a desert ?
#3.Do you think the landscaping co. should be held accountable for aiding and abetting people who break our laws or putting peoples lives at risk so they can have cheap labor and sometimes take jobs Americans Will Do ?
#4 Do you believe the USA can take every IA who wants to come to America ? Where do we draw the line ?
By ana
Jan 28, 2008 1:08 PM | Link to this
THANK YOU LINDA!!!! EVERYTHING YOUR SAYING IS SOOOO TRUE.TOO BAD THERE'S STILL PEOPLE IN THIS WORLD THAT JUDGE YOU BY THE COLOR OF YOUR SKIN OR THE POVERTY LEVEL YOUR IN...GOD BLESS YOU.
By Mary
Jan 27, 2008 1:01 PM | Link to this
Thank you for the article. What was Pachuca like? I may be going there this summer.
By Linda
Jan 25, 2008 7:44 PM | Link to this
I don't think the article was written "to make a person feel so sorry for the illegals" but to maybe shed light on what is happening at the border. I believe the author was writing from his heart and showing that there are actually people who care about the those who come here to mow lawns, pick crops and stand in blood ten hours a day in meat packing plants.
So many Americans want to make the undocumented the SCAPEGOATS of everything that is wrong in the United States. I hate to break it to you, Dinah, but my sister died in a drunk driving accident in 2000 and the man who caused her death was CAUCASIAN and UNINSURED! Does that cause me to paint all drunk drivers with the same brush? No! There are good and bad in all people. Seriously, that is only one example but I can punch holes in all of your points.
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