Category Archives: Community

Interaction with the community of Falfurrias

Home, Sweet Home

Community, Human Rights, Migrant Death, Reflections

At last, this season of fieldwork in Falfurrias has come to a close.  The time slipped by so quickly that it all seems like a haze.  When I recall our time in the field I see a patchwork of new and old faces, I picture a sea of sand with an endless supply of buckets that need to be moved (think Sisyphus), and a blur of hands ready to pass a trowel or give a lift out of the hole.  The heat tried to burn us down one by one, almost ending our work early by attrition.  The heat didn’t stand a chance.  What I remember the most was the dogged perseverance that compelled everyone in the field to finish.  Instead of breaking us, the heat and pressure forged us into something great.  Our work has changed us, and that is something I will never forget.

Bell, a cute brown dog curled up on a couch
Bell, lonely without Ryan

Our team is back in Indy now.  We have slept in our own beds, cuddled our loved ones (look how sad Bell was without Ryan), and experienced some of the finer points of home.  Home is good- it is safe, calming, and filled with the things and people we love.  To use an old and tired cliché, home is where the heart is.  While we consider ourselves home now, I believe that every one of us left a piece of our hearts in Falfurrias.  Some part of us will always be at home in Fal.

I have mentioned to some people that I often feel like a tourist in this humanitarian crisis.  I live nowhere near the border, and I travel down for two weeks in the summer to help.   Once my time has passed, I have the luxury of returning to back to Indy.  In Indy I don’t face the daily realities of people dying on my doorstep.  I don’t see tragic news stories so often to become numb to them.  I have the ability to literally distance myself from the situation, and yet I cannot.  I now find myself over a thousand miles away with much of my heart left in Falfurrias.

A group picture in a field of greenery and purple flowers

Fluttering Fields of “Heart’s Delight’

I know now that I am not a tourist.  I have made new friends and family, and became part of their community.  I have lived in many places, but I have never felt as loved and welcomed as I did in south Texas.  Every person in Falfurrias welcomed us with open arms (seriously, I have never gotten so many hugs in my life).  It is an honor to be considered part of their community.

Though we are back in Indianapolis, our work continues.  Hopefully our efforts will continue to shape policies surrounding the treatment of both the living and the dead.  Ideally we would have never been in Texas- no one would have died under the scorching Texas sun and we would live comfortably as armchair anthropologists.  In a perfect world people would die happy having lived a full life, not in the pursuit of happiness or in search of a better life.   For now, I rest knowing that I am doing what I can to help.  I will do everything in my power to ensure that each and every individual is identified and returned to their loved ones.  Families will be reunited, and souls can rest in a place they consider home.

A bent metal burial marker with the words ""Male, Unknown, 417654" falling off

Lost, But Not Forgotten

The great taco challenge

Community, Snapshots
A collage of different tacos with all different ingredients
Tacos!

And now for a lighter post:  You may remember Erica mentioning the great taco challenge that the two if us would be undertaking while in Texas.  The challenge would only be complete if we ate something wrapped in a soft or fried tortilla at least once a day. Being a native Texan I was up for the challenge. Plus my favorite food is anything wrapped in a tortilla or piled on chips and smothered in hot sauce.  A few of my favorite taco meals are pictured in the montage above.

We had the opportunity to eat some amazing food while in Texas. Some of our favorites were the homemade meals prepared by Arturo and his family, the homemade menudo in large crock-pots arranged by the local Sheriff’s Department and the fresh tamales brought to us by Flavio Garcia from a neighboring town.  Interspersed among these home cooked meals were a variety of tacos.  My first taco (brisket) was consumed during our first meal after arriving  in San Antonio and spawned the taco challenge. My last taco in Texas (chicken and bean) was part of our final meal at the San Antonio airport.

The most memorable meals came from the town of Falfurrias. Stricklands Restaurant provided a relaxed and comfortable western  feel with delicious meals.  While I stuck with items off their Mexican food menu, some of our other favorites included the fried catfish bites, brisket sandwich and chicken fried chicken.  Our other favorite place to eat was Star of Texas.  The owner was our server the first time we ate there and we had a great time talking to him and hearing his stories.  He could have just poured the salsa in a cup because we wanted to drink it and the carne guisada was absolutely amazing! So amazing that we made sure Star of Texas was our last dinner in Falfurrias. The other place we frequented quite often was, believe it or not, the gas station next to our hotel.  Inside the Valero Gas Station was a small counter selling items from the Laredo Taco Company.  Behind the counter the tortillas were rolled out and grilled to order. There was also a salsa bar that contained a variety of toppings. My favorite was the picadillo, but other favorites were the beef fajita or carnitas tacos.

While we worked hard in Falfurrias, our tummies were always full. Our meals were special times that we spent with each other or with the new friends we made while in Brooks County.

~KEL

Leaving Texas

Community, Snapshots

Group picture outside a yellow hotel with one finger raised on one hand and two fingers raised on the other hand

Two men standing behind the counter at a shop with various pastries in the clear glass cover of the counter
Dos Gatos

Our last morning we decided to take it slow and see a little more of San Marcos. We were happy to leave the Red Roof Inn and head out to explore more of this part of Texas.  For breakfast Ryan took us to Dos Gatos for some amazing kolaches.  We each got two (a savory and a sweet), plus we got a half dozen for the group to snack on later.   Then we went to Mochas & Javas for coffee.  We spent the morning retelling stories and reliving memories we had made during our trip.  We also spent part of our time at the coffee shop doing our last team debriefing for the trip.  Our debriefings were simple: 1) What did we do well yesterday, 2) How can we improve our methods, 3) Questions and 4) Plans for tomorrow.  Since we weren’t in the field the previous day our discussions focused more on future plans: how we will maintain the blog as we move from the field to the lab phase of the mission, how we will process and analyze the unidentified individuals from Sacred Heart that will come to Indianapolis, how we can support our colleagues at Texas State University that are doing a large amount of processing, how we can support our colleague at California State University at Chico who is doing the isotope analysis, and how we can continue to raise funds for our return trip next year and the costs of analysis, while bringing awareness to the issue.

Group picture all standing in the river with no shoes on
The River

Before heading to the airport we needed to make one more San Marcos staple stop, the river.  Ryan led us to one of the more secluded spots on the river where we were all able to take off our shoes and soak our tired feet. Standing in the river as the water rushed over our feet was a great way to decompress after our two weeks in Brooks County.  Ryan and Justin taught us how to skip stones, we did some bird watching and mostly we just took the time to relax because we’ll be jumping right back into full schedules once we get back home.  Some of us will be taking classes, teaching, working, preparing to travel for data collection and diving into the forensic caseload that accumulated while we were gone.

Team picture all in their seats on the plane
Homeward bound

Unfortunately we did not have a ton of time to spare and had to soon head back to San Antonio to catch our flight home.  Just like last summer, I learned so much from this experience.  I was honored to meet the many people that would visit our site to show their support and gratitude and the many people that are also working on this human rights crisis in differing fashions. The community has been so welcoming and kind to us it is like leaving a second home, so much so that I already find myself missing Falfurrias.

–Erica