Category Archives: Snapshots

Random things about us

A Quick Tour of the STHRC

Community, Snapshots, Uncategorized

We’ve spent this week at the South Texas Human Rights Center (STHRC), and so I thought I would post a few pictures of what the center is like. The hub of all activity regarding this crisis in Falfurrias is situated in a tiny, yet cozy building right across the street from the Brooks County Courthouse. The main room contains a few desks with computers and papers, a central table and chairs, and is decorated by an assortment of posters, religious items, and colorful trinkets. Behind the main room is a small backroom that mainly contains water and donated supplies. Finally, the backdoor of the center leads to a small storage area containing buckets and poles used for making water stations.

Map of Brooks County with push pins labeled with numbers to identify where water stations are located
A map is used to keep track of all the water stations in Brooks County . Sister Pam makes sure all stations are checked, repaired and refilled every week.
Stacks of milk crates filled with jugs of water infront of a window in the South Texas Human Rights Center
Stacks of water jugs sit in the front of the room, waiting to be placed in the truck during a water station refilling run. Water is donated by multiple organizations and people around the community.
Colorful Decorations and posters on a mantle near a workstation in the South Texas Human Rights Center
The colorful center is incredibly decorated by various signs and posters that generally symbolize hope and respect for migrants and their families. Many of these posters have at one time been used to bring awareness to the humanitarian crisis. Others are donations.
Director of the South Texas Human Rights Center, Eddie, engaged in a discussion with Priscilla in front of a South Texas Human Rights Center poster in the center
Eddie and Priscilla discuss upcoming strategies. Priscilla, an intern from the University of Pittsburgh, is often busy making phone calls to families of the missing in hopes of obtaining as much information as possible that could aid in finding their loved one. Eddie, the director of the center, continually offers advice and support for interns and volunteers. His passion for the human rights center’s work is unrelenting.
Eddie and Sister Pam discuss as she sits infront of a computer in the STHRC
Eddie and Sister Pam discuss recent the good news of obtaining additional missing persons reports. Sister Pam works tirelessly, approaching the crisis from every direction possible. The only time she isn’t smiling is when she is concentrating very hard. Her smile brings a positive aura to the center that resonates as bright as the colorful decorations that don the walls.
Sister Pam with a drill showing Justin how to build flag poles for water stations
Sister Pam teaches Justin how to build flag poles used for water stations. No job scares Sister Pam. From climbing over ranch fences to repair water stations to carrying giant buckets, Sister Pam constantly leads and inspires those around her and working with her.
Stacks of water barrels, flagpoles, and barrel tops all organized in a storage area outdoors
Water buckets and DIY flag poles are stored behind the center. Sister Pam and the human rights center currently has around 70 water stations available around Brooks County for migrants to use if needed. Their goal is 100 as soon as possible.

This cozy center has been our home this past week, but can be home to anyone who would like to volunteer their time.

If you are interested in assisting the South Texas Human Rights Center, visit their website at http://southtexashumanrights.org/ and contact Eddie. I promise you will become inspired and proud in the process. The team at the STHRC is second to none, and has taught us new ways to engage and address this crisis. I am extremely thankful to have joined their team this week.

Ryan

“We got lucky with this one…”

Human Rights, Migrant Death, Snapshots

“Here’s the spreadsheet that has all the details for this year’s missing persons reports.”

Dates of last known contact, what clothing they were likely wearing, whether there was any history of dental work or surgeries, and other possibly identifying information filled cells of the spreadsheet. There was a lot of data, but question marks and blank cells for missing data easily stood out.  I wasn’t really sure how to process the data. Where do you start? How do you start looking for connections?

“Oh no, these are just the reports from the Brooks County Sheriff’s Office. We’ll get to the other counties and all of the other reports sent to us from other states in a minute.”

Hailey Duecker giving a presentation infront of a powerpoint depicting the Texas US border

Hailey Duecker, the forensic anthropology fellow at the South Texas Human Rights Center, pulled up a current missing persons case she was working on to walk me through the process of search and rescue/recovery that begins with a phone call from family or friends of the missing. This particular report was written entirely in Spanish.

“We got lucky with this one. Two separate organizations have information about this missing person, and so we have a lot of photos and a lot more information than we normally have about someone.” Hailey showed me the photos and explained how she inputs this data into a public database called NamUs, the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System. “If we’re really lucky, we’ll have a few possible matches with unidentified persons found here in Texas.”

It seemed simple enough. A family calls in, reports a loved one as missing, gives as much information as possible, promises to submit a reference sample for DNA comparisons, and the South Texas Human Rights Center makes sure the data can be compared with other cases. But what I learned today was that this ‘simple’ process actually takes months and months of painstaking organization, persistence and patience to complete. Multiple human rights organizations strive to collect as much information as possible to find the missing, which in spirit is incredible. At this point however, as Hailey is able to quickly show me, these intentions often lead to decentralization. This means that multiple missing persons reports often exist for the same individual, often with conflicting information. And when one missing person is assigned a different case number by each organization or agency, these multiple numbers can easily get mixed up, creating a tangled web of useful information.

While this sounds like a problem, I see this as an opportunity to learn and become immersed in each individual case, and I think Hailey does too. As I spend this week learning as much as I can from Hailey before transitioning into her position, I’m realizing our job is a tedious one as we condense and clean an extremely large dataset into something more suitable for making comparisons. Even after only a single day of working with her, we started to fill in the blanks on a few cases, make a few comparisons, and equally if not more importantly, make some exclusions. I felt both a sense of relief and urgency with each blank cell on that spreadsheet that we filled in.

“I think we can exclude this set of remains as belonging to this missing person because the remains were found a few days before the date that he was last seen. That’s really good news, really good news.” Hailey spoke with excitement and passion every time she talked about getting one tiny step closer towards an identification. “Look further down this spreadsheet here, you can see how some of these missing persons turned out to be people who were deported. They’re alive, and that’s always the best news.”

Dr. Latham eyed us looking over the spreadsheet, probably because Hailey was flying through the explanations with excitement. She definitely sensed my head spinning.

“What do you think Ryan, you think you can handle it?”

I definitely think I can. Today was an eye opener for me that this week of training is going to be an emotionally exhaustive experience that throws me out of my comfort zone. But that’s what this trip is about, and I’ve never felt more ready for this job than after today.

Ryan

The Packing Frenzy

Snapshots

A map of Texas with a magnifying glass over the southern border counties and Brooks Co highlighted in Red

In just a few short days the UIndy team will be heading back to South Texas to help with the humanitarian efforts in Falfurrias and at Texas State University. The Archaeology and Forensics Laboratory (AFL) is abuzz with activity. The beginning of the summer has been especially busy for us, packed with tons of casework, a conference, and a weeklong recovery out of state. This flurry of activity continues as we get closer and closer to the day we leave. As excited as I am to get to Texas, I’m starting to realize all the prep work that still needs to be done. Oh sure, the supply lists have been made, the plane tickets and hotel accommodations have been taken care of ages ago, but now the packing frenzy begins.

This afternoon we put those supply lists to good use and packed a bag with field supplies and everything that we would need to do skeletal analyses. Our field gear includes measuring tapes, compasses, string, stakes, and a north arrow, among other things. Our skeletal analysis supplies consists mostly of paper forms and reference materials. The most sophisticated pieces of equipment we’re bringing with us this year are a set of sliding and spreading calipers, which are tools that we use to measure bones with. Most notably, we will be carrying with us a box full of animal bones that will be used for teaching purposes, of course. Carrying this box through the airport should be interesting.

For my own personal packing, my top priority is what books I’m going to pack. Already, there is a stack of books next to my empty suitcase on the floor. I know that much of the trip will be spent working hard, so I’ll have to be judicious about the number of books I carry with me. At the top of the stack sits Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, followed by Pride and Prejudice, and The Time Machine by H.G. Wells. Off to the side I have a book of poetry by Elizabeth Bishop, an American poet who did quite a bit of traveling herself. She writes some truly amazing stuff. This one will go directly into my carry-on.

I have never been to Texas before and I’m glad for the opportunity to be able to do so. I’m a New Yorker, born and raised, and until I went to graduate school I had never lived anywhere else. I haven’t really travelled much in the United States. I’ve mostly stuck to the Northeast and Canada with an occasional visit to Florida, where my brother lives. Everything I know about Texas comes from books, TV, and the three Texans that currently inhabit the AFL. I’ve been told that Texas is extremely hot and humid, that the people there are the nicest you’ll ever meet, that the tacos are amazing, and that, yes, everything is bigger in Texas. I’m excited to immerse myself in all things Texas and am lucky to have two native Texans, Dr. Krista Latham and Ryan Strand, to show me the ropes.

Amanda