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Day 3: Expect the Unexpected

General, Human Rights, Migrant Death

Day three began with an early start and Whataburger breakfast. We packed up Monica (our rental minivan) before breakfast, so we could head to the cemetery to continue our work right after eating. We had general plans laid out from the night before to execute today. Once we arrived, we were given a new area of the section of the cemetery we have been working in to begin excavating. Before we started, we did some preliminary mapping to tie the new area to the one we worked on the last two days.

UIndy Team and Texas State Team Members Working on uncovering burials
Our Team and Texas State Team Members Working

With a larger amount of space to work in, we were able to work in teams of two. Olivia and I began working on one burial, removing the larger chunks of dirt to expose as much of the surface as possible. Once that was done, we began troweling around the edges of the burial in order to define them. At the same time, Izzy and Kaitlyn were removing dirt from another burial we were assigned to and creating stairs that our team could use to get in and out of the areas we were working in. Our team exposed the first burial, took important measurements, and removed the individual in the morning. This took a lot of coordinating between all of us, due to the depth of the burial and other physical obstacles.

Deputy Don White and Eddie Canales assisting with the exhumations
Eddie and Don Helping Out the Team

Once the first individual was moved to the intake area, we were able to all focus on the next burial. The position of this burial was not as expected, making the excavation more complicated. The consistency of the soil also makes excavation more difficult. We had a lot of assistance from Deputy Don White and Eddie Canales from the South Texas Human Rights Center. We continued to work on uncovering this burial until the end of the day.

Deputy White grilling burgers
Don Grilling Burgers

For the evening, we were invited by Dr. Spradley and her team to dinner at their Airbnb. We were celebrating Eddie’s birthday. Don grilled burgers for us (and they were really good!). After dinner, we headed back to the hotel for our daily debrief. During these meetings, we are able to discuss what we accomplished that day and what we can do to improve the next day’s work. Personally, I like to hear the other team member’s perceptions of our day and what they think we did well and what needs improvement. The different viewpoints are helpful to gain a complete look at our day.

Our team’s trip to Eagle Pass allows us to apply our technical knowledge and skills to real world circumstances. This is important, however, we also strive to do everything we can to treat these individuals with care and respect. We will have another long day tomorrow and we are ready to continue working on our section of the cemetery.

Team members on Day 3
End of Day 3!

– Jordan

Day 2: Plans & Pickaxes

General, Human Rights, Migrant Death
Dr. Latham getting a stress test from Deputy White
Dr. Latham getting a stress test from Don

Day 2 started with Kaitlyn’s tai chi and the rest of us rolling out of bed to the hotel breakfast. Once we had finished eating, we packed up the minivan [still yet to be named] and headed to the cemetery to continue our work. At the end of the day yesterday, we had fully prepared the second individual in our area to be removed first thing this morning.

As we prepared for this task, the Texas State team continued the work in their area as well. We removed a bit more of the dirt to better expose the individual on all sides and mapped in the four corners of the burial. After, we devised a plan to safely remove the individual. This ended up including the use of the mattock [my new favorite tool!] to create better stairs and footholds for us to use to step out of the burial while carrying the individual. We then implemented our plan and successfully moved the individual to a new body bag on the surface level then to the intake tent. By the end of the day, we had all together exhumated 3 additional individuals.

The backhoe working at the cemetery
Our burial site from yesterday + New sites being dug

Many of these graves are marked with a white cross and some with a marker stating their associated case number and dates. We proceeded to map in the other grave markers where we plan on continuing to work for the next few days. Although we have some information from the workers at the cemetery and Dr. Spradley about where many individuals are buried, there is no guarantee about where they actually are inside the burial shaft. Once all the burials exposed yesterday had been exhumed, the cemetery workers refilled the holes with the dirt we took out and began excavating the dirt above more suspected burials with a backhoe. This is a very slow process as it is very important to just remove dirt down to the layer above the burials as to protect the individual inside the burial from any excavation damage. Our tools gradually get smaller the closer to the individual we get, from mattocks to shovels to trowels to our hands.

Team members learning about the RES
Learning about the RES

While this was going on, some members from Texas State‘s team taught us about their electromagnetic resistivity device [RES], a device used to survey disturbances in the soil underground. In this context, the RES can be used to identify burials underground. We also got a special knife safety lesson from Deputy Don White [The more you know … with Don!]. Don’s wisdom never fails as he knows just about everything [any anything] we throw at him!

We called it a day early to prepare our plan for the newly uncovered areas. After showers, we went to Laredo Tacos and HEB and came back to our evening debrief. We always go around in a circle and each say one thing we did well and one thing we believe we can improve on, followed by any thoughts and concerns then the plan for tomorrow. This is one of the things I personally believe really helps us as a team. Our communication here travels into the field so we can better work together. Even though it’s day two, it was obvious our meeting yesterday translated to today as the removal of the individual from our site this morning went even better than our removal yesterday.

Team members mapping at the cemetery
Measuring our burial for mapping

Our team focuses a lot on efficiency and procedure of excavation and exhumation, but we are not blind to the circumstances that brought us here. I, personally, have never dealt with death at this scale, even after two trips of searching the Texas borderlands previously. We hear stories about how these individuals came to be in our care. It can be very overwhelming to be literally face-to-face with this tragedy. The urge to do our absolute best for every individual we can is strong and is the biggest motivator any time we feel sore, fatigued, etc. A great example is each member of the team being told once a day [at least] that we must take a break because we only want to keep pushing forward.

Tomorrow will be a long and physically demanding day, but we are all ready to get back to work. Good things will happen!

–Izzy

(also hi Ray)

Team members on day 2
Day 2 Picture!

Day 1: A Good Day for Digging

Community, Human Rights, Migrant Death, Snapshots

Our first day started bright and early – or should I say dark and early. With a meeting time of 7:00 am, we had to get up, dressed, and ready to work before the sun was up. Kaitlyn started her day with some Tai Chi while Jordan, Izzy, and I started with groans. Clearly, only one of us is a morning person. After a quick breakfast at our hotel, we were off in the minivan to meet up with the Texas State team and Deputy Don White at the cemetery.

Dr. Latham and Dr. Spradley

The Texas State team is bigger than ours and consists of master’s and Ph.D. students, but they all seem nice and ready to work. Dr. Ana Carina Marques and two of her students from the University of Texas – Rio Grande Valley are also helping with the project. After a quick introductory meeting, we unloaded all of our equipment from the van and got ready to work. The morning started out a little chilly, but by the time the sun came out and we started moving, the Texas heat was making its presence known.

Team members digging at the cemetery

The cemetery workers had used a backhoe to help speed up our excavation process and prevent us from having to manually dig down multiple feet through the hard clay-like soil that is in this part of south Texas. Our team took one area, while the Texas State and UTRGV teams took another. We started out by taking some measurements, so Jordan can create a detailed map of the area (which we learned is harder than expected because we can’t do math). Then, it was time to start excavating.

Team members mapping at the cemetery
Measuring in our data points

During the first excavation, we began to find our groove as a team, removing dirt the consistency of peanut butter, emptying buckets, and reminding each other to take breaks and drink plenty of water. We quickly learned that wet dirt/clay is not fun to work with and will only feel heavier and heavier the more you work with and lift it. When it came time to remove the individual from the grave, we donned our PPE and worked together to lift and remove the individual from the grave. They were then taken to the intake tent

Two team members taking a break and watching others work at the cemetery
Jordan and I taking a break

While Kaitlyn went to the intake tent, Dr. Latham, Izzy, Jordan, and I started to work on our second excavation. The intake process, run by Texas State, is extremely detailed, recording as many features – both biological and material – as possible because you never know what may be the key to a positive identification. By the end of the work day in the field (approximately ten hours!), we had three individuals removed and through the intake process, with several more ready to remove first thing in the morning. We called it a day, had our bottles of ice-cold Coke from glass bottles (because it tastes better from a glass bottle. It’s a fact), annoyed Don a little (he loves us, even if he won’t admit it), and headed back to the hotel.

After quick showers that included a lot of soap and scrubbing, we headed out for a delicious dinner at Parilla de San Miguel. Once back at the hotel, we had our nightly debrief before Jordan started making her map, Izzy created a photography log for all of the photos we took throughout the day, and Kaitlyn watched the movie Stardust. We can already tell we’re going to be sore, but we’re excited to get back to work tomorrow.

The team plus Deputy White on day 1

~Olivia