The UIndy team made it home around midnight last night. The south Texas winter days are definitely different than winters in Indianapolis. We were greeted by a thick layer of ice on our vehicles and snow on the roads. Just because we are home doesn’t mean we are done sharing with you. Please continue to check the blog daily for the next week.
As our last day comes to a close, I cannot help but think about the people I am going to miss. I will miss Dr. Spradley, Dr. Gocha, Deputy Don, and the many others who volunteer their time to assist in identifying the individuals who exist as a mere number in the legal system without this humanitarian effort. I will miss Joe and Luis, who not only came to the cemetery every day with an eager outlook and a focused mind, but proceeded to bring us donuts, fried chicken, fruit, or pistachios to show their appreciation for the hard work we put in. Today has been full of various emotions. Dr. Latham said this has been considerably different than the final day of most previous field seasons. This time, the groups are not working to quickly, carefully uncover the final few individuals before cleaning up and leaving the site. The UIndy team has finished thoroughly investigating every open area of our quadrant for the remains of the unidentified migrants we are searching for. This time, our final day is a day of closure.
As Joe and Luis worked on filling in the large pits we had excavated within, everyone else supervised and cleaned up the site. Texas State came back with coffee, so Joe took a break and came over to our group. During this time, he shared some of his experiences living and working close to the border. It was powerful to hear the sincerity in his voice as he reminded us that people walk enormous distances to cross into the United States in search of a safer life and higher paying jobs, yet die of heat exhaustion, starvation, and dehydration as they journey through the state avoiding checkpoints. This was the most I had interacted with Joe during the trip, but it was valuable to receive a local’s perspective about those suffering in this crisis.
Once the surface had been entirely leveled out, we gathered plastic flowers, trimmed the grass around grave markers, and stuck the flowers in the ground or tied them in place in front of every burial. Every single burial received at least 3 flowers, thanks to Leann. Leann essentially became the self-established site florist for two hours as we finished marking burials that had been missing a sign. It is so important to Texas State University and University of Indianapolis to show our respect and leave the cemetery even better than we got it. This felt like the perfect final gesture to end the exhumations with a small gift.
I have been very touched by the events of our final day. I was able to see the site in stunning condition before we left to drive back to our hotel for the last time. There is still much to do. Leann and I have some mapping to work on over the weekend, and a long day of travel ahead of us tomorrow. However, I have been absolutely amazed by the amount I have learned from this experience. Texas has been extremely good to the Beyond Borders team this year, and for that we are grateful. We are very fortunate that Dr. Latham’s involvement with this project has allowed us to participate another year and provide students with the opportunity to help provide closure to many families who have lost their loved ones.
We are exhausted. In fact, we are beyond exhausted. Today marks eight straight days of pushing our bodies to the brink of our physical strength. We have had at least ten to twelve hour days every day since we have been here, on top of hours of blogging, mapping, and debriefing each night, and our bodies can tell. Despite all of the physical exhaustion and emotional challenges we are facing, we never complain and we never forget why we are here. We are here because the individuals being exhumed faced far worse conditions than us, conditions we can never even begin to imagine. We are here because these individuals risked their lives and died seeking a better and safer life for themselves and their families. We are here because these individuals were buried without any attempts at identification, leaving their families to wonder what happened to them. We are here because we are fighting for justice for the individuals who have had their basic human rights blatantly ignored. We are here because of the families missing loved ones, hoping to bring them closure and free them from the pain of not knowing. This keeps our team going. We never forget why we are here.
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This morning, we visited “The Wall” in Brownsville, TX. We stopped at a beautiful park downtown that was right along the wall where we were able to sit and reflect on our experiences thus far. One of the most powerful things that happened today was noticing the presence of a Peace Pole in the park.
This peace pole is part of a larger Peace Pole Project, which consists of hand-crafted monuments displaying the message “May Peace Prevail on Earth” in multiple languages. Peace Poles are found in 180 countries worldwide and serve as constant reminders for us to strive for world peace. The presence of the Peace Pole in Brownsville served to further remind to our team why we are here. We are helping bring peace to family members who have missing loved ones. We are fighting for world peace and to end unnecessary suffering.
After we visited the wall, we went back to the cemetery to exhume the two individuals we found yesterday – pretty straightforward, right? Wrong. After fully uncovering these burials, we found that there were actually three burials. We weren’t worried about exhuming a third burial because we still had a half-day to complete all of the work we needed to. After these three individuals were uncovered, Jessica and I probed an open area outside of our quadrant to feel for anomalies. Jessica and I each felt an anomaly and investigated them by digging test pits. Jessica located another burial in her test pit, but I was still only feeling loose soil. We decided to have Joe and Louis come with the backhoe and carefully remove dirt layers in order to locate these two burials and any other potential burials that lay outside of our quadrant. In the end, we found three additional burials and had each of them excavated by sundown at 6pm. We started the day thinking we only had to excavate two individuals and ended up excavating six… for a half-day’s work we are pretty proud of those numbers!
Tomorrow, our plan is to head to the cemetery one last time to monitor as Joe and Louis refill in our quadrant. Tomorrow will be a bittersweet day – we worked so hard in our quadrant and moved so much dirt by hand, all remnants of which will be removed in a matter of hours by Joe, Louis, and the backhoe. However, we are proud of the amount of work we were able to accomplish in just eight short days. We are confident that we investigated every possible location within and outside our quadrant that these individuals could be buried, ensuring that no one is left behind. Because that’s why we are here – to exhume every unidentified migrant so they can begin their journey home.
