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Five individuals in a field holding up one finger.

Day 1: Deep in the heart of Texas

I was very excited to get started on our first day of excavation. We had a decent breakfast at our hotel, the Holiday Inn Express, before hitting the road this morning. It took approximately 30 minutes to arrive at the site by car, so Jessica played some music to pump us up (wake us up and get us motivated) for a successful day of digging (e.g. “Eye of the Tiger”, “Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked”, and “Don’t Stop Believin’”). The site was located on a gorgeous, private cemetery at a family owned ranch, where numerous relatives of the property owners had been buried throughout the years. Unidentified migrants were also buried here — some in areas that were marked by posts, and others without a definite location.  When we arrived at the cemetery, it was only about 30 degrees with 20mph winds, making for a cold start to the day! Graduate students at Texas State University had devised a plan for dividing the site into four, 20×20 meter quadrants, which could then be further divided to maintain a uniform scale across all of the independently-working excavation teams. Texas State determined it would be best to record GPS points at every four-meter interval throughout the site to create subquadrants. We followed their pattern, and ended up with 25, 4×4 meter subquadrants within our Northeast quadrant of the cemetery. This turned out to be more work than Leann and I were expecting, but will be an important leaning experience.

Driving down country highway with blue skies.
Beautiful drive to the cemetery

Leann was an incredible mentor today. After Jordan, Jessica, Leann, Dr. Latham, and I finished setting up our grid , Leann and I began creating the surface map. We spent almost half of the day mapping because there were nearly two dozen headstones indicating family graves within our quadrant, two upright trees, and one fallen tree covered in shrubbery. After working together using the tape measures and a compass to document numerous measurements into a graph, we finally had all of the data needed to work on our completed maps back at the hotel.

Two team members mapping in headstones.
Leann and Sammi taking measurements to create a map

Overall, I believe that day 1 went very well. I am extremely grateful to have such an experienced, well-trained team by my side to help teach me to properly excavate a site of this magnitude. Everyone was so patient with me on my first day, and I felt we were able to accomplish a lot in a relatively short amount of time.

Sammi

While Sammi and I were taking points for our surface map, Jess, Jordan, and Dr. Latham were probing the other subquadrants to feel for anomalies.  They found several areas of interest and began digging test pits to investigate further.  After digging a few test pits, they decided that it would be more efficient and systematic to dig test trenches throughout the subquadrants as opposed to continuing to dig test pits whenever an anomaly was felt.  There are numerous known burials in our quadrant that are aligned into rows, and those rows were used as guidelines for digging our trenches to locate any unidentified individuals.  With about 45 minutes left before sundown, Sammi and I finished taking measurements and joined the rest of the team digging trenches.

Jordan and Jessica digging a trench.
Jordan and Jessica digging a trench

At the end of the day, we created two small trenches about 50 cm deep and 5 meters long.  Tomorrow, we plan on extending these trenches to cover all of the open areas in our quadrant that felt anomalous when we probed, as well as deepening the trenches we dug today by about 10-15 more cm.  With this trench depth, we will be able to further probe down reaching a total depth of about six feet.  We plan to construct the trenches like we did in Falfurrias, systematically spaced so no potential areas of burial will go unchecked. I look forward to what tomorrow will bring and how much we will be able to accomplish!  I also look forward to some warmer weather….

Leann

Sunset over fields.
Sunset marking the end of day 1

Travel Day: IN to TX

Team photo at the airport.

We made it! Today was a long day of traveling and trying our best to stay warm. I thought we had left the cold weather behind in Indiana…but it seems that we brought the cold weather along with us! Our group boarded our flight at 8:00 am and proceeded to hang out on the tarmac for over 2 hours until our plane was warm enough to take flight (it was too cold for the engines to start). According to local news back home, it was -11 degrees outside but felt like -29 degrees. After defrosting our plane, our group was able to make the first leg of our trip to the Dallas-Fort Worth airport.

Workers defrosting the plane.

Unfortunately, because our flight was delayed our group had to book it to our next flight in another terminal so we wouldn’t miss it. After arriving in San Antonio and getting our rental van, our first stop was Torchy’s Tacos! I don’t know if it was a long day of traveling or having amazing tex-mex food again but those tacos hit the spot. After a quick lunch, our group made our way to Harlingen, Texas.

Team photo at dinner.

The ride to Harlingen was a long one (about 4 hours) but it went by fairly quickly. The drive was a bit unnerving because there is a stretch of highway that maybe had one or two small towns and a ‘no services for 60 miles’ sign posted along the side of the road. Upon arriving in Harlingen and checking into our hotel, we made a quick trip to our favorite grocery store: HEB. For dinner, our group got some tamales and then sat down to start our nightly ritual. As we sit here around the table, I know we are sharing a similar feeling of exhaustion from the long day of traveling. What makes this comical, is that this will be the LEAST tired we will feel during our time in Harlingen. I’m excited for what tomorrow brings and to finally get this field season started.

Jess

Texas raised, this cold weather is something I was hoping to leave behind in Indy for a while! Regardless, I’m sure I speak for the whole team when I say that the weather will not get us down. If Texas and Indy have anything in common it is the flakiness of the weather; warm one day, cold the next. According to the forecast, the temperatures during our time here will range between 30 and 75 degrees; luckily my boy scout days taught me to come prepared for anything.

As I type this blog post, our team is being debriefed on the situation here in Willacy county. While I am the rookie, this field season will be new to everyone as we are in a new county, on private property with potentially dramatically different soil than past seasons. The many unknowns that make this trip new and unnerving also make it exciting. Tomorrow morning we get to sleep in a bit as large power equipment prepares our site for us, a nice reprieve before our next eight days of early rising. Even so,  only a few hours remain before our team is out in the field working tirelessly in the effort to bring peace to families of those lost to the harsh south Texas environment.

Jordan

Peace on Earth and Goodwill to All

“Peace on Earth and Goodwill to All” is a phrase we hear and see a lot this time of the year. It’s displayed in lights, sung in songs and printed on Christmas cards.  But what does that phrase truly mean or in today’s society does it mean anything at all? And who, if anyone truly works towards those lofty goals of world peace and extending goodwill to all?

Peace on Earth Goodwill to All over the Earth.

Rebellious Humanitarianism –As we prepare to leave for the border I am confronted with the stark contrast of the love and joy that come with Christmastime and the thundering call for exclusion of all “others”.  On the one hand I was raised to treat others the way I want to be treated, yet extending dignity and basic human rights to the “others” is considered a form of rebellion. At what point did humanitarianism become an act of disobedience? If humanitarianism is the promotion of human welfare, than using the term rebellious humanitarianism suggests that not all deserve health, happiness or freedom in every situation.

Religious charms that were carried by a female that perished in 2012.
Religious charms that were carried by a migrant that perished in the Texas Borderlands

Radical Hospitality — I recently read a letter from the Colibri Center for human Rights that talked about giving radical hospitality.  About going beyond all expectations to do what is right and not necessarily what is easy. Hospitality refers to the warm reception of guests, visitors, or strangers. Radical means advocating for change in a political or social context. Putting the word radical in front of hospitality sends a clear message that hospitality in certain contexts is not extended to all. That not all are welcome here.

Prayer card carried by a migrant.
Prayer card  that was carried by a migrant that perished in the Texas Borderlands

Political Caregiving — In the Forward to the book “Sociopolitics of Migrant Death and Repatriation: Perspectives from Forensic Science“, Dr. Robin Reineke speaks about caring for certain groups of people in a way that makes caregiving political. That advocating for  marginalized groups by providing dignity in life and in death is an act of social justice, and can bring to light accountabilities that are being hidden from the masses. To care for someone is to protect them. However, in certain contexts providing care goes against the state and suggests that not all should be cared for.

Cross that was carried by a migrant.
Cross that was carried by a migrant that perished in the Texas Borderlands

So – all are not welcome, not all are deemed worthy of health, happiness and freedom, and not all deserve care and protection – unless you are practicing rebellious, radical or politicized acts of kindness.  Tomorrow the Beyond Borders Team will embark to the Texas Borderlands to volunteer our time in working towards Peace on Earth and Goodwill to All.

We hope 2018 brings you and your loved ones health, happiness and feelings of safety and freedom.

~KEL