Crossing with the Virgin: Stories from the Migrant Trail

Story Eleven

Story Eleven I never met Lucresia, but her father, a kind and grateful man, occupies a unique niche in our community and a special place in our hearts. We became friends with Cesario during the several weeks he spent in Tucson while he made daily treks into the desert to search for Lucresia’s body. It was early July, before the rains arrived, and the daytime temperatures were sweltering. I received a call from a person at Derechos Humanos, the human rights organization here in Tucson, who said a Mexican man had arrived in Tucson to search for his daughter. He asked if we, the Samaritans, could help. I recommended that they also contact one of the other volunteer organizations, No More Deaths (NMD), whose volunteers were camped in the desert near the border. Twice daily they made trips into the washes, into the cactus and creosote thickets, looking for migrants in need or in distress. Samaritans made daily trips from Tucson into the desert, driving along the highways and rutted four-wheel-drive roads and hiking the migrant trails. We would search those routes. Thus Cesario was introduced to the Tucson volunteer community, and the community came to embrace him and became endeared to him. Cesario’s daughter Lucresia had left her home, a small town in northern Zacatecas, Mexico, to come north with her children so they could reunite with husband and father to make a better life. Her fifteenyear -old son and seven-year-old daughter made the trip with her. They were able to tolerate the harsh conditions of the Sonoran Desert much better than their mother. Lucresia found it very difficult at first and then impossible to keep up with her group. As they pushed on, she became more dehydrated. Finally, unable to continue, she sent her daughter on with the rest of the group. Her son, Jesús, stayed with her. He built a fire to signal for help, but none came. 64 stories from the migrant trail Jesús did all he could for Lucresia, and as she drank the last drop from their water jugs he went in search of water and help. Two days later the Border Patrol found him, lost and wandering in the dry desert scrub. He told them he left his mother behind and begged them to go in search of her. They were unable to locate the spot where the son had left his mother. Jesús was then deported back to Mexico, or “voluntarily returned,”as it is recorded when the border crosser voluntarily agrees to return to Mexico. However, the Border Patrol had no legal authority to voluntarily return Jesús, since he was a minor. He was flown to Mexico City, then sent by bus to Zacatecas, his home state. Cesario had heard from a person connected to the migrant smuggling ring that his daughter had become ill on the journey. An unknown person, possibly the coyote, called Lucresia’s husband in Texas and told him about the mother and son left in the desert. The husband called his family in Zacatecas, and they told Lucresia’s family. Cesario got on a bus and headed for the border. The father was determined to find the remains of his daughter. He knew that in the desert heat the body would not remain intact for very long, but he was determined to find her. Two friends joined to help; one had lived in the states for many years and spoke English. These two men would accompany him on his search. Cesario made contact with volunteers at the NMD camp, and they in turn contacted a pilot who had worked with Samaritans in the past. She volunteered the use of her plane and spent a day flying Cesario and one of his friends over the Altar Valley to get an overview of the terrain and perhaps see something that would provide a clue. By the end of that day, the two men grasped the vastness of the Arizona desert and the monotony of vegetation. They realized the futility of trying to find a body or a pile of bones by searching from the air. Now Cesario knew that he had to search the desert on foot. After he had been returned home, Jesús made contact with his grandfather. Now he wanted to come to Arizona to join Cesario’s search for his mother’s body and to help locate the spot where he left his mother...