A sad return home
By Tania Noriz, Sept 22, 2006

What is the distance between a man and his dream? For hundreds of sanmiguelenses who aspire to a better life and the American dream, the distance is approximately 1,000 kilometers.

Don Domingo, Doña María and Lupe Delgado

By bus or train, every day, the old and the young, men and women, leave their homes and families to make the difficult trip. They face military and police check points on the Mexican highways, dangerous criminal gangs and thieves at the Mexican border and angry Americans who want to stop Mexican migration to the United States.

According to information provided by the migrant office of the International Relations Department, the San Miguel-Piedras Negras-Coahuila route is the one most used by sanmiguelenses in their attempts to cross the Mexico–US border. “Very few cross via Laredo, Texas, or the Sonoran Desert,” said Fernanda Esparza, manager of the migrant office.

Mexicans generally leave their communities with very few belongings and pesos. They rarely carry any identification. Although most travel in groups, they must be ready and able to fend for themselves. Arriving in Mexican border states such as Coahuila or Tamaulipas, they must deal with the polleros, or coyotes, those who smuggle Mexicans and Central Americans illegally into the US.

After the polleros guide the migrants across the Rio Grande River to the American side, another group of polleros lead the migrants across the mountains to their destination cities. These polleros charge the migrants approximately US$1,500 each as final payment.

On Friday, August 25, at 10am, Ángel left his home in La Cuadrilla heading toward Piedras Negras

Occasionally, the polleros travel to their home communities in Mexico to convince their neighbors to make the trip and then accompany them to the US. “That is the way they earn their living, dealing with those people’s lives,” said Esparza.

If the migrants are lucky, their final destination will be Crystal City or Eagle Pass in Texas, where other polleros await them. “This is all part of the same network with polleros on both sides of the border who guide Mexicans, commonly to San Antonio.”

Crystal City and Eagle Pass serve as meeting points. From there, migrants travel to their final destinations of Dallas, San Antonio, Los Angeles, Chicago, Oklahoma, Florida or Kansas.

But arriving at the Mexican border, crossing the Rio Grande and reaching el otro lado (the other side) is not a guarantee of a better life or a promising future. For many, the quest for the American dream ends in a premature and sad homecoming.

Death at the border

Since January this year, the bodies of six sanmiguelenses who died in Alabama, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas—each under different circumstances—have been returned to their homes.

Ramón, 50, from the San Rafael neighborhood, died of diabetes. Martina, 40, from the Ignacio Ramírez neighborhood, also died of a disease.

Alberto, 26, was from Colonia Olimpo. He was involved in a brawl and died of a gunshot wound. José, 18, from the community of Rancho Viejo, died in a car accident. Cirilo, 63, was assaulted and died of a gunshot wound on July 28 in Mobile, Alabama. Cirilo was the uncle of Ángel, 23, who died on August 28, two days after he left his home. He died of dehydration in Zavala, Texas, in his attempt to cross the border. Both of them were from the community of La Cuadrilla, about 20 minutes outside San Miguel on the road to Atotonilco.

 

When they returned, my brother had died. He died alone and thirsty

Although these sanmiguelenses died far from home, their relatives and the Mexican authorities in charge of repatriating Mexican bodies agree that it is pure luck if they find them. Federal authorities estimate that thousands of Mexicans and Central Americans die on both sides of the border without ever being found or identified, leaving their families living in anguish and uncertainty. “Finding people, identifying the bodies and their place of origin and contacting their families is a huge effort requiring cooperation between the local government and the consulates in the United States,” says Esparza. The difficulty of searching for missing migrants and then locating their families in the communities around San Miguel is compounded because migrants frequently travel with fake papers or without identification to avoid being identified by the migra, the border police. “It is very sad. Many die in the desert or in the river. They die alone, and nobody can locate them because animals in the desert eat the bodies. 
When we are lucky enough to find someone, the consulates work with us to repatriate the body. For the families, this is comforting because at least they are going to see their relatives again, even though they are dead.

“For Mexicans it is important to bury their muertitos, to have a place to put flowers and to talk to them,” said Esparza. “But when the authorities find a body that cannot be identified, it is buried in a common grave, says Esparza.

A corrupted border

Don Domingo and Doña María Delgado live on a ranchito in La Cuadrilla, where according to SAPASMA, only 70 families live. The Delgados, as well the other families in La Cuadrilla, mostly earn a living harvesting corn and beans, although a few work construction jobs in San Miguel. At some point during the year, at least one member of each of the 70 families leaves home to make the dangerous Mexico–US border crossing.

Ángel was one of the six sons of Don Domingo and Doña María. He used to work in the fields, but one day, following the family tradition, he illegally crossed into Texas and found a job in construction. “He was always a good boy, a very good worker and always in touch with his family. The two times he went to the States, he sent me money,” said Doña María. “All of this ended in a second, and now we are left with all this sadness.”

 

In La Cuadrilla, most earn a living harvesting corn and beans

On Friday, August 25, at 10am, Ángel left his home heading toward Piedras Negras. He went with two other boys, also from La Cuadrilla. Nevertheless, Doña Maria had a premonition that something would go wrong; Ángel had been talked into traveling to the US 15 days earlier than he had planned. 

He promised to call his mother when he arrived, as was his custom, but he didn’t call. On August 28, at 6pm, the family received a call from an officer at the Mexican consulate in Eagle Pass, informing them of the bad news. They had found the body of Ángel in the entrance to a ranch in Zavala, Texas. He could be identified because they found his electoral ID in his pocket.

According to the death certificate, Ángel died of severe dehydration. However, other factors could have contributed to his death. A few kilometers before the river, bandits who worked the Mexican border detained Ángel and his friends and demanded money. “They mistook Ángel for a pollero, and scared him so much. They did not beat him. They took his money and scared him so much that he did not speak again until he arrived in Zavala, Texas, where he collapsed in exhaustion,” says Lupe, Ángel’s brother, who was told the story from one of the young men who traveled with his brother. They still are in the States and called the family to tell them what happened.

At 2am they had already crossed the border, and Ángel was feeling sick. “He reached a fence and went down on his knees. He asked for water, and his friends went to look for it. When they returned, my brother had died. He died alone and thirsty,” recounted Lupe.

To avoid the migra, Ángel’s friends left him at the entrance of a ranch. “The owner found him and called the town sheriff, who called the consulate. They brought my son home very quickly, and we all could see him and bury him,” said Don Domingo. “This is something that happens every day,” Lupe said. “Nobody listens to us, no one can do anything. I have crossed the border six times and have been returned three times. On every trip, I have faced bandits on the Mexican border—they are like dogs. I have seen them tie people up and throw them into the river because they cannot pay. Everyone of them has a muertito on his back. 

I do not believe the authorities can do anything because they are part of it.” For Lupe, it is safer to risk the current of the Rio Grande. “I prefer that a gringo kill me for trespassing on his property than living in fear of the police and the bandits on the border. They are the ones who control the areas of Ciudad Acuña and Piedras Negras.”

Because of complications in the repatriation process, the body of Ángel arrived three days after that of his uncle, although he had passed away almost a month before. “When one travels to the States, you know the risks. We go in a volado, traveling next to death,” finalized Lupe.