Esperanza en el Desierto
Written by: MIMS Cohort 6 student Alejandra Aguilar-Ruiz
“Somos Aguilas Del Desierto! ¡Tenemos comida y agua! Si necesitan ayuda estamos con ustedes hermanos” Octavio Aguilar, a leader from Aguilas, echoed loudly into the Sonoran Desert.
I felt my heart sink and eyes water hearing Octavio shout “We are Aguilas Del Desierto! We have food and water! If you are in need we are with you”. On February 23rd through the 26th, nine MIMS students from Cohorts 6 and 7, volunteered with Aguilas del Desierto. Aguilas is a search and rescue organization dedicated to helping the families whose loved ones are missing in the desert near the U.S-Mexico border. Aguilas’ goal is to respond immediately to calls for help and at times they search for the remains of loved ones whose life was claimed by the desert. Aguilas is led and run by volunteers that dedicate themselves at least once a month to search the desert for missing migrants. The volunteers come from distant areas to search the desert, including Tijuana, San Diego, Los Angeles, New Mexico, and in this case, San Francisco. Through my conversations with the volunteer leaders, I recognized that the majority of them were born in Mexico and some have their own stories of crossing through the desert.
We arrived in Tucson, Arizona, on Thursday the 23rd and instantly it hits that you’re not in the Bay. Tucson is a desert surrounded by beautiful mountains and cactus, however I couldn’t help feeling nostalgic looking at the pink sunset.
After our visit and conversations at the Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) facilities our group took the lengthy drive to the Aguilas campsite with collective thoughts and reflections surrounding these borderlands.
The next morning, Saturday the 25th we were in the trucks on our way out to the search destination by 4:30 AM. With warm burritos in our hands, we were told to leave early to beat the sun and to reach the remote areas of the Sonoran desert early. For this search and rescue, we were looking for a migrant teenager that had been lost for a couple days. The family of this young man had reached out to Aguilas earlier and this was the third search that Aguilas had organized to find him.
For the search, we lined up horizontally 10 feet apart and wore neon colored shirts to identify Aguilas for migrants crossing, also for us to not get lost. In the desert we looked for anything that might identify the missing person. The desert felt enormous as we crossed paths with camouflage backpacks (kid backpacks too), torn shirts, prepaid phone cards, canned beans and empty bottled waters. I’m reminded once again “sin agua no hay vida, el agua es vida”. For people crossing through borders to the U.S., water is essential, water is life.
Although we did not find the young person, I still left the empty desert with hope. During our drive back to the camp Sister Maria Louise Edwards expressed “Us (Aguilas) being out here is us showing to others that this isn’t right”. People dying in the desert is never going to be alright. I left with hope knowing that MIMS is building a community with a dedicated organization such as Aguilas. I left with hope there is resistance and love in the borderlands. Hay esperanza en el desierto.
Please consider supporting grassroots organization Aguilas Del Desierto through volunteering or donating here.
