Crosses

There is a prayer service every Tuesday evening at the Agua Prieta port of entry, U.S. side, led by the Presbyterian service organization Frontera de Cristo. Local and visiting peacemakers and caregivers come together to remember and raise up the migrant lives lost in the crossing of the desert and to bear witness to the hope for a more humane world.

The service begins right before sunset with a procession down the street that leads into Mexico. Each person carries a cross with a person’s name and dates of birth and death on it. One by one, names are called out and the crosses are held up to the oncoming traffic while the group responds in unison, “Presente!” The crosses are then laid down on the curb and the process repeats itself until the place of vigiling is reached, right by the entrance into Mexico. This evening, 33 people participated in the service, placing some 240 crosses on the curb for the line of traffic to pass by.

The group then gathers in a circle, passing three more crosses around the circle to be held and silently meditated on. When it came time in the circle to meditate on the cross in my hands, I was struck by the realization that this represented a young woman who died at the age of 27: a daughter, granddaughter, maybe a mother, a sister, a wife. She probably died of hypothermia out in the desert.

 Just last night, I read about the stages of hypothermia in the book Dying to Live: A Story of U.S. Immigration in An Age of Global Apartheid. It’s a hard way to go:

“Hypothermia passes through six stages, the first two being heat stress and heat fatigue. Heat synocope, the next one, results in a fever and simultaneously, colder skin. The afflicted’s face begins to pale and she or he becomes somewhat dizzy. Heat cramps follow and lead to tightening and aching muscles, ones so painful that it can lead one to double over in pain. Heat exhaustion results in greatly heightened fever, bad headaches, nausea, and vomiting; the victim’s skin is cold, shivering might occur, and fainting or cardiac arrest might result. Heat stroke, the final stage, causes one’s body to become so hot that migrants often strip off their clothes to free themselves of extreme discomfort; it leads to the body’s organs and muscles essentially collapsing, resulting in death in many cases. As one passes through these stages, a peson becomes increasingly disoriented, undermining one’s ability to take remedial action.”

It made me sad, holding that cross. I looked out at the rosy sky of dusk over the desert and wondered about the people out there struggling to stay alive, young and old, men and women, teens and children. Knowing that there will be many more crosses to carry.

To close the service, we held hands and sang a psalm:

Envia tu espiritu

Envia tu espiritu

Envia tu espiritu

Sea renovada

La faz de la tierra…

(Send your spirit/to renew/the face of the earth)

May we do so every day.