Maria Ochoa (MO): If you fall and you sprain and ankle or you break an arm, or something like that, you can no longer keep up with the group, so they leave you behind. And if you can’t move and you lay there for awhile, there’s vultures circling all the time. And I have stopped and walked towards where they’re circling to see: Is it an animal that they’re circling or is it a person that’s out there?
Whenever we have found a person in the desert, we ask, ’Are you in any pain? When was the last time you ate or drank anything? Uh, do you know where you’re at?’
If they are okay, we hand them food and water and we leave them there. If they’re not okay, we call for help.
Alma Schlor (AS): What does it feel like when you have to leave people?
MO: That is the saddest thing. You want to help them, uh, especially when they tell you, ’Well, just take me to town and I can have somebody come and get me from there,’ and…you can’t do it. You can’t do it because if you should get stopped by border patrol, you can end up in prison.
AS: Is there anyone you still think about?
MO: The one that always comes to my mind is searching for a 19-year-old young woman that was seven months pregnant, traveling with her husband. She was tired and couldn’t keep walking any longer, so the group left them behind. They looked for a shady spot where she could stay. The husband left her there to try and find help, he got a little bit lost but finally found a border patrol officer and they went back to look for her and she was gone.
We went out for four or five weekends, searching in the desert, we never found her. Her name was Grecia.
My whole life, I mean I come from an immigrant family. My mother herself crossed into the US when she was 12 years old. I have family on both sides of the border.
And we can’t generalize and say they’re all, you know, bad people, because they are not.
AS: What do you like the most about doing this work?
MO: One of the greatest satisfactions has been being able to help people, keep them from dying.
That’s the most important part. If we can save one life, our work is worth it.
