The Mexican 'Trail Of Tears'

Articles

Bobbie Hart O’Neill

The Mexican 'Trail Of Tears'
Nov 24, 2003

The time has come for Native Americans from the United States to get involved with Illegal Immigration Reform. It is ironic that at the time of this Thanksgiving Holiday, 2003, the latest wave of “Pilgrims” coming to America are indigenous people from the Mexican state of Oaxaca.
,br> The group had no idea that getting to the U.S. would entail days of traveling to the border of Mexico, then days of walking though a desert that no one told them was there. These people come from a forested mountain area and have never seen a desert. They, also, had no idea of where in the United States they were going or what they would do when they got there.

Among the group were four men, two of which are believed to be the husbands of two of the mothers and a single 25 year old female. No one in the group would say they were being guided by a “coyote” or smuggler but some of the men seemed to know their destination.

They had arrived from their village by bus to the small Sonoran town of Sonoyta across the border from Lukeville, Arizona. They crossed the border and began walking on Wednesday across the desert, walked all day until Thursday night and decided to get some sleep. When they awoke on Friday morning they found a ten-year old boy had gotten up and wandered away from the campsite.

He was spotted at 12 noon by a Border patrol pilot who landed his helicopter to ask why he was all by himself out in the middle of nowhere. He was able to tell the pilot the approximate whereabouts of his parents and others in the group. Seven hours later, agents from Yuma and Tucson, located the group and found them unharmed.

Ramirez, the one who spoke enough Spanish to be understood, told the agents she left her village because a drought had devastated the crops and there were no jobs. Even though she lived in abject poverty in an adobe hut with 10 other people owned by her in-laws, one of the agents surmised that had she been able to live in this country it is doubtful she would have been able to fare any better.

“What kind of a future would these folks have as illegal aliens who could not speak Spanish let alone English?” he questioned. “These are the kind of folks who will work in this country for a dollar an hour.”

And yes, there are people in this country who are taking advantage of these Indians from Southern Mexico, paying them a dollar an hour or possibly less, forcing them to live under even worse conditions than they had endured in their own country.

Isn’t it time Native Americans from our country united as a front to force U.S. politicians to put a stop to this exploitation of the native peoples of Mexico.

This article was edited from the pages of “The Yuma Daily Sun” bylined Louie Villalobos.

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About the author: Bobbie Hart O’Neill is a retired print media journalist, CSU-Sacramento, ’74, with 40 years experience in the field. She has worked as a reporter, feature writer, columnist, public relations writer, magazine/newsletter editor and publisher.

She is currently a freelance writer residing in Yuma, Arizona and has published a children’s book, written three screenplays and a novel. In addition, she is interested in civic affairs, politics, current events, ethnology and animals.

Visit her blog or email Bobbie: bobbieo@digitaldune.net

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