The Coyote Always Gets Away, and Other Facts of Border Life
Some of you may have heard about a terrible accident that happened on the border Thursday morning, in which 3 illegal immigrants were killed, and 14 were injured. I learned last night that the SUV that hit them belonged to a friend of mine.
She and her 11 year-old son were driving to work early in the morning, when a truck came charging across the freeway out of nowhere. The cab of the truck held an estimated 6 or 7 people. The bed of the truck help 20 men and women, lying on their backs, and on top of each other, covered with a tarp. My friend, who had no warning, hit the end of the truck so hard that the wheel of the truck ripped off, and the truck slammed into a telephone pole. Her car was spun around 180 degrees. What the newspaper doesn't mention- and what the politicians never will- is that the truck full of mojados was being pursued by the Migra. The B.P. had their lights off, so they on paper, they don't have to acknowledge that it was a chase, but my friend saw them, and everybody knows, nothing else would have made the coyote charge into oncoming traffic.
When it stopped moving, there were quite literally bodies all over the road in front of her. About 12 people got away. Some of them were later captured a few miles north. Fourteen of the other immigrants were badly injured, and taken to hospitals. Incredibly enough, my friend and her son were uninjured. In the words of her best friend, "it's a Goddamned Miracle that they lived."
Physically they're fine. Emotionally they're devastated. The Coyote, of course, abandoned the scene, quite literally leaving a wake of human bodies behind him. It's a theme so common in the valley that it's become cliche. When I told my boyfriend, he said "I bet they didn't get the coyote, huh? The coyote always gets away."
At dinner last night, my friend Nyrma, who rushed to the scene to take her best friend to the hospital, told us the whole story, saying "The Coyote Always Gets Away."
When I read the newspaper this morning, they quoted the Migra spokesperson : "The Coyote Always Gets Away."
I can't stop thinking about it. I think about my friend, driving the road I drove every morning for two years, where at least three of our students, and one of the Coaches' sons died last year.
I think about my friend and her son surveying the wreckage in the moments after the accident, as it donned on them that without ever knowing what was happening, they had killed three people.
I think about the mothers and wives of those men, in villages in Mexico, already planning how they'll spend the Western Union check, wondering if their husbands and sons made it across this time.
And of course, I think about the Coyote creeping through a sorghum field with his pockets stuffed with dead men's money, waiting for the ambulances and Border Patrol and police to clean up and leave, so he can get away, just like he always does.
She and her 11 year-old son were driving to work early in the morning, when a truck came charging across the freeway out of nowhere. The cab of the truck held an estimated 6 or 7 people. The bed of the truck help 20 men and women, lying on their backs, and on top of each other, covered with a tarp. My friend, who had no warning, hit the end of the truck so hard that the wheel of the truck ripped off, and the truck slammed into a telephone pole. Her car was spun around 180 degrees. What the newspaper doesn't mention- and what the politicians never will- is that the truck full of mojados was being pursued by the Migra. The B.P. had their lights off, so they on paper, they don't have to acknowledge that it was a chase, but my friend saw them, and everybody knows, nothing else would have made the coyote charge into oncoming traffic.
When it stopped moving, there were quite literally bodies all over the road in front of her. About 12 people got away. Some of them were later captured a few miles north. Fourteen of the other immigrants were badly injured, and taken to hospitals. Incredibly enough, my friend and her son were uninjured. In the words of her best friend, "it's a Goddamned Miracle that they lived."
Physically they're fine. Emotionally they're devastated. The Coyote, of course, abandoned the scene, quite literally leaving a wake of human bodies behind him. It's a theme so common in the valley that it's become cliche. When I told my boyfriend, he said "I bet they didn't get the coyote, huh? The coyote always gets away."
At dinner last night, my friend Nyrma, who rushed to the scene to take her best friend to the hospital, told us the whole story, saying "The Coyote Always Gets Away."
When I read the newspaper this morning, they quoted the Migra spokesperson : "The Coyote Always Gets Away."
I can't stop thinking about it. I think about my friend, driving the road I drove every morning for two years, where at least three of our students, and one of the Coaches' sons died last year.
I think about my friend and her son surveying the wreckage in the moments after the accident, as it donned on them that without ever knowing what was happening, they had killed three people.
I think about the mothers and wives of those men, in villages in Mexico, already planning how they'll spend the Western Union check, wondering if their husbands and sons made it across this time.
And of course, I think about the Coyote creeping through a sorghum field with his pockets stuffed with dead men's money, waiting for the ambulances and Border Patrol and police to clean up and leave, so he can get away, just like he always does.