Soo Mi on Mike Wilson, the Minutemen, and the harshness of the desert

2/9

We get up early in the morning as usual and drove into town to meet Mike Wilson. At first we couldn’t figure out where the building was, but then we found it in the middle of downtown Tucson. Meeting Mike Wilson was like meeting a celebrity to us because we saw what he does in the movie Crossing Arizona before we left for the trip during class. He puts water out in the desert (on the Tohono O’dham Indian reservation) for migrants by himself. He does it alone because his fellow Native Americans don’t agree with what he does. Most of us were so tired because all of our days have been really intense. Some of us even spaced out a little bit during Mike’s talk.

After meeting with Mike we met with the Minuteman (civilian patrol group) named Roger. As soon as we saw him he gave us something to talk about. He was wearing a blue t-shirt with a map of all of North American with a walls on both the Canadian and Mexican borders. Written over the United States was the quote, “If we build it they won’t come.” He just made me laugh. It also made me want to ask him if he thought that the Great Wall of China worked, and if he thought if it was feasible for the government to build the fence now, although I didn’t end up asking either question. But to answer them myself, the Great Wall didn’t work, it made it somewhat harder for other countries to invade and destroy China, but so many people hated the government because they had to sacrifice themselves to it. They had to take care of their families and farms but the government didn’t let them do it, because they didn’t have voices and rights, they couldn’t do what they had to do. I also think that the U.S. government can’t make a wall running along the whole border like Roger would like, but citizens here have voices and they are powerful and they won’t stand for it. Most of us didn’t agree with what Roger had to say. He sees things in black and white. He said that all migrants are dangerous, and he even carried a gun.
After Roger talked to us, we went for a walk with him in the desert. We drove for a little while, got out of the vans and started walking. A couple of minutes after we started walking we started to see trash everywhere, water bottles, backpacks, clothes, cans, etc. It was really emotional for most of us. I got really emotional when I saw a little kid’s backpack. I the back of the bag had a little drawing of a cross, a couple of people and the kid’s name on it. I wondered if he made whether he made it the U.S., died, or got sent back to Mexico. Even if he made it, to cross the desert like that is a lot for a little kid to go through—the brutal sun can make you go crazy. It’s hard enough for grown men, but imagine a little kid going through the desert—that’s pretty harsh.

In class some of us read the book Devil’s Highway, including me, which describes in minute detail what its like to get lost and die in the desert from exposure. One thing that happens is that people go crazy and think that the sand is an ocean and they try to dive into it. It was really intense and amazing to see how totally trashed the ranch was by migrants, and it made me imagine actual migrants on the trail.