Hunter Coffey
Professor Adam Rosenblatt
COR 330: Frontera
11/25/14
The Final Nail in the Coffin
As long as I could hold a hammer I have been working on construction sites. I have had
many jobs between then and now, some of them hard and some very easy, but one of my favorite
jobs was being a carpenter. Working with raw wood can be very meditative and I never seemed
to get tired of the chaotic beauty of the patterns in the grain. Each plank of wood, whether it be
weathered plywood or polished bamboo, always has a story to tell.
As a carpenter I built many things ranging anywhere from children’s toys to boats, but I
mostly built stairs. One thing that I have never attempted to build is a coffin. If a plank of wood
holds a story then a coffin must possesses volumes.
Here in the US we tend to make coffins pretty but not overly done because, when it
comes down to it, the thing is going in the ground. A Coffin can say so much more though! In
ancient Egypt, Pharos would have warnings written on their beautifully decorated sarcophagi in
order to prevent any thieves from stealing their riches. In Tijuana, every year, a mystery
carpenter expertly crafts, paints, and decorated a new coffin then mounts it to the barrier between
Mexico and the US. These coffins will never be filled. That is not their purpose, or their story.
Each coffin represents a year and has the total number of migrants who died attempting
to cross the border during that respective year. Each coffin has its own unique and interesting
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style but they all share the same exact shape and layout. They all start with the year at the top,
with the number of fatalities under. Beneath the two numbers is the bold letters “MUERTES”
simply meaning dead. The artist started doing this in 1995 and continues till this day without
ever revealing their identity. This means that neither payment nor fame motivate this person or
group. These works of art serve to keep the memory of these fallen alive as well as warn others
of the danger of following in their footsteps. Finally these coffins are a beautiful act of protest.
According to Luis Carrasco, there are about 150 deaths every year just from migrants
attempting to cross into America. This year we found 112 remains as compared to last year’s
178. These numbers may seem promising but they are actually getting slightly worse. Recent
security tactics around the border have made it excessively hard to make the journey so less and
less people try. Unfortunately, those who do try are usually ill prepared and fall victim to the
elements. Alan Gomez with USA TODAY, suggested that these same security upgrades are
what are sending these migrants to their death.
Before, only heavily populated areas had the barricades and there were so few Border
Patrol and such vast land that crossing the border was realistically a game of chance. If you
didn’t make it this time, no big deal, try again. Now the stakes are much higher. The United
States government has almost succeeded in erecting the barricade everywhere along the border
save a few stretches of unpopulated desert land. Border Patrol has also received a larger budget
allowing them to cover more ground and hire more staff. This has made the old routes from
Mexico to the Sates nearly impassible so people are starting to explore new routes, deeper into
the desert. This means longer hikes, more dangerous conditions, and even more distance
between civilization and you if anything goes wrong.
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On top of tallying those who have died these coffins serve a greater purpose to warn
others how dangerous the journey really is. I have no idea what illegally crossing the border is
really like because I have never had to do it. That is not to say that everyone who does need to
cross the border illegally knows exactly what they are getting into when they start their journey.
I would guess that its one of those things that no one can imagine unless they tried it themselves.
I do know it can take anywhere between 18 hours to 7 day. These new paths are taking
considerably longer than the journey once took so people are not bringing enough supplies with
them. They are leaving at times of the year when the journey is impossible. During an interview
with the Real News, Norman Dotti said there are certain routes that if taken at the wrong time, a
fully grown man couldn’t physically carry enough water to keep himself alive.
The desert is not a good place to be without supplies. If you get lost you are bound to
walk aimlessly until you get picked up by Border Patrol, if you are lucky, or run out of supplies
and turn into another faceless number. Luckily dehydration makes you think sharper and helps
you focus… wait that’s backwards, unfortunately the first signs of dehydration are confusion and
fatigue which are not good to experience whey using a map or trying to navigate subtle trails.
Luckily certain charity foundations, such as The Samaritans, see the need for aid in the Arizona
desert and regularly send out hiking expeditions with doctors, translators, and supply carriers to
help anyone in need. No More Deaths is a nonprofit that started only ten years after the Coffins
started showing up in Tijuana but No More Deaths was started on the US side. They began as a
small group called The Humane Borders with which they raised money for and installed 80
water tanks along the Arizona border and marked them with signed and flags so people in need
can survive. Now, No More Deaths has permanent camp sites and roaming caravans of supplies
to help anyone in need in the Arizona desert borderzone. Groups like this help to restore
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humanity to an area that isn’t sure whether it wants to be a simple desert or a warzone. No More
Deaths is almost the opposite side of the pendulum as the Minutemen or border militias which
Oscar Martinez writes about in Border People.
I have also built a few fences in my day. One good courtesy to remember before
installing a fence is to make sure your neighbor is okay with the fence getting put up, considering
no fence has one side and someone else is always going to have to see it. I have seen at least two
neighbor-to-neighbor relationships fall to pieces because one neighbor wants a fence that the
other can’t stand to look at. Well in this example the United Stated would be the homeowner
with the bad tastes. These Coffins weren’t placed on the barricade because the artist had
nowhere else to store his pile of coffins. The people of Tijuana never wanted the wall. Not only
does it look like a prison gate, it makes anyone living near it feel like animals. Marc Lacey,
writing for the International Herald Tribune said, “It is hard to find a Mexican who supports the
barriers going up along the border. Many are offended by such an approach…” These coffins
stand to remind people that for every cause there is an effect. If you build a wall, people will go
around. If you go into the desert without the right supplies, you will die. If you put up a fence in
your neighbors yard and tear apart their lawn whilst doing so, don’t expect that cup of sugar you
need.
Thinking back, I quit my beloved carpentry job because my boss was an asshole. Only
job I ever quit. I had a great time at that job but I drove away and it was over, as easy as that. I
know for sure, after hiking 18 consistent hours, running out of water, and losing the last two
people in our group when we had to run from border patrol, I wouldn’t have been so keen on
letting that opportunity dry up. I went and found another job. Some families, like the ones
pictured in the film Dying to Live, not only have to move twice a year to keep two different jobs,
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but their children must move schools with them. After risking your very life to get a higher
paying job, having an asshole for a boss just doesn’t seem that all that bad.
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Works Cited
"About No More Deaths – No More Deaths • No Más Muertes." No More Deaths No Ms
Muertes. Unitarian Universalist Church of Tucson., n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2014.
BRAND, MADELEINE. "U.S.-Mexico Border Crossing Grows More Dangerous." EBSCO
Host. All Things Considered (NPR), 21 Sept. 2009. Web.
Carrasco, Luis F. "In Reversal, Death Rate of Border Crossers down."Arizona Daily Star.
Arizona Daily Star, 27 Sept. 2014. Web. 11 Nov. 2014.
Dying to Live: A Migrant's Journey. Dir. Daniel Groody. Groody River Films, 2005. DVD.
"Fewer Crossing But Increased Deaths at US-Mexico Border." YouTube. TheRealNews, 29 Dec.
2013. Web. 11 Nov. 2014.
Gomez, Alan. "Big Surge in Border-crossing Deaths Reported." USA Today. Gannett, 18 Mar.
2013. Web. 11 Nov. 2014.
Lacey, Marc. "US-Mexican Border Is a Blurry One." US-Mexican Border Is a Blurry One.
International Herald Tribune, 0 Mar. 07. Web. 12 Nov. 2014
Martínez, Oscar J. Border People: Life and Society in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands. Tucson: U
of Arizona, 1994. Print.
O'Keefe, Ed, and Juliet Eilperin. "Administration Says Border Crossings Have Slowed." EBSCO
Host (n.d.): n. pag. The Washington Post. Web.
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