Debbie Nathan

Arizona, 3 days' walk from border

I passed through southern Arizona last week and called up Shaine Parker. He lives in the little border town Douglas, and a couple of years ago he spent several months, full time on a grant, gathering into big, plastic garbage bags what undocumented immigrants throw out on their secret treks north. Shaine said he would take me out to some places where he’s picked up trash.  It was cold, and he donned a thick, lined leather jacket that he discovered once while  cleaning after the crossers.

Here are other things he has found:

Crossing trash depicted in Exodus/Exodo, by Charles Bowden and Julian Cardona

Backpacks: hundreds of them, if not thousands. Money ($900 worth of Mexican pesos. Honduran currency. Nicaraguan currency. Iranian currency). Deodorant. ID cards. Empty water bottles. Full water bottles. Blankets. Women’s panties. A watch. Shirts. Three ounces of marijuana. Antibiotics. Condoms. Dominoes. Baby shoes. Pedialyte. An English-as-a-second-language textbook. Mexican music CDs. Unopened cans of tuna fish. Emptied cans of beans. Children’s jackets. More backpacks.

The border is gashed east to west now with military-issue wall. With the economy tanking, there’s talk about immigrants in the U.S. losing their jobs and heading back home. But studies show they’re staying, and the desert speaks of continued arrival. Mexico and other countries south can’t sustain people. America might not do as well as it used to, but it still beckons even through sand, cactus and the risk of death.  Life is still life, always seeking even as it makes a mess while it seeks.

Bottle with water, hair oil

Dressing and undressing, eating, walking, drinking, peeing, stopping, resting, sleeping. Then discarding half one’s gear when the coyote shows up at the campsite and the extra water and shirts will no longer be needed. Heading north leaves trash, hope leaves trash, and most of the time,  photos of that trash take the long view, depicting it as twisted and formless and filthy. Out there with Shaine, I set my camera to Macro, Super-Macro. I bent down low, touching things like a beggar,  opening them,
smelling. The sun on the crossing can kill. but it also makes wonderful
light. Here are some still lifes I took.

Backpack

Toothbrush

Backpack, bottle, hand-embroidery

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