El Medallón (The Medallion)

In August of 2007 I accompanied a group from Humane Borders on a Saturday clean-up excursion. Our mission was to clean what is referred to as a “lay-up” site. A lay-up site is where Mexican migrants wait for a ride for the final miles of their journey to the United States. The landscape between Tucson and the Mexican border are covered with these sites and are littered with discarded clothes, back-packs and personal items of every description. Ten of us picked up enough trash to fill two pick-up trucks. One of the personal items picked up that day was the St. Christopher medal you see in the photograph.