The numbers quoted in the following brief video are shocking. Thousands of illegal immigrants from across Latin America try to reach the USA each year, to access what they perceive to be a chance at a better life. Some make it, many don’t. The Sonoran desert is littered with the remains of those who perished in their desperate attempts to escape poverty and conflict in their home nations. The great irony is that many of the wars that have been fought in Latin American countries were started by the interventionism of the Federal government of the US, who then condemn those who head north to flee the danger.

El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, Colombia and Panama have all contributed to the flow of refugees that trek hopefully, and with little real preparation, to the US-Mexican border. There, some become victims of human traffickers who escort them into the desert before murdering them and stealing their money. Others simply take their chances and try to cross the unforgiving environment, sometimes with small children and babies, but they don’t always make it.

In this video we meet Alvaro Enciso, himself an immigrant from Colombia, who has decided that those who died in the desert deserve a memorable to mark where they fell. Alvaro has made hundreds of crosses and, with help, is placing them where the human remains were recovered. It’s a remarkable gesture and speaks well of the capacity for empathy that exists in many within our flawed species.

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