What? “Illegal Immigrants” actually have a good side to them? They’re not all devils, here to steal our jobs, pillage our country and commit crimes? They may even do good things like help people not like them? Well — yes, yes they do.
A 9-year-old boy looking for help after his mother crashed their van in the southern Arizona desert was rescued by a man entering the U.S. illegally, who stayed with him until help arrived the next day, an official said.
The 45-year-old woman, who eventually died while awaiting help, had been driving on a U.S. Forest Service road in a remote area just north of the Mexican border when she lost control of her van on a curve on Thanksgiving, Santa Cruz County Sheriff Tony Estrada said.
The van vaulted into a canyon and landed 300 feet from the road, he said. The woman, from Rimrock, north of Phoenix, survived the impact but was pinned inside, Estrada said.
Her son, unhurt but disoriented, crawled out to get help and was found about two hours later by Jesus Manuel Cordova, 26, of Magdalena de Kino in the northern Mexican state of Sonora. Unable to pull the mother out, he comforted the boy while they waited for help. […]
“He stayed with him, told him that everything was going to be all right,” Estrada said.
As temperatures dropped, he gave him a jacket, built a bonfire and stayed with him until about 8 a.m. Friday, when hunters passed by and called authorities, Estrada said. The boy was flown to University Medical Center in Tucson as a precaution but appeared unhurt. […]
“For a 9-year-old it has to be completely traumatic, being out there alone with his mother dead,” Estrada said. “Fortunately for the kid, (Cordova) was there. That was his angel.”
Cordova was taken into custody by Border Patrol agents, who were the first to respond to the call for help. He had been trying to walk into the U.S. when he came across the boy.
For those of you familiar with the parables of Jesus, doesn’t this remind you of the Good Samaritan? And isn’t it somehow emblematic of our era, where we are constantly reminded that we are a “Christian Nation” that this humble man’s good deed in saving a nine year old child was rewarded by his arrest and detention by the Border Patrol.
A great shame really. But it ought to be a lesson to all those on the right who are so quick to portray “illegal aliens” as subhuman, as enemies and threats to our security. In fact they are simply fellow human beings, like us. Indeed, some, like Mr. Cordova, may even be better human beings than many of us. How many of us would have stayed with that boy through the night until help arrived, knowing that by doing so we would likely be arrested for the “crime” of wanting a better life? How many would have simply abandoned him to save their own neck? How many would have shown the decency to be so selfless?
I don’t know the answer to those questions, but I do know this. Mr. Cordova should be lauded for his heroism, and in a just world he would be rewarded in some fashion. Instead, he will be punished for the crime of being born on the wrong side of the border. There’s something terribly wrong about that, is there not?
My apologies Jesus Manuel Cordova. You have more than lived up to the ideals of your namesake. I’m sorry so many Americans who claim allegiance to that same person’s teachings choose to ignore your humanity, and the humanity of all those who live outside our borders.
You know…to those of us who are familiar with the general ethos of the Central American poor, PARTICULARLY those with roots in the cultures of indigenous peoples, this story is not even a surprise.
It is MAINSTREAM, and it illustrtates one reason why they have not prospered as a group to some appreciably greater degree than they have in this dog-eat-dog modern world.
This is often mocked as some sort of primitive “Mañana” attitude.
Laziness.
Stupidity.
But it is really more of a desire to put things in their proper HUMAN perspective.
Señor Cordova knew damned well that he would by Border Patrolled if he did the right thing.
But he ALSO knew that…and here is “Mañana” in its positive state…that tomorrow? “Mañana”? His soul would be intact and he will STILL be able to come across the border if he needs to do so in order to survive.
Mañana. When it doesn’t coit some innocent child’s life.
There it is…
I continue to maintain that the Hispanic immigration here is the finest thing that has happened to Amertica since it stood up after the Great Depression and rebuilt itself.
New blood and a new attitude about human beings.
It reminds me of the attitude of my very nearly saintly Italian grandmother-in law.
We need MORE Jesus Manuel Cordovas.
NOT less.
He should be given immediate citizenship for his actions, not deported.
AG
This story just reflects the fact that most illegal immigrants are decent people, many of them young, still in or just out of their teenage years, who are willing to come to the US to help their impoverished families in Mexico or Central America. They come knowing that they may die in the desert or be returned many times by the border patrols.
They come anyway.
When I hear about the effort to herd them back to where they came from, I am only reminded that a significant proportion of the people in this country are still under the spell of Reaganite greed, that has continued under the direction of extremist “Christian” groups.
Let me except that latter statement. There are Christian church groups formed along the border that helps illegal immigrants get situated, and even man water stations in the desert to help prevent their deaths. There are Christians and there are Christians.
Thanks for this essay. It again reminds that liberal Democrats have to get back to their values.
Great post Steven.
Those of us who work every day with the undocumented know what they are. We see it. Every day.
nalbar
The illegal immigrants, and the legal workers are both victims of the corporationists. We are allies. The corporationists try to convince us that we are enemies, because when we are busy fighting over the crumbs, we don’t notice that the pie is shrinking.
At an absolute minimum, we need to stop the policies that create poverty in Mexico (and the rest of the world). Then good people like Cordova won’t have to risk their lives trying to survive.