Final Resting Place for Disappeared Migrant, Marco

Camerina & Marco's Story:

I’m the mother of five, the oldest of whom is Marco. I last saw him in 2013, in Nogales, Mexico, just south of where I live in Tucson. He was going through a very difficult period in his life. 

What should have been a 50 minute car ride turned into 5 years of total despair. Marco was denied a visa and, desperate to unite with his family during a difficult time in his life, he decided to cross the border on foot through the Sonoran Desert–an unforgiving and harsh environment. My son Marco disappeared on August 17th, 2013 while crossing the desert in search of a better life for himself and his family. This is a day I will never forget.

When I learned that Marco had disappeared, I looked everywhere. I knocked on so many doors, but every one was closed to me. After two years I heard about Colibrí. They took a missing person report and sampled my DNA. They treated me with the compassion and dignity that was rarely afforded to me, a mother desperate to know even a trace of her son.

On November 20, 2018, Colibrí gave us the news that would change our lives forever: they had found my son. Our family’s DNA matched positively with his remains in the Pima County Medical Examiner’s Office. It was a devastating day. My hopes all those years of finding him alive were lost. Five long years of searching, five years of pain and frustration, came to an end. Still, we had an answer. 

You may have seen our story on the Netflix documentary series, "Immigration Nation." Our story appears on the episode titled "Prevention Through Deterrence." People who disappear in the desert aren’t animals, and they aren’t just statistics. Like my son, they are human beings with families who love and miss them. Now more than ever, we have to stand up to inhumane and violent border policy that have taken the lives of over 8,000 human beings simply trying to find a better life. He did not deserve to die in the desert and no family deserves to suffer for years for the absence of their loved one. 

Although we received the news of his passing nearly 2 years ago, we still have not been able to properly lay his remains to rest. Marco is currently resting in a county-owned area of a Tucson cemetery and we would love nothing more than to give him his own, proper, dignified burial. During these difficult times, $4,300 is simply too much for our family to come up with.

We ask that you stand in solidarity with my family and the thousands of immigrant families all over the US and the Americas whos loved ones have disappeared without a trace on the border. 

No Human Being Is Illegal. 

With love,
Camerina