blog #30

​No More Deaths owes a huge debt of gratitude for letting us use her property near Arivaca in Southern Arizona as a site for us to help migrants. She has done this for more than 15 years despite the efforts of Border Patrol to shut us down. Steve Johnston, No More Deaths volunteer reminds us that on March 28, Byrd will be 96 (or maybe 95) years old. He wrote this tribute to her:


BYRD BAYLOR is the HEART and SOUL of No More Deaths.(A tribute - honoring Byrd for the NMD 10th Anniversary Reunion (2014- by Steve Johnston)

She has shined the light of JUSTICE to guide our way in the desert. Let me tell you what I mean by this. Byrd has been providing humanitarian aid to travelers in the desert for well over 20 years. I’ve heard her tell many stories about these folk, including Salvador, who showed up as Byrd and her friends were chinking the logs in her then-new home. He asked if he could have a job helping with this. When told by the others that they were working for free to help Byrd build her home, Salvador just jumped right in and joined in the work too.

Salvador became a great friend of Byrd, staying at her home for weeks and finally making it to his family at a ranch near Santa Fe, New Mexico. Don’t tell anybody, but Byrd drove him there. They still keep in touch over 20 years later. (Though Byrd tried to refuse, Salvador’s mom insisted on paying Byrd for bringing him home. They finally settled on a price of $7 for a 1000-mile round trip - a very Byrd-like solution, where everyone wins and feels good about the process.)

Byrd’s writing room is outdoors in a converted chicken coop and overlooks the Papalote Wash, a major migrant trail. She has watched travelers put down their backpacks and take advantage of the tall swing she has hanging from a huge walnut tree in the middle of the wash. From her perch Byrd has called out to an uncountable number of those passing through to offer water and food – in a word, hospitality. The NMD Byrd Camp is directly across this wash. In 2004, when she heard we were looking for a place for the camp, Byrd actually sought us out to offer her land. Byrd has allowed us to use her land for these last 10 years (now 15) for our desert camp and medical facility. From there we send out several patrols almost every day year-round to leave water and humanitarian assistance on the trails and to search for the sick, injured, and those simply lost, who are crossing the desert. At the medical facility we have treated many 100s, if not 1000s, of travelers through the years. The perfect spot – for all roads from the mountains south and east of there lead directly past our driveway and the No Mas Muertes sign.

Let me tell you a Byrd story in which I had a small part. On a cold, cold February day 6 or 7 years ago, before we had a year-round camp, Ed McCullough and I were mapping trails in the Tumacacori foothills. On Bear Grass Tank Rd. that early afternoon we found a pair of migrants, a brother and sister, who had been lost for 6 days and had no food or water. They were sick, exhausted, famished, and freezing. We warmed them up in Ed’s truck and gave them aid, and then took them to Byrd’s home, since they wanted us to call Border Patrol so they could return to Mexico. Byrd was in Tucson that afternoon, but Tom Lewis, her horseman and caretaker back then was there. The brother collapsed into a blanket in the hammock on Byrd’s porch and we got the sister to crawl into Byrd’s bed. We phoned Border Patrol, giving them Byrd’s home address as the location. Tom agreed to care for them till BP arrived, and Ed and I chased the dark back to Tucson.

The rest we found out later from Tom. BP never showed, though Tom phoned them again. When Byrd returned from Tucson around 10 pm, her guests were still resting – “passed out” a more accurate phrase. Byrd phoned BP again and the female dispatcher said they had no record or knowledge of anyone having phoned about this. It seems they were discarding pending calls when they changed shifts. The dispatcher asked Byrd where the travelers were now. Byrd said the brother was on the porch and the sister was in Byrd’s bed. The dispatcher got irate, telling Byrd she was breaking the law by “harboring an illegal” and that she could be arrested. “Get her out of your house now,” she demanded. Byrd calmly told the dispatcher that, when they came for the migrants, they had better send the sheriff too to arrest her, because she wasn’t going to push this exhausted woman out of her bed until she had to.

Well, you know, Byrd is the same woman who answered a question at the newly-installed Arivaca Rd. BP checkpoint of “How you doin?’” with “I’d be doing a lot better if I didn’t live in a police state!” Byrd once told me that all her ancestors were either warriors or preachers. These include Admiral Byrd of polar fame and R. E. B. Baylor, founder of the Baptist school in Texas, Baylor University. Byrd got the best of both sides.

Byrd is the author of 15 children’s books, and has received 4 Caldecott Honors from the American Library Association. Her wonderful novel, “Yes is Better than No”, is now back in print (available online and at Antigone Books, as are most of her children’s books). She is working on a new book of essays, currently titled “Good Women Who Love Bad Trucks”. I’ll end with a quote from the bio at the back of her first book, “Amigo”, published in 1963. It says: Byrd Baylor lives in the Southwest. Her eloquent lyric prose reflects a philosophy as special and lovely as the lands she writes about. For her it is the spirit – not material things – that is necessary for personal development. “Once you make that decision, your whole life opens up and you begin to know what matters and what doesn’t.” We are so glad she made that decision so many years ago. Happy 90th (now 96th) Birthday! Byrd, WE LOVE YOU.

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