Date of Discovery: June 23, 2008
Location of Discovery: Crow Hang Village, Pima County, Arizona
Age: 15-20 years old
Listed Heritage: Latinx
Likely Nationality: Central American
Multiple personal effects in backpack including doctored Mexican identification paperwork, scraps of paper with names and numbers, a comb, two prayer cards in plastic, and Mexican coins, two pairs of black and white socks with the word “USA” on them.
*** Two illustrations were drawn representing this woman.
Elegy for Earlobes
by Xotchil-Julisa Bermejo
When you were a baby
still wet from your mother’s womb,
a woman–a nurse or tía–
held your new formed lobes
round as dawn between her brown
fingers. Safe in your mother’s arms,
this madrina pierced gold
into flesh to bless you woman.
Name you precious. Your mouth
opened wide to cry, but your voice
didn’t know it was a voice
and waited to be a rose.
When no petals bloomed from lips,
your abuela bundled the room
in chants to Nuestra Señora.
This is how women welcome women
into a world built to place weights
upon them till their feet drag to heaven.
But your lobes, I pray, returned to those
first fingers pulling you into a whisper
pouring nothing but cariños.