Thanksgiving miracle: Mexican illegal saves 9-year-old boy stranded alone in desert near US border

A Mexican migrant who crossed the US border illegally turned himself in to authorities while trying to save a 9-year-old boy and his mother. Tells a touching story about a Thanksgiving miracle CNN.

Photo: IStock

Deep in the Arizona wilderness, as daylight faded from the desert mountains, a boy stood on a narrow road holding a broken mirror.

It was Thanksgiving 2007. Chris Buchleitner was 9 years old. A mirror had broken on the side of his mother's van minutes earlier when she drove off the road. They rolled down a steep slope. Now his mother lay trapped in a crumpled wagon in the canyon below. Chris got out of the van and climbed up to look for help.

They were located several kilometers from the Mexican border. Chris had recently seen a Border Patrol helicopter and was hoping to use the mirror as a signaling device. But the helicopter was nowhere to be seen. His mother's mobile phone was out of range. Chris was lonely, he was afraid, he was running out of ideas. And then, in the gathering twilight, he saw the stranger approaching.

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The man came from Mexico. He crossed the border illegally, planning to start a new life. He became separated from his comrades as they fled from authorities and criminals hunting migrants in the desert. But he was still free, he could have made it to Tucson or Phoenix and found the job he needed to support his family at home.

Now this man had to make a choice.

He could continue on, safe from the Border Patrol, and leave the boy alone.

Or he could stay, help the boy, and risk being caught by the same people he had been running from for the past three days.

Manuel Cordoba's decision will have profound consequences for both of them. Later, as the story came to light, it became the subject of a lively national debate about the costs and benefits of illegal immigration.

But when night fell on Forest Service Road 39, political arguments didn't matter. There was only a boy who needed protection, a woman who needed saving, and a man who seemed to be their only hope.

foreboding

To this day, Chris doesn't know why this happened. Maybe the sun got into her eyes, or part of the road caved in. Whatever the reason, his mother lost control of the van. She screamed. The van tilted and overturned. Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion. And as the van rolled and crashed down the hill, Chris huddled in the back seat and held on for dear life.

Chris loved hiking, but he always had bad feelings about this trip. He wasn't sure why. Chris and his mother and father once traveled through the American West in their RV, exploring these magnificent open spaces, but such a journey would never be repeated.

Chris's father died in September of that year. Now Chris and his mother, a biology teacher named Dawn Tomko, were on their own. Chris told his mom he didn't want to go camping. But Dawn, a former park ranger, was eager to get back to nature.

At home in Rimrock, Arizona, she planned another trip for the week of Thanksgiving. They were returning to their camp after a mountain biking trip when the van went off the road.

Down in the canyon, the van was parked against a tree, the engine still running. From the back seat, Chris reached forward and turned off the ignition. His mother was out of breath, possibly unconscious, and unable to get out of the driver's seat. Her hand was badly cut, so Chris wrapped her in a blanket. He then told her he was going to find help.

Chris gathered supplies: binoculars, his mother's flip phone, the broken van mirror. The hill was steep and the ground was loose. He slipped, fell backwards, and scraped his knees. But he continued to climb until he was back on the road. There he found a long-awaited surprise: his dog Tanner, unharmed. Jade's second dog apparently ran into the canyon after the accident. Chris believes Tanner may have jumped out of an open window just before the van started rolling down the hill.

Fateful meeting

Tanner was a big dog, and he made Chris feel safer. They had just started walking down the road when they saw a man. He was wearing black trousers and a black sweatshirt.

At first, Chris was worried that Tanner might attack, so he threaded the binocular strap through Tanner's collar. But Tanner seemed to know that the man posed no threat.

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Chris's parents taught him not to talk to strangers, but these were emergency circumstances. Chris told the man he needed help. The man looked confused. Gradually they both realized that there was a language barrier. The man pulled out his ID and pointed to his name. Manuel. He introduced himself as Manny.

Chris knew a few words of Spanish and tried to explain the situation. The van was green, so he said "verde". He was going down the hill quickly, so he said "rapido." They both made hand gestures. Some things were easy to understand. It was getting colder and Chris was in shorts and a T-shirt.

Manuel took off his sweatshirt and draped it over Chris's shoulders.

A dangerous trek from Mexico to the USA

The man in black was not alone when he left Magdalena de Kino.

The picturesque Mexican city is a popular pilgrimage site that draws crowds each year for feasts honoring St. Francis Xavier and Father Kino, the Jesuit priest who founded many missions in the region. But on a November morning in 2007, Manuel Jesus Cordova Soberanes and about 30 others from Magdalena set out on their own trek, leaving the city in search of opportunities they couldn't find at home.

It was difficult to find a job. Even a decent job, like Manuel's in a surgical suit factory, brought in about $100 a week.

Manuel was 26 years old. He partied a lot and did drugs. But he was also a father and knew he needed to support his family.

He already had two daughters and a third child on the way. So he met up with the group leaving that November morning and headed for the border. He planned to go to a major city in Arizona and find any job possible.

This was not Manuel's first attempt. He has already been caught and sent back several times. This time he left Magdalena, deciding that the journey would be different. This time he was going to stay.

For several days, he did everything possible to prevent the authorities from finding him. The group scattered across the desert whenever they heard voices or screams, or whenever someone noticed flashing lights in the distance. At one point, Manuel burrowed under the vegetation and hid there for what seemed like hours.

And so he goes north alone. And then there was something he never expected to see: a small boy standing in front of him on a narrow dirt road. Manuel thought about his children. They were about the same age as Chris. He knew he wished someone would do this for them.

After giving the boy the sweatshirt, Manuel went down the hill to check on the woman. From outside the battered van, he could hear her breathing heavily. But he couldn't see her. He came to a terrifying conclusion: it was impossible to open the driver's door, and even trying could make a dangerous situation worse. The car fell into the canyon, but not to the very bottom. He swayed like a swing on the slope of the ravine. Manuel tried to strengthen the van with branches and stones.

Returning to the side of the road, he piled up a huge pile of wood and lit a fire to keep warm and send a distress signal. He hid for several days. But now his priorities have changed. Manuel did everything possible to attract the attention of the American authorities.

Chris kept thinking about his mother, who was alone in the canyon. He curled up next to the fire, using Tanner's dog as a pillow, and eventually fell asleep. At night, Manuel returned to the van to check on Chris's mother. Although he couldn't free her, he could still hear her breathing.

And then, around midnight, during another foray to the van, he listened to her breathing and heard only silence.

Relief and Border Patrol

A fire was burning on the road, the boy was sleeping. In the morning, two quail hunters arrived in a pickup truck. Manuel waved at them. They had a satellite phone. One called 911 and the call went through.

Something in Manuel changed overnight. His destination has changed. He decided that this was where he needed to be, waiting for the ambulance to arrive to take Chris to safety.

An ambulance has arrived. So did firefighters, who found Jade's dog nearby in a canyon as they tried to pull a van up a steep slope. Local and federal officials also responded to the scene. Manuel says they handcuffed him, but then apologized and took them off after talking to Chris.

“Excuse us, but this is my job,” the Border Patrol agent told Manuel. “You are here illegally.”

“No problem,” Manuel recalls answering. In a way, he was relieved to go home. He had only two requests: he needed a cigarette. And he asked if he could stay at the scene a little longer. He wanted to watch the rescuers get the van out. He still hoped that Chris's mother had somehow survived.

When they finally pulled her body from the rubble, it was clear what had happened. He saw firefighters signaling to each other, “She’s dead.”

As Manuel walked back to the Border Patrol truck, he thought about his recently deceased grandmother, his father, who had recently had a stroke, and Chris's mother, whom he could not save. Tears began to roll from my eyes.

In the morning chaos, Chris did not have time to say goodbye to Manuel; paramedics took him away in an ambulance. But the firefighters who arrived on the scene, who learned what Manuel had done for the boy, found an unexpected way to say goodbye to him.

They burst into applause.

Soon Manuel returned to Magdalena as quietly as he had left it the day before. He didn't tell anyone about what happened in the desert. Then, a few days after the deportation, his father came to him with a concerned question: “What have you done?”

Hero

People from north of the border were looking for Manuel. The mayor wanted to meet him. His father heard this from the mayor's driver, who turned out to be his friend.

Manuel told his father about the car accident, about the little boy he was trying to help, and about the mother he wanted to save. And together they headed to the mayor's office. Much to his surprise, less than two weeks after he was kicked out of the United States, Manuel crossed the border again—this time as the guest of honor at the Nogales port of entry.

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He was met by police officers, firefighters and diplomats. So did a group of reporters who heard about the story and were eager to share it.

Officials praised his bravery and dedication. The local fire chief gave him a small stuffed horse and told Manuel that he was a hero in the wilderness, like the Lone Ranger. Mexico's top diplomat in the Arizona border city praised Manuel for putting his own needs and aspirations aside.

“The desert,” he said, “knows how to prioritize.”

Manuel's mother sat next to him, wiping tears from her eyes.

There were so many things Manuel wanted to tell people that day. But an unexpected meeting with celebrities stunned the potential immigrant. When the TV camera turned in his direction, he smiled shyly and covered his face with a manila folder. And when Manuel finally had the opportunity to address the crowd, he could only say one thing: “Thank you.”

Manuel didn't feel like a hero. His thoughts were about people who weren't there. News reports following the accident described details of Chris's life that Manuel did not learn about that night in the desert. How was Chris doing now, he wondered, and what would happen to the little boy who no longer had parents to care for him?

Orphan Boy Moves to Pennsylvania

When Chris Buchleitner was a child, his parents made plans for the worst-case scenario. His father, Jack Buchleitner, came from a huge Catholic family in Pittsburgh—he was one of 10 children—and one day Jack and Dawn called Jack's sister Mary Butera with an unusual request.

“If something happens to both of us,” Chris’s father asked, “will you take care of Christopher?”

"And I was like, 'Of course!' — his aunt recalled in an interview.

Mary and Vinny Butera took care of Christopher. He moved to Pittsburgh and grew up there surrounded by a large and loving Buchleitner family. Another aunt even took in the dogs, Tanner and Jade, and Chris visited them regularly for the rest of their lives.

Chris never got over the loss of his parents. Years later, he told a friend that it felt like he had a hole in his chest. But he learned to accept his new life. He studied biology, like his mother, and graduated from Duquesne University in 2020 with a degree in medicine.

Now 25, Chris works as a nurse at UPMC Shadyside Hospital in Pittsburgh, specializing in patients with heart problems. The work is stressful and challenging, with 12-hour days. Chris enjoys his co-workers and his conversations with the people he cares about. The surviving boy now helps save the lives of others.

Despite the long shifts, Chris's work schedule has its advantages. He only visits the hospital three days a week and has four days for nature. Yes, he still loves nature.

His mother had big plans for him, she wanted to take him to amazing places. One of them was North Cascades National Park in Washington state, with its towering glaciers and jagged mountain peaks. It was too dangerous for a 9 year old child. But in September, Chris went exploring in the North Cascades. And there, among the cold wind and harsh beauty, he remembered her.

Now Chris doesn't talk much about what happened in 2007. Although his closest friends know all about it, most of his colleagues do not. However, he continues to think about Manuel, the man in black.

Chris is now almost the same age as Manuel was then. Sometimes he wonders what happened to the person who kept him safe. Even as he got older, he didn't want to look at old news. He decided they would be too painful to read. He knows little about what happened to Manuel after that night.

But if they ever met again, he would say, "Thank you." Because if Manuel hadn't stopped to help, as Chris says, "I don't even know if I would have made it through the night."

A turning point on a mountain road and a new life in Mexico

Manuel never asked for fame, which briefly found him. But for months, even years after that day in the desert, reporters kept calling. They appeared out of nowhere at Magdalene City Hall. Manuel received a call: “There are people here who want to meet with you.”

He is well aware that some people view immigrants as criminals. He hopes that in his story people will see the common humanity that is often lost in debate.

Manuel thinks he did what anyone would do in the same situation. But many told him that's not what they see in his story.

Stories of an immigrant who sacrificed his dream to help a stranger on Thanksgiving Day read with mythical reverence.

Ministers mention this in sermons and articles praising selfless Good Samaritans. A duo of writers and composers wrote a musical about it. And now, even 16 years later, some people in his hometown shout to him: “Look, this is the hero of Magdalene!”

Sometimes Manuel thinks that instead of all the plaques and recognition, he would prefer to remain in the shadows and get a visa to legally work in the United States. Such benefits are not unprecedented. Victims of crimes and people assisting in human trafficking investigations are eligible for special visas. A few years ago in France, an undocumented immigrant climbed the side of a building to rescue a child hanging from a balcony. President Emmanuel Macron granted him citizenship and awarded him a gold medal.

Arizona Congressman Raul Grijalva proposed a bill that would give Manuel the opportunity to legally live and work in the United States. But the measure never made it out of a congressional committee.

Manuel says he never tried to cross the border again. The enthusiasm he once felt for this journey has lost its luster. And he discovered something unexpected in himself. Manuel now lives a few hours from Magdalena in the border city of Mexicali and works in a bazaar. He says his life is radically different from that night in the Arizona wilderness.

“Before, because of my drug addiction, I couldn’t talk to clients,” he says. “If a buyer had come in, I would have run away.” I couldn't look people in the face."

Now when a client comes in, he is not afraid to stand up and greet him. He jokes with them and exchanges pleasantries. He lets them look him in the eye. A few weeks after returning to Mexico, Manuel said he quit drugs. And he believes that harrowing and heartbreaking night in the desert helped him see the world and his place in it more clearly. Not as a hero, but as a person.

“I was a mess. I was young. … It really changed my way of thinking,” he says. - Because before I only thought about myself. What I did was important."

Manuel realized that he had been on the wrong path for many years. He was not a good father to his children and even once served jail time for failure to pay child support. According to Manuel, returning to Mexico brought him closer to his family. He is now 42 years old and has seven children and four grandchildren.

He still thinks about Chris, wondering how he's doing and how things would have turned out if they hadn't met. And instead of contemplating his alternative future in America, he wonders how life would be different if he came across a crowbar or other tool that could break into the van. Could he have saved Chris's mom too?

Sometimes he wakes up at night, clutching the edge of the blanket. In the dream, he is still standing at the door of the van and trying to open it.

Over the years, the story faded from the headlines. But Manuel still gets questions. These days, they're more likely to come from surprised friends who play on a soccer team with him in Mexicali and happened upon a photo of the ceremony he once shared on Facebook.

“Just like journalists, they ask and ask,” says Manuel. Always with the same incredulous questions.

Why did you stop? How it was? If you had the chance to do it again, would you make the same choice?

The last question is easy for Manuel to answer.

“I would have done a thousand times more,” he says. “I don’t doubt it for a second.”

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