de Nadie

de Nadie

I just watched a documentary of sorts about the journey that undocumented immigrants from Central America make through Mexico in search of work through the U.S. Some stay in Mexico and find work there, but some push all the way north. It's harrowing to hear their stories- they're simply trying to feed their families, but situations are so dire that they are willing to risk rape, maiming, robbery and assault (be it by fiercely violent gangs, the police, or the train that many attempt to jump, often severing limbs or killing them if they fall).

The people speak simply, directly. Though often with tears, there's a marked lack of self-pity; for these people, it is what it is, and all they can do is focus on one day at a time. They miss their families, but they're driven by the need to provide for them.

It's so easy to sit back in our comfortable lives and criticize these people for entering the country illegally and say "they should do it though the proper channels". But the economic situations are so dire, that they must feel no other choice than to risk such a dangerous trip. The people interviewed here knew what they were getting into- but they had no other options than to try or to watch their children starve. One particular woman interviewed

One man had an open wound in his stomach from his sternum to pelvis-it had been open so long that the skin would no longer stretch to cover it, and his stomach hung directly out. He wraps it in gauze each day. His can't get the appropriate surgery in his native country.

We saw a lot of the same appalling poverty in Ecuador. The way their poorest live is unfathomable to us. Just as our lives are to them.

The thing that really gets me is that, so often, the people who call for undocumented workers' immediate and complete deportation are the same people waving the ever self-righteous flag of family values. Non sequitur, anyone?