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FILM:
Mexico-US
'Devil's Highway' A Killer
Diego
Cevallos
MEXICO CITY, (IPS) - In
May 2001, a group of 26
undocumented Mexican immigrants
crossed the border into the
United States and headed north
through an Arizona desert area
so barren and hostile it is
known as the Devil's Highway.
After days of walking, only 12
emerged alive.. The other 14 had
succumbed to dehydration and
exposure under the scorching
desert sun.
In their struggle to survive,
they drank their own urine and
shredded their hands and mouths
eating cactus.
Their story is an especially
tragic one, but sadly, not
unique. In 2001 alone, 391
Mexicans died while attempting
to cross into the United States,
and hundreds more like them lose
their lives every year.
But the story of these 14
particular men will soon be told
on the big screen, in 'The
Devil's Highway', a film set to
begin shooting in September, and
scheduled for a 2006 release.
The new movie will follow the
men's doomed journey through the
eyes of everyone involved: the
would-be immigrants themselves,
the ”coyotes” or human
traffickers who abandoned them
in the desert, and the U.S.
Border Patrol agents who found
them, according to the film's
Mexican director, Rodolfo (Rudy)
Joffroy.
As part of the pre-production
process, Joffroy and his crew
visited the Arizona desert area
where the events took place, as
well as locations in the state
of Veracruz, on the Gulf of
Mexico, where many of the
original group of 26 men hailed
from.
The director was also assisted
in his background research by
the staff of the Mexican
consulates located near the
border in the southern United
States, who helped him gain an
inside view of migration between
the two countries.
'The Devil's Highway' will mark
Joffroy's directorial debut. The
film's script is based on a 2004
book of the same name by Luis
Urrea, a Tijuana-born writer who
now lives in the United States.
The death of these 14 men
briefly stirred up controversy
on both sides of the border,
with Mexican and U.S.
authorities both laying the
blame on the so-called coyotes
who abandoned their ”clients” in
the desert.
But human rights activists
pointed to Washington as
ultimately responsible, because
of its ”police approach” to
immigration.
”These movies tend to be harsh,
because they reflect a reality
that gets lost in the statistics
about this or that number of
deaths, but is so tragic that we
always hope it will somehow grab
the attention of the
authorities,” film critic
Gustavo Palacios told IPS.
”We wish the film every success,
because it will help to open
people's eyes and ears to the
drama of immigration,” he added.
Many of the undocumented
Mexicans who cross the border
into the United States enter
through the desert regions of
Arizona. Official statistics
indicate that almost one half of
the just over one million
would-be immigrants apprehended
by the U.S. Border Patrol in
2004 came by this route.
Entering the United States
through the least heavily
guarded areas along the border
is almost always a
life-threatening endeavour,
because it means crossing
churning rivers or inhospitable
deserts where temperatures soar
above 40 degrees Celsius, and it
is far too easy to become
disoriented and lost.
Nevertheless, every year roughly
400,000 Mexicans make it past
the strict U.S. border controls
to become productive members of
that country's workforce, while
over one million fail and are
sent back home.
And every year, hundreds more
die in the attempt. The
statistics show that between
1995 and 2004, 2,952 lives were
lost along the 3,200-km border
separating Mexico and the United
States. The years with the
highest numbers of fatalities
were 2000, with 491, and 2003,
with 422.
For many years, Mexico has been
calling for a migration accord
to promote safe, orderly
emigration and to normalise the
status of the many undocumented
Mexican immigrants living and
working in the United States.
Washington, however, has made it
clear that it will go no further
than a system of temporary
”guest worker” permits, and that
it will maintain its ironclad
control over the Mexico-U.S.
border.
There are close to 40 million
people of Latin American origin
living in the United States, the
majority of who are Mexican.
It was once possible to enter
the United States through areas
near the major border cities,
but those routes were closed off
in 1993 with the erection of
walls and fences and beefed-up
security on the U.S. side.
Control of the border has been
even tighter since the Sep. 11,
2001 terrorist attacks on New
York and Washington.
Since then, undocumented
immigrants and their guides --
the coyotes -- have been forced
to make the crossing along the
most remote, dangerous
stretches.
If they manage to get across,
they are frequently transported
farther into U.S. territory in
the backs of freight trucks or
in sealed train cars, inside
suitcases or standing. Some who
survive the border crossing
itself subsequently lose their
lives on this last leg of the
journey -- and join the
statistics alongside the 14 men
who died travelling ”the devil's
highway”.
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