Do we need another Border Story?
April 22, 2008 by pablo
In talking to people about my script, Libertad, and telling them in takes place along the Mexican-American border, I usually pick up a sense of fatigue coming from the other person. It’s as if their body language screams “do we need another border story?” In some ways, I can understand this. In this age of 24 hour cable news and instant internet access, the topic of the border, and specifically immigration, has been debated so much that I think lots of people have reached their saturation point. I don’t think it reflects a lack of care or concern, only a mental fatigue that can set in after something has been argued from every angle, and then argued again.
But what are we to make of all the stats we’ve heard of the situation on the border? What are we to make of the fact that 32% of all children born in the state of Sonora, Mexico, in Santa Cruz country, are born into poverty? Or that three of the ten poorest counties in the United States are located in the border area? Do these stats mean anything? Let’s look at some that are even larger in their numbers and implications.
Take this stat, from www.borderhealth.org, which states that approximately 432,000 people live in 1,200 colonias in Texas and New Mexico, which are “unincorporated, semi-rural communities that are characterized by substandard housing and unsafe public drinking water or wastewater system.” If we break that down, and filter through the language, that means the that half-a-million people are living in shacks with no water to drink or sanitary sewer systems. These two systems, water and sewer, is what allows us to live healthy lives, removed from most of the disasters of health and disease that is commonplace in other areas. These crucial system, when working properly, can save thousands of lives and increase the quality of life for thousands more. Now, how many of us give thanks to our water system and sewer system? Probably not many of us.
Let’s look at another. The unemployment rate along the U.S. side of the Texas-Mexico border is 250-300 percent higher than in the rest of the country. This is a mind-blowing stat, which shows us that the border is nothing more than a line that, while neat on a map, is messy in real life. What happens on one side affects the other. For anyone to think otherwise, or to think that a wall or anything similar would make it neat, is not looking at reality. And we all know what unemployment means - disenfranchisement, increased crime, etc.
Finally, lets look at the border region (AZ,TX and NM) as if it was the “51st state”. This would be it’s rankings compared the other 50 states:
- Rank last in access to health care;
- Second in death rates due to hepatitis;
- Third in deaths related to diabetes;
- Last in per capita income;
- First in the numbers of school children living in poverty; and
- First in the numbers of children who are uninsured.
These stats are mind blowing. FIRST in the number of school children living in poverty. That is the one that gets me. But, as stats go, as amazing as they are, they are also mind numbing. It’s hard to wrap your head around numbers, hard to feel it in your heart, but they are real. So what to do with a situation like this? Continue to peddle stats? Myself, I don’t think that is effective. I think it’s much more effective to humanize those stats. Create narratives that make people FEEL what it’s like to be surrounded by poverty, to feel the hopelessness a child born into that situation feels, and the only way I know how to do that it through cinema.
Now, yes, there have been a lot of border-themed films. Most, however, are immigration stories (El Norte being my favorite). But immigration, while related to the condition of the border, is not the same as a film “about” a border town that feels the effects of immigration. Much different, and in my opinion, much more evocative. And we all know the kind of treatment Hollywood has given the border. For all its accolades, Traffic didn’t humanize the inhabitants of the border, but simply used them as interesting archetypes that seem to be taken from some hard boiled crime novel, shot with a high contrast filter and good soundtrack. Did you feel for the people caught in their circumstances? I know I didn’t. It felt like a music video. A really looongg one.
Gregory Nava tried with Bordertown, starring Jennifer Lopez. Yes, J Lo. Jennifer Lopez, no matter how good or bad of an actor she is, is not going to be able to slip off her Hollywood persona and make me think she is a woman in peril amidst the serial killer stalking Juarez. Two words - puh leez.
Can you think of other border-town films? I’m sure there are handful of bigger budget features that touch on it, probably a lot of indies, but I’d guess there isn’t anywhere near the number of films or television shows actually made about the border than what the perception is - again, a by-product of that media saturation of immigration as a topic.
So we come back to the stats. How can we continue to ignore the plight of the border in cinema in light of those stats? After all, cinema is currently our conduit for national and public discussion. Like it or not, cinema is so ingrained in what whether choose to engage or ignore issues that it is perhaps the most important art in our culture. So, to me as a filmmaker it makes perfect sense to look at those stats and say “okay, this is where we need to be”.
So, what makes Libertad different? First, we don’t look at what it’s like for a Mexican to go to the US - but rather, what is it like for an immigrant to go back home - where the US no longer feels like home, but neither does Mexico. It’s that feeling of displacement that so many immigrants feel, especially when they realize they can assimilate only so much here in the states, but just enough to not fit in in their homeland anymore.
Second, Libertad looks at the effects of poverty on each of its characters, and what does poverty bring - despair, drug abuse, displacement, disillusionment, anger, mistrust - and how do people overcome this (hope, pride, strength, courage). It’s these universal struggles that make stories like Libertad accessible to us all.
Also, Libertad looks at violence and its role in a society that has been deludged with it, and how it becomes a fabric of it’s core, sadly. And on and on. There are many more things that make Libertad special, too numerous to list here.
So, when I think of my decision to look south of the border for this project, I feel good about it. I hope to do for the kids and communities of Liberatad what I did for the kids of Runnin’ At Midnite - instill a bit of hope - and get the crowd to actually think about the border as a region that inhabits real live people, living in real life squalor, and battling real life problems.
All this said, I know some people will still wonder if we truly need another border story. Well, to that question I now pose this questions: why not? Is the border struggle solved? Is it at a point where we shouldn’t keep examining it through art? I think not.
stats from: http://www.borderhealth.org/border_region.php
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Comments
Translator
The border issues are so complicated. I go back and forth all the time trying to figure out where I stand. First of all, many mexicans who live in Nogales, Sonora and beyond are very decent people. The problem with drugs and violence stems from the drug trade. Americans do drugs that is no surprise. The demand is high so the supply is there. Americans must take responsibility for that. They are a big part of the problem. The mexicans who have moved into sonora and have changed the border for the worse are not locals. They are drug smugglers who have moved closer to the US to run their routes. The border has been changed forever. I put most of the blame on the Americans who are buying the drugs. The drug dealers get caught but new ones takeover. It is a big business. Most drug users don’t understand how many people died so they could get their high. It is a never ending cycle. Political corruption is another problem. Most government officials and police are corrupt. Mexico is a country with so many natural resources. The potential to become a wealthy nation is there, but corruption is rampant. You would not believe the stories I’ve heard. Governor’s, mayors, etc. steal money from everywhere so that they can send their children to Europe to travel and study. It is pathetic and sad. Now the health crisis on the border is another problem. It makes me so mad when I go the the doctor in Nogales, Arizona and I see people from across the line(mexico) at the doctors paying with access. You are probably wondering why? Most of them are not Americans. They have figured out how to cheat the system and they get other people’s ss#’s. At Walmart I see people paying with foodstamps and then get into a car with mexican license plates. The government has allowed this to happen and I don’t think its fair. Now I stop to think and wonder if I were in there place what would I do? Women from Mexico come into Nogales arizona when they go into labor so they can have their children in a US hospital, then the children become American citizens and they get “benefits”. That’s not fair either? Now if I lived in Mexico and my child was sick and dying then I would come into the US. I would go to the hospital and then worry about how I would pay. Even if that wasn’t fair, the life of my child would be priority. That is where I feel like a hypocrite. I could go on and on with border issues, but when you live in it you start to see all sides. I hear many people from Mexico say, “I can’t wait to become an American so I don’t have to work and the government will take care of me”. That annoys me! There are classes in Tucson given to many illegals on how to get government benenfits. I know that for a fact. There are many Mexicans who come to work in the US. They have permission to travel but not to work. Many of them just need to make money to send home. They are good people and with 1 days work they feed their entire family. I sympathize with them. I do have to tell you that sometimes I am plesantly surprised. I think that poor mexicans families many times are happier than American ones. Mexicans have strong family ties. They help eachother out. They are not so glamourized with materialistic things; and, therefore, happier. Sometimes too many good things makes you miserable. Good luck with your film. I think it will be a real success.
Thank you for the post!
I’m glad that you felt compelled to use this site as a place to discuss these issues. I also hope you’ll follow this site as we move our project forward, as I’ll be blogging on many of the issues you raised. What I gather from reading your post is that these issues are complicated, multi-faceted and are nowhere near being solved, either politically or socially. It motivates me to keep working to shed light on all sides of these issues, either in film, through our workshops for youth or on this blog.
So thank you for contributing!
Pablo