La Tragedia de Macario or: Will a Fence Fix This?

The Laredo Center for the Arts offered a free screening last night of a new (and Sundance-bound) film called La Tragedia de Macario. It's one of those projects imaginatively shot by a student--Pablo Veliz, at the University of Texas at San Antonio--for an impossibly tiny amount of money. Taking as its inspiration the May 14, 2003 deaths of 19 immigrants in Victoria, Texas--of asphyxiation and heat exposure--in the back of the locked, insulated semi trailer, the film tells the story of Macario's decision to leave Sabinas Hidalgo and cross the border in search of work; the film, from its opening--and through its thoughtful use of a corrido throughout--makes no secret of the fact that Macario dies en route locked in a train car, so I won't either. But I'll not spoil anything else about the film.

In making its case that the people who decide to cross the border illegally in search of work don't generally imagine they have other options, La Tragedia de Macario subtly addresses another theme: the fact that cargo moves so freely across the border--thanks to trade liberalization--while labor cannot (Phyllis Schlafly is quick to explain that "illegals" are to blame for the resurgence of bedbugs) means too often that labor becomes cargo. Is this OK? Hey, Americans, is the cheap Tyson chicken worth it? The everyday low prices?

More importantly: a fence or wall or flying drones or computer-operated cameras or just more U.S. Border Patrol agents pumping gas into SUVs with busted bumpers won't really stop the cargo-style transport of those folks who see no option but to cross the border. Too much cargo--I live about 100 yards from I-35, 40 miles north of the Mexican border, and the trucks and trains never, ever stop--and too much money is at stake. Building a fence will solve one of our problems: "the minutemen," that volunteer corps of mostly middle-aged white guys, will return to their basement porn collections or maybe learn to read. The fence will ensure that all such trafficking in humans is as cargo.

But maybe the fence is about making sure they're invisible, after all? Wouldn't that brighten everyone's holiday just a little bit? Not to have to think about Central Americans dying of exposure?