De Nadie Commentary

“De Nadie” Commentary

This documentary is focused on the numerous immigrants originating from Central America, undertaking an extremely dangerous journey of about 2500 miles up north towards the southern border of the United States, where they hope to cross and profit from the wealth available in the U.S.. The movie is accordingly named “de Nadie”, which translates into “No-One”, and follows various immigrants on their journeys, interviewing them on their way and depicting the many injustices and setbacks encountered by each of them. The difficulties emphasized in this documentary are mainly the one’s which are usually overlooked when discussing the issue of U.S immigration, including political, economical, medical and criminal challenges even before they reach the border, especially whilst crossing Mexico. The movie depicts a couple of main themes as difficulties which will be explored in this commentary, as well as the personal implications encountered by the immigrants who left their countries of origin and families in search of financial sufficiency to support their families.

The first issue of the documentary is the horrors of the train, also known as the “steel beast”, which is the most popular means of transportation among the immigrants. The train offers a direct connection to the Mexican/United States border, free of charge. The only requirement is not to get caught. Besides the countless deaths and injuries happening by accident as immigrants try to mount or dismount the racing train, many are also deliberately pushed off or simply murdered by the railroad authorities. Sometime ago the Mexican government divided the railroad network into separate sections and gave authority over these sections, including the services offered, to five major companies, who know rule the entire railroad network. Mr. L. Hernandez from the immigrant shelter in Veracuz, Mexico, explains how the employees of one of the companies reigning the railroad, Ferrosur, are the most abusive towards the immigrants. They are described as violent and are commonly known to throw rocks, beat and steal from the immigrants, sometimes even commit murder. This is only one of the companies operating the railroad, it is probable that the others conduct alike. The documentary further explains that these injustices are unpreventable, and often go unpunished due to the overwhelming corruption present in the country, and within almost every major organization. When an employee of Ferrosur was addressed about the issue of illegal train riders, he simply stated that the only trouble caused by the immigrants was the immense delays as a result of the bodies found on the tracks, without any acknowledgement to the injustices and treatment of the immigrants. The documentary shows scenes of the immigrants risking their lives on these trains, as well as those with severe injuries and amputations caused, giving the viewer a good idea of how desperate these people are to reach the United States, despite the dimensions of direct violations of their human rights and unacceptable political corruption.

In addition to abusive official authorities posing a threat to the immigrants, the next issue discussed in the documentary is La Mara Salvatrucha. La Mara is a network of organized gangs of criminals who are known to be even more violent than the train authorities and are continuously assaulting the immigrants, torturing, raping and killing them on their journey to the U.S. Even on the railroad network they manage to take over the passing trains, determining who gets on or off and how much must be paid to do so, if this payment is refused by the immigrants they will simply be thrown off the train. On the grounds their actions are just as inhumanly as they brutally force their demands and themselves onto the immigrants using guns and machetes. As the formation of the gangs continues, with an average of 25 to 50 members entering the country daily, the authorities have so far appeared to be unable to stop them despite the publicly and openly admitting of their crimes and the media sensationally addressing the matter. Throughout the documentary stories are told by immigrants who crossed paths with La Mara, some about fighting back and being savagely injured, others about obeying and surviving and others who hid and lost everything.

Contributing to all this violence and injustice, one would hope for the just calls of the police. Unfortunately the police in Central America is just as bad, and is referred to in the movie as the “thieves with permits”. The police is generally known not to help the immigrants or at least act judicially, but rather to assault them, stealing everything they own from them and beating and abusing them sometimes resulting in casualties. This is confirmed in the documentary by many immigrants and civilians in Mexico who have