WETBACK: THE UNDOCUMENTED DOCUMENTARY A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2005 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): *** 1/2
Every day, 3,000 Latin Americans head north with 300 eventually making it to a better life for themselves in the United States. Arturo Perez Torres's WETBACK: THE UNDOCUMENTED DOCUMENTARY is an eye-opening look at the plight of these would-be immigrants who go in search of the "American dream." The film's unstated thesis is that immigrants are an unstoppable force, a river of humanity that no amount of police force can effectively dam up, but the film lays out many facts that both sides of the illegal immigration debate will probably find surprising and thought-provoking.
The first part of the documentary is devoted to the harsh reality that the people from Central America face when crossing three thousand torturous Mexican miles in order to reach the U.S. border. Because of corrupt police, organized gangs and the dangers of hitching rides on fast moving trains, the immigrants are robbed, raped, beaten, killed and maimed. Those who have tried to make the journey many times compliment the U.S. authorities while having nothing but disgust for the treatment they receive in Mexico.
The second part follows would-be illegal immigrants as they try to swim across the Rio Grande and follows U.S. Border Patrol agents who are trying to apprehend them. The film also shows the work of a group of local U.S. citizens who patrol the border as well, reporting what they find to the authorities. The movie tries to cast this latter group in the role of villains and buffoons. Upon finding the remnants of an illegal alien encampment and one person's old identification, one of these citizen patrol agents, remarks, "This guy has assumed a new identity and is now living in a town near you!" Our audience was filled with laughter in ridicule of these citizen patrols, who claimed that people crossing could be terrorists or dangerous criminals.
The film ends with a brief argument that, economically speaking, illegal immigration -- the film always uses as a more politically correct "undocumented immigrants" euphemism, of course -- benefits both countries involved. The newly arrived immigrants send enormous sums of money home to their relatives, and they pay U.S. taxes, while using few of the social services. In Mexico, money send home from relatives in the U.S. is second only to the oil industry as a revenue stream. This overall economic argument is flawed but fascinating.
Most curious of all is the filmmaker's dedication at the end of picture: "To all of the people who refuse to surrender to a situation they didn't create." This, of course, could be the official motto of the much maligned citizen patrol. One suspects that the filmmaker didn't quite realize the full implications of his dedication. One thing is certain. This is an excellent documentary that presents some rarely discussed and provocative issues that deserve to be reviewed and pondered.
WETBACK: THE UNDOCUMENTED DOCUMENTARY runs 1:30. It is in English and in Spanish with English subtitles.
The film is being shown as part of San Jose's Cinequest Film Festival (www.Cinequest.org), which runs March 2-13, 2005.
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