Wetback – undocumented documentary of illegal immigration

Director Arturo Perez Torres humanizes a divisive issue in U.S. politics — the problem of illegal immigration. Using first person accounts, Torres starts in the countries where the immigrants begin, their homelands. Problems with unemployment, poverty, hunger, and lack of opportunity in many Central American countries push many people to consider living “the American dream” by heading north. But on the way, many will be robbed, injured, disabled, assaulted, raped or murdered. Some will be returned; some will make it into the U.S. only to be treated with disrespect and hostility.

Torres turns over the rock that covers the dark side of immigration and exposes it to his camera lens. The courage and determination of people who are in difficult circumstances through no fault of their own comes through loud and clear. Torres has, in effect, put a human face on an issue that is too often about fear and hostility, numbers and racism. In most of the beginning segments, there is a group of mariachis performing that seems incongruous to the tone of the film; it denote local culture but seems a bit too celebratory for the topic to which it is attached. But the camera does capture the lives and the spirit of the people, as well as the warmth of the culture they feel they must leave behind. Using the journey of two men, Torres has personalized an issue that is altogether too impersonal in the minds of many.

Wetback Is About People On Both Sides of the Issue

Three thousand people try to get into North America every single day. Many disappear; few are carrying identification, many are robbed or murdered and cannot be traced when they drop out of site — 80% are robbed along the way. There are people out gunning for them from both sides, both gangs or “maras” who rob, rape and kill using homemade water pipe guns that detonate with nails (called “chimbas”). The treacherous journey is witnessed step by agonizing step.

There are the trains of death wherein people hang by the hundreds (cargo trains) in order to get a free ride north; but not all make it. Many are so exhausted that they run and get sucked under the train, or fall off along the way. They lose limbs and are then incapable of returning home to the family they were trying so desperately to help. The Coyotes, people who agree to take them across the border into the U.S. for a fee, abuse them and overcharge them. The people appear at the mercy of a system that is out to break them.