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 Entertainment | February 2008 
Crossing the Borders of “Mexiphobia”
 Matthew Frank - NewWest
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“Everything’s quiet, no one plays music anymore, there’s really nothing to buy and nothing to do,” says Danielle Gallo of Boquillas, a small town in Northern Mexico. “Everything has a feeling of destitution and despair, and it’s not a happy place anymore. It’s depressing.”
Boquillas and other border towns along the Rio Grande River opposite Big Bend National Park were suffocated by isolation when visitors stopped flowing across the border from the United States: in 2002, three crossings were abruptly closed in the name of Homeland Security.
The documentary Mexiphobia, illustrates the consequences of myopic approaches to terrorism and immigration on complex transboundary relationships. The film zooms in on the people in these rugged mountain towns giving nuance and empathy to what’s often glossed over by images of illegal immigration, drugs and violence.
“You took almost a hundred years’ worth of history, of supporting families from this interaction across the border,” says Linda Walker, a local business owner. “You took that away, and so what do you think those folks are doing for a living? You think they’re going to let their kids starve? They’re not. No, they’ve gone back to the things that we didn’t want them doing. They’re making a living; they’re not making it selling tacos anymore.”
Another business owner adds, “It’s making criminals out of everyday people, tourists and the Mexicans alike.”
The film also contrasts the differences and inconsistencies in policy between the Mexican border and the Canadian border by looking to Glacier National Park, part of the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park straddling the U.S.-Canadian border. “It’s very clear that the reason (the policies differ) is because the Canadians are white and the Mexicans are brown,” says attorney Patricia Kerns. |
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