Murray State University's Cinema International is presenting the docudrama "The Long Walk of Carlos Guerrero" this week. The lightly fictionalized story draws inspiration from director Joseph Matthew's 2006 documentary "Crossing Arizona."
It follows Carlos – a chef from New York City who is undocumented – on a journey to and from Mexico to visit his sick mother. It explores immigration, cartels and human trafficking along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Murray State University associate professor of Spanish Moses Fritz highlighted the film's nuanced portrayal of immigration.
"The film is often billed as an adventure or survival film, but it is much more than that, because it shows all the different aspects of the immigration process, the undocumented process of immigrating from starting in Mexico by contracting 'coyotes,' or human traffickers, smugglers into the United States," Fritz said. "You see the different immigrants that make that journey, as well as the people they meet along the way, from border agents to U.S. citizens they encounter once they get to the other side, and everything that happens during the process of a very dangerous trip."
When the protagonist tries to leave Mexico to return to the life he’s built in New York City, the undocumented chef finds himself in business with a “coyote.” Faced with putting his life in the hands of a human trafficker, Carlos takes the only route he sees to get home to his wife and daughter.
Fritz said that the film’s depiction of these types of figures hammers home the impact border politics and policies can have on individuals' lives.
"Because he is undocumented, it's not easy to get back into the United States, and so he has to pay a coyote, the human trafficker, to smuggle him back in so he can resume his life in New York City, where he has a wife and child,” Fritz said. “Coyotes are very ruthless people, because, as we also learn from the film, they themselves are in mortal danger in trying to get immigrants, as well as illegal goods like drugs across the border and to make a living that way."
He also points out that the terrain itself can be a disincentive for immigrants who are seeking to enter the United States due to its harsh and unforgiving environment. The movie highlights this by showing the harshness of the Sonoran Desert and how it wears on people.
"There's no water. It's very rough terrain. Lots of people just die of exposure when making the crossings,” Fritz said. “People travel through that all the time, mostly because of stricter enforcement in areas of the desert that are more easily crossed."
The film takes place partially on indigenous land and features members of the Tohono O'odham Nation.
Murray State student Luna Gamblin has a personal connection to the story. Their fiancé is from the Tohono O'odham Nation, an indigenous community residing primarily in Arizona and northern Mexico.
"Their reservation territory hits the U.S.-Mexico border, and they have many members who are Mexican citizens and not U.S. citizens,” they said. “[Their land] is, because of being a sovereign nation within the United States, the second most popular spot for migrant activity, and it is also one of the areas with the highest concentration of deaths due to this."
Gamblin said they hope that people who watch the film can become more aware of the struggles – and the sometimes illegal risks – that some people go through to come to the United States.
"I hope that people you know grow to have that more awareness of the struggle that immigrants go through – both documented and undocumented – the amount of difficulties that can be faced when crossing the border, when living in the United States,” Gamblin said. “I think for a lot of people some of these issues they don't necessarily consider like the lives that they live …I hope they see how that relationship with their home country makes them who they are."
MSU Cinema International is showing "The Long Walk of Carlos Guerrero" on Thursday and Saturday evening in Faculty Hall 208 on the main campus of Murray State University. The screenings are free and open to the public.
