Searching for the migrant trail

The week has been pretty hectic with the ´Mexican Independence
celebrations taking place and all sorts of other types of chaos, typical
of a mega city like this one.

Anyway, I headed to Tultitlan in
the Estado de Mexico on Friday. I have been exploring the area for the
past few weeks as it is a layover point for migrants, particularly from
Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras who are hoping to reach the border
with the USA.

Before heading out there I met up with Sergio in
central Mexico in the early afternoon who kindly offered to take me all
the way.

Sergio works for a Company in charge of providing
assistance to the medical sector. He leads a team in the Human Resources
section. His task is mainly to sack workers for all types of reasons.

As he explains further in depth about his job and his obligations I
find it immensely disturbing to know that he must need such cold blood
to face staff who, for some reason or another, have not performed
appropriately, hence they will be fired.

Sergio travels all
across the country to undertake this function, and I suppose that over
time he has got so used to it that I guess it’s no big deal for him to
inform workers they are not needed anymore.

It´s very
interesting to observe him in his professional role, away from his
normal life as a graffiti writer, covered in paint and talking the
street slang. At his job, he dresses in a smart suit and takes his job
very seriously. As a team leader he is in charge of giving orders to his
colleagues and ensuring that everything is completed before the end of
the day. I can see the authoritative stance and slight arrogance that
must be needed to exercise such job. I think to myself, - I would
certainly never be able to be so cold blooded to undertake Sergio´s
tasks, it is just not me…

As he ends the last call with a
client, Sergio walks me around the offices which look pretty swanky and I
tell him that one can tell when a company is privately run and when
it’s government funded.

His company was set up by a guy who did
not even complete secondary school but comes from a very wealthy family;
Sergio shares this with me as we are about to leave his office. He
continues: The guy has done very well in the last couple of years and
although it’s a young business he hit the nail on the head when
kick-starting this initiative as no other company was providing such
support within the medical field. Most of the company’s contracts are
paid for out of government funds – that’s how the company generates much
of its income. Having said that, the government still owes the company
$500,000 for services that were delivered many months ago.

We
leave the office and shoot off towards Lecheria. It is 3 pm which means
that it’s going to be damn busy on the road, which means, plenty of time
to talk about stuff and observe the surroundings.

Half way
through the journey the scenery changes dramatically as one can see
massive shopping malls exactly of the type seen on US motorways. Why
does Mexico want to emulate what goes on in the US all the time, I ask
myself?

As we are traveling by car on the flyover I also
observe loads of very tall billboards announcing all sorts of crap, all
or most of which contain pictures of white people representing the image
of the contemporary smart Mexican guy.
With that in mind I recall
a moment when a friend of mine from London once came to visit Mexico.
On his second day he had already noticed a lack of representation of
indigenous people in advertisements and TV and suddenly reacted, - Hey
man, why are no brown skin looking Mexicans displayed on adverts or on
TV? If this happened in the UK I would be well pissed off as a black
British citizen.

As Sergio keeps driving I suddenly feel like I
am about to fall asleep which I end up doing for a few minutes. I wake
up once again and ask him if we are closer to our destination yet.

For some reason we engage in a conversation on people who are killers. I
make a remark on people’s behavior and ask how an individual can have
the cold blood to kill a human being.

Suddenly Sergio shares his guilt after killing a pedestrian during a car accident.

What happened was that while he was driving on a high speed motorway,
to his surprise he noticed a man in the middle of the road who had no
need to be standing there. Sergio tried to make a radical turn to avoid
an accident but could not stop himself from hitting the man who flew in
the air and landed right behind him. Subsequently, several cars ran over
the injured man, killing him instantly.

When Sergio got out of
the car there was blood all over the place. A witness of the accident
came running to his assistance? Sergio was severely shocked and could
not stay still. He immediately called his Mom to inform her of what
happened. The Police and ambulance arrived soon after and Sergio was
taken to a nearby police station. As they arrived, he immediately called
his lawyer or else he would be facing imprisonment straight away. The
police wanted to lay all the blame on him but in order not to be placed
on an indefinite prison remand he had to bribe the judge and wait until
the final verdict was announced several months later.

We finally
hit our destination. As we stop at the traffic lights I notice many
people begging for a few pesos. My window is open wide and I have my
camera right by my legs so I decide to hide it until the man has walked
past (my stupid prejudices invade me unfortunately and I feel some sort
of guilt).
As the beggar approaches us, in a soft voice he says,
“excuse me sir, I am from Honduras, would you have a few pesos so I can
eat? I make a sad face which indicates that I don’t have any change.

As well as this poor but brave young man, I notice many other
immigrants who are stranded, since the train, also known as ´The Beast´
is in control of their destinies. The immigrants won’t leave until the
train says so.

After spending some time in the area I leave with many questions in my head which confuse my life a little more.

Sergio drops me by the motorway and explains to me how to reach the
nearest train station. During my walk I feel pretty uncomfortable as
well as anxious, especially as I am carrying roughly about £ 5000.00 in
camera equipment and I know that I am not in a very friendly setting,
plus, I don’t think I blend in like most people in the area.

I finally reach the station and feel safe for 25 minutes…