Category: immigration

Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna launch 4th Ambulante documentary festival in Mexico

Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna launch 4th Ambulante documentary festival in Mexico

| January 30, 2009 | Comments (0)

Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna, two of Mexico’s most bankable movie stars, launched the fourth annual Ambulante documentary film festival Friday morning in a packed cinema screening room on Mexico City’s Paseo de la Reforma.

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Film defends Mexican woman imprisoned in Texas

Film defends Mexican woman imprisoned in Texas

| January 21, 2009 | Comments (2)

Rosa Jimenez, a 26-year-old Mexican woman, could currently be serving a sentence of 99 years in a Texas prison for a crime she didn’t commit, according to Lucía Gajá, 34, the young Mexican director of the documentary “Mi Vida Dentro (My Life Inside).”

The film takes aim at the United States criminal-justice system and its treatment of Mexican undocumented female migrants. It is told through the case of Jimenez, who crossed illegally into the United States when she was 17 years old. Clearly on the side of the defendant, the film combines the words of Jimenez, her defense lawyers and the prosecution to lay out what ends up a chilling depiction.

“Mi Vida Dentro” debuted in Mexico last week in cinemas across the capital, and is the first feature-length film from Gajá, who is a graduate of CUEC, the cinema program of the Autonomous National University of Mexico. It’s also the first Mexican documentary to be distributed by Ambulante, the film festival created by two of Mexico’s most bankable stars, Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna, in 2006.

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Video: Central American migrants face more hurdles

Video: Central American migrants face more hurdles

| December 13, 2008 | Comments (1)

A group of Honduran men and women came to Mexico looking for their missing loved ones earlier this year. They claim that there are nearly 600 Honduran migrants who are missing in Mexico who disappeared whilst crossing Mexico to get to the United States.

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Mexico hosts its first human rights film festival

Mexico hosts its first human rights film festival

| December 5, 2008 | Comments (0)

Immigration, women’s rights, illegal detention and human trafficking are some of the themes that will be examined next week during Mexico’s first human rights film festival.

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Slideshow: Immigration explored as a concept in Mexico City exhibition

Slideshow: Immigration explored as a concept in Mexico City exhibition

| August 11, 2008 | Comments (0)

The video and photography exhibition Laberinto de Miradas – Labyrinth of Glances – that opened in Mexico City last month in the Cultural Center of Spain – features the kind of images that we are used to seeing in relation to immigration.

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Tijuana: Reflections on the Border

Tijuana: Reflections on the Border

| July 21, 2008 | Comments (1)

“TJ? Really?” was the response from most people last week when they learned I was heading down south of San Diego for a research trip.

They were right to be cautious. I live in Mexico City — one of the biggest, baddest towns around — but still gave Tijuana a second thought. The world’s most famous border city has been getting some bad press of late due to the drug-related violence playing out on its streets.

But what struck me more during my brief trip was the border itself and how it is littered with evidence of its own casualties and conflicts, past and present. The wall is at the center of the current national debate on immigration, and I wanted to see it for myself.

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Calderon should accept Merida's human right conditions?

Calderon should accept Merida's human right conditions?

| June 23, 2008 | Comments (0)

In anticipation of the scheduled debate around the controversial Merida Initiative aid package in the US Senate this week, the Financial Times newspaper from the UK urges President Felipe Calderon to accept the human rights conditions attached to the US$400 billion injection aimed at helping Mexico fights its drugs barons. But should he?

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Video: Illegal Border Crossing for tourists

Video: Illegal Border Crossing for tourists

| May 24, 2008 | Comments (1)

La Caminata Nocturna is a night-hike for tourists in the state of Hidalgo, Mexico that gives them a taste of the illegal immigrant experience. Watch the video here.

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Illegal border crossing – for tourists.

Illegal border crossing – for tourists.

| May 22, 2008 | Comments (2)

Panting for breath, I waded through cow-pat flavoured mud, struggling to keep myself from slipping in the dark. “Vamanos, vamanos, vamanos!” urged my coyote, the Spanish name for people who smuggle migrants across the border into the United States.

The sound of La Migra’s sirens – also known as United States Border Patrol – sounded out behind me. Hands shaking, I stopped to catch my breath and watched the faces of the other migrants crouched in the dark, breathing heavily.

“We know you’re there,” boomed a crackling voice in English, tinged with a Mexican accent, over the loudspeaker. Gun shots rang out.

“What you’re doing is illegal. We have food and water. We can help you get back home.”

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New study contrasts native and immigrant Latinas in U.S

New study contrasts native and immigrant Latinas in U.S

| May 9, 2008 | Comments (0)

Fascinating statistics released yesterday on the demographic makeup of the female Latina community in the United States show some striking, if unsurprising, differences between non-Latina and Latina women, as well as the native-born and immigrant female Latina communities.

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How many non-immigrant visas did the United States grant in Mexico last year?

How many non-immigrant visas did the United States grant in Mexico last year?

| April 24, 2008 | Comments (1)

In the year ending September 2007, the U.S embassy in Mexico processed applications for 1,300,000 non-immigrant visas (visitor, student, temporary work, and other categories) according to this page on the site of the U.S Embassy in Mexico. This year the embassy is projecting more than 1,600,000 applications – and projections are generally overtaken by actual applications, as the graph at the bottom of this page shows.

I called the Embassy myself this week to find out how many of the 1,300,000 non-immigrant visas processed last year were actually granted, but was told that information is not available. Then I emailed a press and information officer at the Department of Home Security and was directed to this page.

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Sparks continue to fly over Absolut ad

Sparks continue to fly over Absolut ad

| April 5, 2008 | Comments (0)

The latest advertising campaign in Mexico from Swedish vodka maker Absolut seemed to push all the right buttons south of the U.S. border, but it ruffled a few feathers in El Norte. Here’s an update with some more detail about the fallout, and Absolut have tried to address the mountain of complaints rolling in about the ad

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Absolut campaign ruffles feathers in el norte

Absolut campaign ruffles feathers in el norte

| April 3, 2008 | Comments (6)

The latest advertising campaign in Mexico from Swedish vodka maker Absolut promises to push all the right buttons south of the U.S. border, but it could ruffle a few feathers in El Norte.

Please go to the blog post here to read the complete version.

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