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Tuesday, June 7th, 1994Go Back to Mexico Press Review
‘Go Back’ examines illegal-immigration issue from both sides
This seamless, thoughtful documentary both elucidates and complicates the burning issue of undocumented workers.
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS, June 7, 1994
by Kinney Littlefield
For centuries people have been telling each other to go away. Mostly, racial and ethnic groups unwanted by others just keep on coming. Eventually, at least some of THEM become a part of US. But our biggest fear never dies: One day, they - whoever they are - will overwhelm us - whoever WE are - with their differences.
This never-ending cultural struggle is played out daily along the southern U.S. border, and nowhere more crucially than in Southern California.
That’s why it’s imperative that as many Southern Californians as possible - indeed as many Americans as possible - make time to watch “Go Back to Mexico!” the new “Frontline” documentary airing tonight on PBS.
As produced by Hector Galán and reported by correspondent William Langewiesche, “Go Back to Mexico!” is both a welcome gift and a provocative challenge.
What “Go Back” gives us, through Langewiesche’s astute narration and “Frontline’s” calmly flowing camerawork, is a comprehensive package of hard facts about illegal immigration, layered with deeply polarized opinions about its impact.
But there’s a price for this gift. What the documentary asks of us in return is empathy for those who come to California however they can. “Go Back to Mexico!” humanizes the plight of illegal immigrants by individualizing it.
“Go Back” follows pretty young Maria and her baby son, who flee impoverished Agua Verde, 1,000 miles south of San Diego to join her husband, Jesus, illegally in Los Angeles. Through Maria’s determined eyes, we see the relentless economic desperation that drives Mexicans across the border to a tough new life in immigrant-crowded L.A.
Like an increasing number of immigrants, Maria uses counterfeit documents to cross the border easily in broad daylight. Her son uses the birth certificate of a young cousin. They are poor, and illegal. Bu Jesus is already working and paying taxes.
“In the long run they are unlikely to take more from the nation than they give,” says Langewiesche, who used to fly the California-Mexico border as an air-taxi pilot.
But how can he really know?
“Go Back” also documents the new alliance of environmentalists, liberals such as Democratic California Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, and some Hispanics, who argue that immigration is a quality-of-life issue, that the tarnished Golden State has simply absorbed as many people as it can.
And the argument is as forceful as Maria’s personal story.
According to the documentary, every day about 1,200 illegals, or undocumented workers, flow into San Diego through Tijuana. Not even a 10-foot-high steel fence with $800,000 worth of glaring, prison-yard-lighting can stop them. Almost 600,000 arrests of illegal immigrants were made along this 14-mile stretch of border last year.
“Go Back” makes no pretense of finding a solution to this national and international problem. But Langewiesche finally comes down on the side of hospitality, of acceptance of the immigrant tide.
“We should not pretend that we can seal ourselves off without altering the essence of America,” he says.
Yet an increasing number of overcrowded, recession-weary Californians seem to disagree.
One thing is sure, however: Watch “Go Back to Mexico!” and your prejudices and preconceptions about others will be stirred. And as Langewiesche says in the documentary’s final moment, it takes real courage and wisdom not to indulge our fears.
