De Nadie Commentary

The narrative of the violent undocumented “alien” serves a dual purpose of instilling fear into Americans and to view undocumented immigrants as criminals. The opening scene of the documentary shows dark, shapeless figures running across the border. This gives the impression of a foreign “thing” crossing the border with bed intentions. During another opening shot, a white male congressman with power talks over a scene

Who is Dayani Cristal? (Silver, 2013) dives into the background of what happens when immigrants die on their journey to the United States, and further emphasizes how the “illegal” identities construct migration as a criminal act. This film looks far beyond the perspective of being an undocumented immigrant and illegally crossing the border, and more towards a dangerous journey focused around family and values. To further emphasize a more personal anecdote of an immigrant coming to the United States, the film uses an immigrant named Yohan Sandres-Martinez as its focal point. By using Yohan, a real person with struggles and showing the negative results of the immigration, such as Yohan’s death. Who is Dayani Cristal? humanizes immigrants in

The next man that was followed was J.D. Hayworth, a state congressman for Arizona. He provided a lot of detail and facts on the immigrants that were trying to cross the border into the United Stated. He is also trying to build more laws and put more laws into effect to tighten the border between Arizona and Mexico because at this point that is the main source of entrance into the U.S. Some of the other people filmed in the documentary were people who were trying to raise awareness to others about the problem of illegal immigration and a woman whose husband was murdered by an illegal immigrant. The ethos effect in the documentary wasn’t the only effective part though; they also did a great job with the pathos effect.

De Leon’s purpose of this book is to enhance our understanding of the process of undocumented desert migration. Intending to challenge preconceived notions about what a holistic anthropology can look like and how it can be deployed in a politically hostile terrain. He does this by showing how productive it can be to sneak back and forth across the border between “accepted” discourse and excluded discourse in the name of generating new knowledge and new forms of cultural understanding. He goes over almost every aspect about how hard it is for the millions of Mexicans attempting to cross undocumented.

In Ruth Gomberg-Muñoz’s book, Labor and Legality: An Ethnography of a Mexican Immigrant Network, she allows us to enter the everyday lives of ten undocumented Mexican workers all living in the Chicago area. Ruth Gomberg-Muñoz refers to Chuy, Alejandro, Leonardo, Luis, Manuel, Omar, Rene, Roberto, Lalo, and Albert the ten undocumented Mexicans as the “Lions”. This book shares the Lions many stories from, their daily struggle of living as an undocumented immigrant in America, to some of them telling their stories about crossing the border and the effects of living in a different country than their family, and many other struggles and experiences they have encountered. Ruth Gomberg-Muñoz’s book delves into

Gregory Nava’s 1983 film, El Norte, is by far one of the most honest and eye opening depictions of the experience many undocumented immigrants and refugees have when trying to come to the United States. By challenging the ethnocentric tendencies of the North American film industry and the general negative stereotypes of Latinos in film, Nava is one of the first writers/directors to break away from the typical representations of Latinos and give such true representation and discussion of many issues surrounding Latinos, immigration, and American society and values. The film focuses on two young Mayan brother and sister, Enrique and Rosa, from their flight from their village in rural Guatemala to their life of hardship and isolation in Los Angeles,

The humanized approach taken by De León provides the reader with an emotional route to understanding the actions, motivations, and struggles of border crossers, as well as making the book more accessible to the average person who

Jose Antonio Vargas, a Pulitzer Prize winning author, shares his life-long journey as an undocumented immigrant in his text, “My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant.” As the title suggests, Vargas attempts to convey to his audience, who likely never has and never will experience anything similar to what he has, what it is like to live as an immigrant in the United States of America. Skillfully, Vargas details the perfect number of personal stories to reach the emotional side of his audience, which is anyone who is not an immigrant. Through the use of his personal accounts Vargas is able to effectively communicate that immigrants are humans too while simultaneously proving his credibility, as he has experience and a vast amount of knowledge

In the novel Enrique’s Journey, Sonia Nazario demonstrates the onerous journey of illegal immigrants. Sonia Nazario aims for the readers to make them understand what most of the immigrants go through during their journey to the United States. By appealing to ethos and pathos throughout the book, Sonia Nazario portrays the path that Enrique undergoes to reunite with his mother.

Immigration is a very dangerous and risky journey. Everyday immigrants try so hard to make it to the United States. This journey involves parents trying to support kids back home, families trying to start over, or kids trying to get to their mom; but some do not make it through this hardship. Those individuals, who make it, try like never before to support themselves and the family they needed to leave behind. Enrique’s Journey by Sonia Nazario is a well written novel that uses many pathos, logos, and ethos examples. Each one of them is used effectively because of the way students are persuaded in believing there true. Elements from the quotes can reveal that Sonia is knowledgeable and

Throughout life, every individual must face obstacles; some more difficult than others. In the story “The Trip” by Laila Lalami, poem “Exile” by Julia Alvarez, and article “Outlaw: My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant” by Jose Antonio Vargas, there is a main character who has to face many challenges because of the fact that they’re immigrants. In all three texts, it is evident that being an immigrant has many affects on their lives. However, this label and the obstacles that come with it didn’t stop each character from pushing forward.

Nazario spent a total of five years reporting. To create Enrique’s Journey, she made sure to learn absolutely everything about the trip. She spent time conducting many interviews with migrant children who rode the train and recent immigrants. She spoke with Enrique and his family, and other migrants who made the same journey. She conducted hundreds of interviews with priests, government officials, shelter workers, and police officers (270). She verified dialogue and interactions by confirming them with other sources. Facts were established based on extensive research. Statistics were gathered from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Immigration Statistics and the Pew Hispanic Center (272).

such a large group that traveled and so many of them died. The title of the

With the fast-paced globalization together with the heightening political economic issues of the world, it has brought forth the illegal immigrants to cross the Sonoran Desert of Southern Arizona, or as the anthropologist, Jason De León describes it, The Land of the Open Graves. However, there is more to unauthorized immigration than what meets the eye. Scratching the surface of the case of undocumented migrants reveals that it rooted from the intensifying global inequality and crisis of the world. Accordingly, the author’s decision to vividly depict the brutality beyond words the undocumented migrants had suffered while crossing the borders allows the readers to see the bigger picture behind illegal immigration, preventing further unnecessary deaths of the innocents.

Anthropologist Leo Chavez presents a very descriptive and detailed account when he wrote Shadowed Lives, UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS IN AMERICAN SOCIETY it takes readers into the lives and experiences of illegal immigrants. Chavez is detailed within the book points are placed regarding people's choice to migrate as well as their stories of crossing the border into the United States We can learn a lot from Chavez's book, making distinct opinions on immigration itself, and the difference in immigration culture after migrating.