Journey to the Center

Cristina de Middel has been travelling for years with migrants on the train they call “the beast”, interviewing sicarios (hired killers), talking for hours with “coyotes” (clandestine smugglers) and police officers. By combining her own photographs with objects found in the desert and archive footage, she creates a multi-layered narrative. The starting point is Tapachula, the Southern border of Mexico with Guatemala, and the journey ends in Felicity, a small town in California that is the officially “Center of the World”.This epic journey is punctuated by the accounts of three migrants recounting their terrible journey and commentary by the artist. An afterword by Mexican journalist, Pedro Anza, illuminates the issues at stake and the human consequences of the United States’ obsession with closing its borders.