Escaping Between the Wagons

Sebastião Salgado created a book, “Migrations”, compiled of his photographs of people on the move. I was looking through this book and turned the page to the picture below. I immediately stopped. Those are real people and that is a moving train! It is hard for me to imagine wanting to leave somewhere so badly, or get somewhere else so badly, to ride a train in such a dangerous way.

This is a photograph of illegal migrants on a train to northern Mexico. Sebastião explains that this is a favorite hiding place of migrants but also the most dangerous. They are able to hop on and off when the train is stopped by immigration authorities, rarely seen and arrested. But if they get off and miss the train leaving again, they must walk many miles to the nearest station in the hope of catching the next northbound train (Salgado).

In addition to grain, corn or scrap metal, the freight trains that run the length of Mexico are carrying an increasing number of undocumented immigrants whose aim is to cross into the U.S. (Syre). These aren't passenger trains; there are no panoramic windows, seats or even a roof to guard from sun or rain. People, therefore, ride between or on top of wagons. They call the train La Bestia, or The Beast. Some call it the Death Train (Syre). It's estimated that up to a half-million migrants now ride The Beast each year and the journey can take anywhere from a week to several months (Syre).

Sebastião describes the many dangers of travelling this way: “besides being tipped off the train by sudden braking, tiny fragments of metal thrown up by the friction of the wheels on the track can cause serious eye injuries. The hot air circulating between the wagons also quickly brings on dehydration” (Salgado).

According to photojournalist Keith Dannemiller,

“A lot of the people are not fleeing because of economic hardship. A lot of them are fleeing because the increase in the drug violence and threats, extortion, and that's a different phenomenon. Before, you could call these people migrants with no problem. I think now, the term refugee might be a little bit more apropos for who these people are and what they're going through” (Syre).

These people know the dangers of making this risky journey, but they make it anyway. They are willing to die.

It makes me wonder, how would I feel making that journey? Just reading about other people’s experiences makes me afraid. What do people think about while they’re sitting on the train? I imagine they are scared but also full of hope. Is their journey worth it in the end?

Works Cited

Salgado, Sebastiao. Migrations: Humanity in Transition. 98. Photograph. New York:

Aperture Foundation, Inc., 2000. 25. Print.

Syre, Wilson. "Riding 'The Beast' Across Mexico To The U.S. Border." NPR. NPR, 5 June

2014. Web. 23 Jan. 2016.

<http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2014/06/05/318905712/riding-the-beast-

across-mexico-to-the-u-s-border>.