It is said that if one climbs on top of the tallest tree of the Tapachula municipality of the Mexican state of Chiapas, then one can see all the way to China. But the dream destination for most Central Americans, irrespective of whether they are from Mexico or from Honduras, is not the Asian behemoth, but El Norte (the north), which is what they call the country that encapsulates all of their aspiration—America.
These illegal immigrants chase the ‘American dream’ as much as they flee from a life marred by the Maras, or criminal gangs—the most vile, violent, and vindictive of which is the Mara Salvatrucha, commonly known as MS or MS-13. Instantly recognisable by the ornate tattoos that make the Mareras, or gang members—who are sometimes as young as 12, such as El Smiley (Kristian Ferrer)—look more like the Maoris, the MS-13 is a widely networked and closely knit group. Led by the merciless Li’l Mago (Tenoch Huerta), or ‘little magician’, MS-13 professes to flourish on the three pillars of honesty, respect, and generosity, but treats any transgression with utmost cruelty, of which cortes or cuts inflicted on the body is just the beginning. Not surprising, considering its initiation ceremony involves a new recruit being kicked around mercilessly like a football for 13 excruciatingly long seconds—harking back to the numeric part of MS-13—and killing a chavala, which is a derogatory term for the members of any rival gang.
No wonder then, for a Mareo like Willy (Edgar Flores), who is known better among his homies, or brothers in the gang as El Caspar, a teardrop tattoo is a constant reminder of how futile everyday is, especially when one has a sweetheart. In the opening shot of the film, we see Willy looking at a path laden with fallen leaves, with sad eyes. This is because deep down he knows that if he tries to leave all this behind and realise his dream of visiting the Six Flags amusement park in Texas with his girlfriend, it will in all probability result in him being crushed like the leaves. Falling in love with the beautiful Martha Marlene (Diana Garcia) has just made his life a bit more complicated. To spend more time with his fiancée, he is avoiding the mandatory visits to La Bombilla, or the ‘light bulb’—a place in Tapachula along the train tracks. Symbolising the flicker of hope that burns inside every illegal immigrant, who wishes to land up in America, La Bombilla is where these hoping-against-hope bunches flock together, often sleeping on the tracks to be woken up by the alarm of a blaring freight train, which is their ticket to the land of their dreams. That Willy is playing truant has not escaped the attention of Li’l Mago. El Caspar’s predicament is that neither can he tell Martha Marlene how close he is to Li’l Mago, nor can he tell his lascivious leader about her existence.
Sayra (Paulina Gaitan), a teenager from Tegucigalpa, Honduras, is also facing a predicament. Horacio (Gerardo Taracena), her estranged father, who she has not seen in years, has just re-entered her life and now plans to take Sayra and her uncle Orlando (Guillermo Villegas) to New Jersey. While the possibilities that such a proposition entails are not lost on her, the inherent fact that she will be putting up with her half sisters, who she unambiguously tells her father are ‘your family’, has taken the gloss out of it.
Just like our introduction to Willy, when we get our first glimpse of Sayra, she, too, is looking at the horizon, but from a high vantage point. This is nothing but a precursor to the fact that eventually, the lives of Sayra and Willy will be intertwined; as well as a portend to the journey Sayra, Horacio, and Orlando will undertake—atop freight trains that trudge along laboriously, taking innumerable immigrants within a touching distance of the US border.
Sin Nombre (2009) is the American director, writer, and cinematographer Cary Joji Fukunaga’s first foray into directing a feature-length film. Based on his own short Victoria para chino (2004), which dealt with the true story of 80 illegal immigrants from the Mexican border who travelled inside a refrigerated truck with tragic consequences, Sin Nombre narrates the harrowing experience faced by countless immigrants, who originate from deep into Central America, including places like Guatemala and Honduras. Perched precariously atop cargo trains, only a handful of these hordes of nameless, faceless humans ultimately succeed in crossing over. The rest either fall prey to murderous marauders during the perilous journey or are shot at by the border police or the judicial patrol.
With more than one-third of the film shot on top of a cargo train, Sin Nombre is a cinematographic marvel. However, it is apparent that what attracted renowned Mexican actors Gael García Bernal (Amores Perros, The Motorcycle Diaries, Y Tu Mamá También) and Diego Luna (Y Tu Mamá También) to come on board as executive producers of a film by a debutant director is not its rich visuals, of which there are plenty, but because it dares to give a face and a name to immigrants and gang-members, who go through their lives facing trials and tribulations that are eerily similar.
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