"Borderland | The Line Within"

As part of its efforts to fund raise for the Cajolá community and at the same time strengthen its network in the U.S., Grupo Cajolá in North America organized a screening of Borderland: The Line Within (2024), the most recent documentary of award-winning filmmaker Pamela Yates. 

Borderland focuses in part on a Guatemalan activist trying to make it to the U.S.  Having directed When the Mountains Tremble in 1983, and Granito in 2011, Yates is not new to Guatemala.  When the Mountains Tremble centers on the experiences of Rigoberta Menchú, the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize winner, during the Civil War (1960-1996) that pit leftist rebel groups against state forces, wreaking havoc on Guatemalan society. The indigenous people were the victims of unspeakable crimes during this dark period.  In Granito: How to Nail a Dictator, Yates tackles the topic of historical memory and the quest for justice.  The documentary builds a case against those responsible for the killing of hundreds of thousands of Maya people during the Civil War.  

Borderland: The Line Within looks beyond Guatemala to reveal the inhumane U.S. immigrant policy extracting a heavy toll on families and on those fleeing violence in Latin America.  It highlights the story of Kaxh and Gabriela, two young immigrants with divergent backgrounds and trajectories who nevertheless come together at the end of the film.  

Kaxh, a community organizer in his Guatemalan town, is forced to flee upon receiving threats against his life, abandoning his extended family, including two infants.  He relies on coyotes to bring him as close as possible to the border—to Ciudad Juárez, where he is forced to wait for months, in limbo.  On the other hand, Gabriela is an undocumented immigrant from Mexico who arrived in the U.S. as a 15-year-old.  As such, she enjoyed, although briefly, a DACA status that entitled her to receive an education and hold a job.  However, her high school sweetheart, whom she later marries, is deported to Mexico, leaving her and their three children to fend for themselves.  Kaxh and Gabriela face countless roadblocks until they finally acquire the legal status that allows them to stay in the U.S., seemingly without fear of persecution.

While pursuing their stories, Yates addresses the vast, costly system designed to keep potential immigrants out of the country.  It is a system that has been expanding throughout the U.S. with the backing of federal and state governments and ever-refined surveillance technologies, all of which aims erect borders all around us—a topic underlined in the film.  If anything, this setup has only consolidated since the release of Borderland in 2024, making it increasingly more threatening to vulnerable populations.  It is doubtful that Kaxh would have been able to request asylum at the border, as he did with the assistance of an attorney, under the present circumstances.  

Concurrently, the film demonstrates that it is feasible to organize and fight against the criminalization of migrants. Gabriela becomes an advocate of immigrant rights thanks to a network that embraces No More Deaths, a community group that collects water bottles and non-perishable food for stranded crossers near the US-Mexico border, and Hugs, Not Walls, whose accomplishments include facilitating fleeting encounters at the border between family members who have been forcibly separated. 

Gabriela teaches others how to spread the word about the resources in place for undocumented immigrants.  Her organization, MILPA (Movement of Immigrant Leaders in Pennsylvania), invites Kaxh to join in the struggle. As dire as the situation is regarding the undocumented, the film shows that there are pathways to resistance.  Every effort counts toward effecting change.

The screening of Borderland was introduced by Caryn Maxim, executive director of Grupo Cajolá in North America, which works toward supporting the cajolenses in their pursuit of a dignified life without the need to emigrate.  It was followed by a panel discussion led by Pamela Yates, the filmmaker, Paco de Onís, director of Skylight Films, and Katy Sastre, executive director of First Friends New Jersey/New York, a frontline organization fighting for the rights of immigrants in detention and beyond.  They took questions from a mixed audience of students and outside attendees.  The event took place at Bergen Community College (BCC) with the support of Professor Tim Blunk and the Culinary Students at BCC. 

--Iraida H. López