To Travel the Migrants’ Route in Mexico

“Mexico is a land of arrivals and departures, but who are these nameless people? Why do they leave? What do they feel during the journey?” Italian journalist Guendalina Maria Anzolin hopes her new project will help answer these questions, particularly pertaining migrants from Central and South America. For Polarr, Emily von Hoffmann sat down with her to find out more.

Emily: Can you please describe the concept of your project, MigraMexico, for our readers?

Guendalina: MigraMexico is a crowdfunding project that was born after I was denied a scholarship for the same purpose from the Mexican government. I didn’t want to give up my project so I decided to try another way; I had nothing to lose. The project will go deeper in the story of the people who every day climb up Mexico. In the north there are Mexican people who are trying to pass the U.S. border in some of the most dangerous and precarious ways — but from the south there are all the people coming from Central and South America who are literally scaling the continent to get a better life.

Once the migrants from Central and South America arrive in Mexico, they have made the first step. A lot of them spend weeks, months, and sometimes a year to climb up Mexico. During this step, they have to be careful about the police, the false promises of the polleros (human smugglers) and all the traps that arise from being illegally in another country. The main goal of this project is to give voice to these people, to underline the urgency of taking action for and with them. Human beings are still treated in a different way depending on the country they come from.