Which Way Home Movie Analysis

The movie titled Which Way Home, takes place throughout Central America and into the
United States. This is a documentary about several children who live in poverty and dream of going to America in order to be reunited with their biological parents, or simply to seek out a better life for themselves. The way that the children are getting to America is by riding a train known as “La Bestia” (The Beast) throughout Mexico and ultimately arriving at the border with the United States. The children risk losing their lives every day, either by falling off the train as they sleep or getting kidnapped or raped by predators who are also trying to get to America. As you watch the film you are able to see every stop that is made through Mexico until finally

Specifically, one of those was the insecurity felt by the children as they traveled through Mexico. At one point in the film, the boys talked about how they were robbed and abused by Mexican authorities. One of them spoke briefly about how it took several Mexican officials to take his watch off his arm, because he refused to hand it over. This issue leads back to one that was described earlier in this paper, the influence organized crime has on the Mexican government. The major issue that was cited in this documentary however, is the growing number of unaccompanied children traveling to the United States. This issue has two sides to it, the social side and the political side. The first side of this issue starts at the home country of each of these children. Their government is not able or not willing to help them, and as a result they live in poverty and without access the basic human needs; water, food, shelter. This leads the children to want better for themselves and ultimately to take the decision to travel to the U.S. On the political side, the unaccompanied children are causing Mexico and the United States to spend more money on Immigration. This because they have to create more detention centers for minors, they have to house and feed them until they are deported to their country of origin. Throughout the film these issues are put into the perspective of the children. The reason the directors did this, was to show the challenges the children face as they made their journey. The reason they used that perspective is because it is a unique one. It is not every day that you hear about a 12 year old who traveled across Mexico and into the United States