Tan cerca y tan lejos (Textual Poaching)

A couple weeks ago, a good friend of mine got married, he is from Mexico and his wife is from Spain, the reason they left their countries is similar to that of many other international students, we are trying to find opportunities that are not available in our country, we want to make a better future for ourselves and our families.

When I started planning my approach to this project I thought about how my perspective of my own identity changed when I moved to the U.S and how, from one day to the other I became a foreigner, an immigrant, a minority. I became the "Mexican guy" or the "Mexican friend" and that doesn't bother me because that's what I am or, at least, part of it.

Living outside my home country made me self-aware of my nationality and helped me appreciate it a lot more.  When rediscovering my appreciation for my culture I discovered that Mexico has been influenced by the United States to the point that some people do not appreciate their traditions, they don't see how beautiful their culture is, mexicans have a complex of inferiority.

My friend experienced the fear that a lot of international students and immigrants have, he got out of the country and they revoked his visa. When he was coming back from his honeymoon he and his wife were questioned and my friend had to surrender his visa, why? because while he was in the country he started to work in order to pay for his school, and because international students are not allowed to work outside the campus, he was considered to be working illegally and thus he lost his privileges and had to go back to Mexico, while his wife came back to the U.S.

It is hard to say if what happened to my friend is fair or not , in one hand he knew the rules and what happened was just a consequence. In the other hand he did it because he got married and it wasn’t possible to live and go to school with a part time job on campus. Talking about immigration is complicated, and to fully understand the issue one has to see both sides of the coin.

There is a very popular quote by Nemesio Gonzalez Naranjo, a mexican intellectual, that says: “Poor Mexico, so far from God and so close to the United States.” this was my first inspiration for the project and that’s why I decided to have it on the final piece, the footage is from a movie called Por mis pistolas (1938) and the song “somos mas Americanos” by norteño band, Los tigres del Norte.

In the footage, the comedian “Cantinflas” makes fun of the customs and procedures of the border patrol while also exaggerating some mexicanisms. In a satirical way “Cantinflas” points out the fact that a lot of immigrants go to United States to spend money, instead of taking it, and many of us, come to the United States following every rule, paying every fee and obeying every rule no matter how restrictive it is.

By the end of the project, the media a chose became, like the velveteen rabbit, something real and personal.