| | |  Americas & Beyond | January 2009 
Border Patrol Uses Songs To Get Messages Out to Illegal Aliens
 Patricia Giovine - Latin American Herald Tribune
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McAllen, Texas - Using guitar and accordion music, the Border Patrol is disseminating in Mexican territory via so-called "migration songs" information on the dangers of illegally crossing the international border into the United States.
"I took the road that so many take, the highway of the lonely, where the courageous one breaks down in tears, where you yourself are your own adversary," goes one of the tunes.
The Border Patrol's spokesman in Washington, Oscar Saldaña, told Efe that the "corridos" entitled "La carta" (The letter), "La tumba" (The tomb) and "El funeral" (The Funeral) are part of a publicity campaign to send to Mexico a message about the dangers of trying to cross the border without legal papers.
"La tumba" tells the story of illegal immigration and concludes speaking of a recent burial in a cemetary with the phrase, as a form of epitaph: "There are many reasons to cross the border, (but) none is worth more than your life."
"El funeral" deals with the story of three young men who happily went to school and played together but found death as they set out on the adventure of trying to get across the U.S. border to find work up north.
"The songs were distributed by an ad agency in Mexican border cities like Reynosa and Matamoros, and after they were broadcast by commercial radio stations in the Mexican interior and in Latin America, which include them in their regular programming," Saldaña said.
"We know that they have dubbed them 'migracorridos' (migration songs), but what we're interested in is that they carry the message to as many cities and towns as possible," according to Saldaña, who said that the high number of deaths along the border is due in large measure to the fact that "coyotes" (people traffickers) deceive the immigrants.
"They tell them that the trek through the desert will last three hours, when in reality it's days. They don't provide them with enough water or clothing," he said.
"Night fell, silence came and 1,000 stars suffered with me, when suddenly, far away, life put me before a friend. He was sick, he was shivering and his eyes were full of fear. He begged me, 'Take me ..., don't leave me to die like a dog,'" run the lyrics of another of the corridos.
Saldaña said that this and other publicity campaigns have contributed to reducing the flow of undocumented migrants across the southern U.S. border.
Official statistics reveal that the number of deaths of illegal immigrants along the border fell from 492 in Fiscal Year 2005 to 386 in FY 2008.
"There continue to be many deaths and we're trying to reduce the number through (publicity) campaigns and rescue operations," Saldaña said. |
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