UDA

Beggar at the Gates
Originally uploaded by radiann.

This Mexican man is waiting to attempt to enter the US for the third time through some of the most dangerous desert in Southern Arizona. When I asked if I could take his photo he got up and walked to the wall behind him and stood for an ID type photo because that is what he thinks the Americans do. It is how his photo was taken by the border patrol who caught him and took him a hundred miles or more away from the location of his previous attempts. He lost all his possessions the first time that happened, including the photos of his wife and children for whom he makes this sacrifice. He is compelled to do this because NAFTA has made the economics of farming unprofitable for his employer and there is no work for him in his home. His wife and family are starving and they have bet everything they have on this attempt to get him into the US so he can do work no citizen will do -harvesting tomatoes and melons in California.