Alejandro Cegarra: The Two Walls

There was a time when Mexico had the reputation of being a safe refuge for asylum seekers. In recent years, however, the country has become a supporter of the United States anti-immigration policies. Originally from Venezuela and currently living in Mexico, Alejandro Cegarra’s black and white series focusses on the individual stories of people affected by the harsh conditions in Mexico’s border region.

Rosa and Ruben, a young couple who met during their journey to the USA, now hope to cross over the border together; Eddie, Carolina and their daughter Valentina, also hoping to get into the United States from Mexico; Ever, crossing a dividing river with his daughter on his shoulders; desperate Gladys, waiting with her children for an asylum hearing. They are all representatives of the many people who set out in the hope of a better life. These are individual stories that give a face to the dry numbers and cold statistics.

In recent years, Cegarra and his camera have accompanied migrants and asylum seekers – men, women and whole families – in the border region between Mexico and the USA. He followed them on their gruelling daily marches, waited with them in makeshift camps, and was at their side when Mexican border officials carried out raids to stop the caravans of people who, after dangerous journeys covering thousands of kilometres, had ended up stranded in the border region, and had no idea how to continue. The photographer portrayed migrants who used a freight train known as The Beast, as a means of transport to reach the US border. It is one of the most dangerous train trips because, over the years, hundreds of people have fallen on the rails, losing their lives or being mutilated. Of equal danger during the journey is the risk of being blackmailed, robbed, raped or kidnapped, when drug cartels, organised criminals or corrupt authorities plunder trains as they stop in various cities on their way north. Every day, existential dramas unfold away from the eye of the general public – and these all appear in the photographer’s images. He witnessed extreme fear, pain, despair and mistrust, but also hope, anticipation and love. “Every emotion imaginable mixed together in these people’s hostile journey,” says the photographer, whose touching black and white images, also leave space for quiet moments of joy, universal feelings of empathy, dignity and beauty.

The Two Walls describes Mexico’s transformation from a country that once welcomed migrants and offered refuge for asylum seekers, to a country cooperating with the USA’s radical immigrant policies. The existing barb-wise fences has reached new levels “…leaving those most in need of protection stranded in an unfathomable struggle, halted by a physical, psychological and administrative barrier that stands as a monument of separation designed to shut down the doors that once promised refuge,” Cegarra explains. “These policies are a disheartening testament to the disconnect between the politics of power and the plight of the vulnerable.” His pictures stand as a powerful document against ignorance and looking away.

Alejandro Cegarra’s series was submitted by Federico Ríos Escobar, one of this year’s group of international LOBA nominators.