Guided Reflection: Cartel Land

 I chose to watch the documentary Cartel Land, directed by Matthew Heineman. The scene that stuck out to me the most was at the very beginning of the film. I wasn’t sure what to expect from the film so some of the first scenes stood out the most to me. A local was being interviewed and he explained that 3 men that he knew were murdered and then the film showed a picture of the 3 men with their heads propped up on a platform. The man explained that he had to get a heavy weapon to protect himself because he was the next target. He was saying that if it were you, would you sit around and wait for the bad guys to come, or would you prepare yourself. This scene was very raw and made me think about how I would feel if I were in that position. The situation in Mexico really is life or death. It’s devastating what innocent people have to go through everyday. Something that surprised me was some of the things that the US Border Recon would say. For example one of the men said, “why would you put two races in the same nation and expect them to get along?” He was basically saying that when you put Mexicans in the United States, why would anyone expect white people and Mexicans to get along. Obviously that's very racist and it made me wonder how anyone could like that. I have a few questions left after finishing Cartel Land. First, I am curious about what has happened with the drug and cartel problem in Mexico. Has it gotten worse since the documentary or better or has it stayed the exact same? Next, has the government made any new efforts to end the cartel problem? And last, when and how did the problem get so large that it can’t be handled? I see things from the documentary in my life more often than I would’ve thought. Problems in Mexico are on the news a lot. I recently learned that it was recommended that people do not travel to Mexico because of the high violence there. I also have a friend whose uncle was shot by the cartel in Mexico and his whole family flew to Mexico and had a devastating funeral for him. The last thing that this movie connected with was the show Breaking Bad. Breaking Bad is one of my favorite shows. I never realized that the events happening in the show were so likely to be real. It seemed so far-fetched, however after watching Cartel Land it really set in that horrific things happen everyday. We might avoid research in summaries because it could potentially take away from the documentary.