Mexico Is Much More Than the Country You See in The Movies

Life south of the border is more complex than what we usually get to see on the screen

Photo by Ricky Esquivel via

Don’t mind me, just keep on talking, I’m just looking for my hat
Ain’t no God in Mexico, ain’t no way to understand
How that border crossing feeling makes a fool out of a man…
- Ain’t No God in Mexico, Waylon Jennings

According to movies, if you have committed a crime and need to disappear from the face of Earth, just make it across The Border and puff, you are gone. However, cinematic rules also state that this is one of the most dangerous places on Earth, with bullets flying by all day long to the point that if you happen to cross paths with a narco, you are as good as dead.

It’s the perfect place for a vacation or your honeymoon, with beautiful beaches full of people dressed in typical Mexican clothes that will sell you trinkets for less than a dollar, all the while keeping a smile on their faces as they say, “Thank you, senior,” in broken English.

This duality is the reason why Mexico is the place Andy Dufresne escapes to at the end of The Shawshank Redemption, hoping to find peace in Zihuatanejo’s blue waters after many years of despair while, on the other hand, Sicario shows us that this is a lawless country in which…