Global Migration and Flight

Women cook huge amounts of rice in large pots, care­ful­ly hand­pick­ing beans to serve with it while metic­u­lous­ly wrap­ping the food in little pack­ages. These women, Las Patronas, are get­ting ready to swing into full action when the train, La Bestia (the Beast), which is expect­ed in a few min­utes, comes thun­der­ing through the small vil­lage of La Patrona in cen­tral Mexico. With per­fect aim, the women throw their pack­ages of food and water bot­tles up to the ille­gal migrants hang­ing on the roof of the train, pick­ing up any pas­sen­gers who have fallen off and dri­ving them to the next train sta­tion or help­ing with acci­dents. Migrants from all over South Amer­i­ca risk the jour­ney every­day with this freight train, which runs from South Amer­i­ca to the bor­ders of the US.

Since 1995, this self-orga­nized group of women have devot­ed their lives to help­ing other people follow their dream of hap­pi­ness. Thanks to dona­tions from sym­pa­thiz­ers, small busi­ness­es, and pri­vate donors, they have not yet missed a single day on the tracks and have sup­port­ed thou­sands of migrants. The film looks at these women’s lives, their moti­va­tions, and their dreams, telling a sen­si­tive story about uncon­di­tion­al sol­i­dar­i­ty. Las Patronas received the Mex­i­can Human Rights Award in 2013 for their more than twenty years of tire­less effort.

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