Fake Border Crossing is Hit Amusement Park Attraction at Hidalgo's EcoAlberto Irina Zhorov - Fronteras Desk
go to original June 20, 2013

A small town south of the Mexican border decides to take control of their own community and stem the tide of migration to the US. This short documentary film chronicles their unique solution to stopping the exodus. The film was directed by Jamie Meltzer. (dailymail)

An unusual amusement park attraction in the central Mexican state of Hidalgo offers visitors the thrills and chills of an illegal border crossing. The attraction takes visitors through a fake United States-Mexico border, complete with fake smugglers and fake threatening border patrol agents.

The aim is to dissuade would be migrants from making the trip.

The coyote, or smuggler, leading this simulated illegal border crossing used the name Simon and wore a face mask. Before setting off, he addressed his charges that evening, about 40 students from a private school in Mexico City.

"Tonight we’re going to talk about migration," Simon said in Spanish. "But for us it isn’t just something rhetorical, but rather the opposite. Because we have endured, we have suffered, of hunger, thirst, injustice, heat, cold, we have suffered from everything."

Then, under the cover of night, Simon herded them into the woods, toward the fake frontera.

The actual U.S.-Mexico border is nearly 800 miles away from the Parque EcoAlberto. EcoAlberto is where the indigenous HñaHñu community lives and where it runs a recreational park with attractions like hot springs, rappelling and, more recently, this fake border crossing for tourists.

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