Film by Judy Jackson, 2019
The migrant crisis through the eyes of Pastor Ignacio Martinez, the founder of ABBA safehouse in Celaya.
It started when Ignacio and his family took food to migrants jumping freight trains Some were sick, there was nowhere to wash or sleep. So he founded ABBA, where they can rest, receive food and medical and psychological help . The film shows the gap between President Trump calling migrants “rapists and criminals” – and the sad reality. Most are escaping abject poverty and gang violence in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala . Their governments – backed by the US for decades, – are enmeshed in endemic corruption The migrants’ dreams of a better life in the USA have been met by tear gas at the border. In this world of nationalism and xenophobia, Ignacio’s work is vitally important
“They are people like us, with rights and dreams of a better life, and hoping to create opportunities for their children.”
A 30-minute documentary film by distinguished Canadian film maker Judy Jackson, who in the 1991 directed They Shoot Children, Don’t They, about the deliberate murder of street children by the police in Guatemala