A street in Tapachula, Mexico. D. A. Alemán Diario de Cuba
For the emigrant, Tapachula is the last stop before continuing down the road and risking everything at the final border. Once in Sonora, Baja California, Chihuahua, Nuevo León or Tamaulipas, northern lands where kidnappers and drug traffickers are a distinct danger, only luck will decide whether or not they make it into the United States.
Although crossing the northern border involves the challenge of surviving some of the most violent areas in Mexico, and the whole world, the route to Tapachula (Chiapas, on the border with Guatemala) is hardly a cakewalk. Those waiting here for immigration status allowing them to continue have already experienced dangers lurking in dense Central American jungles, perilous river crossings, road bandits and other hazards awaiting them in this land, ravaged by violence and destitution.