JE #5

The connection between the article, documentary and the story of the Opata are similar in the sense of their forced migration and loss of their identity. The article focuses on the thousands of migrant bodies that have been found in the desert. The majority of the bodies found have not been identified and so it has become the responsibility of an government agency to catalog all the bodies with any identifying mark and their possessions. They try an construct a sense of identity. Their identity is generalized, and is subject to the interpretation of the border. Similarly the border and desert strip identity, the story of the Opata in the flower in the skull were forced to migrate and travel and eventually lose themselves as they travel through the desert. For the Opata, most had lost their identity, not knowing what that they were native to the land and instead had a generalized sense of identity. The story of the Opata historically contextualizes how identity is stripped and forgotten while crossing the borders. Presently, we must look at the stories of the past, reconnect geography and history so that we do not repeat and continue the cycle of violence that the border creates.