Another Inconvenient Truth - The Roots of Illegal Immigration

Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata
Alvaro Vargas Llosa goes to southern Mexico to meet with Emiliano Zapata's grandson, and provides you with the context you need to understand the roots of illegal immigration:

"What has been the consequence of a century of collectivization of the land? In the 1990s, when trade policies became more liberal, Mexico's rural population found itself caught up in an extremely inefficient system that was undercapitalized, making it very difficult for Mexican peasants to compete with the outside world. When the government finally allowed the villagers to sell the ejidos, something they had been prevented from doing since 1917, many of them put their land on the market and left for Mexico's cities. When the urban areas did not offer improved conditions, they migrated to the United States. "If my grandfather came back," ponders Emiliano, "he would die of sadness."

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