Border Film Week Documentary Profiles Tijuana Actor/Immigrant Smuggler Jill Replogle - KPBS.org
go to original March 5, 2013

The documentary "Felix: Autoficciones de un traficante" tells the story of the world of human trafficking from the eyes of a smuggler. (holamexicoff)

Meet Félix Rosales, a middle-aged, overweight producer and actor in Tijuana’s prolific B movie industry. He’s played many roles in dozens of films, but the role he knows best is that of a pollero, a coyote. A guy who helps immigrants sneak into the U.S. illegally.

But Rosales has another profession, the one that pays the bills. He’s a real life pollero.

In her documentary about Rosales, "Félix: Self-fictions of a smuggler," director Adriana Trujillo uses the intersection of Rosales's two worlds — his real life, and his fictional film clips — to open a rare window onto the large and lucrative underground world of immigrant smuggling in a border city.

Trujillo’s film starts with a scene from Rosales's smuggling life. He's driving a car at night through the streets of Tijuana.

In the next scene, the car is stopped and he’s examining some fake California driver's licenses and a passport that he’s buying from a contact off the street.

Rosales tells the camera person, who’s filming from the back seat, that he wants to show the world the smuggling business isn’t the way it’s often painted.

Read the whole story at KPBS.org

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