In The Beast we encounter a society dominated by the Zetas, a powerful organized crime synidcate. According to an uncover agent, "[W]however wants a job, any kind of job has to work for the Zetas. They control everything, every institution"(117).
How does this level of organized crime impact the migrant's experience? How does it affect society? Howis similar or different from the corruption in police and business in the Grapes of Wrath?
In Oscar Martínez’s The Beast, the Zetas are more than just a gang; they are a "shadow state" that controls every part of life. When an undercover agent says that "whoever wants a job... has to work for the Zetas" and that they "control everything," it shows that the Zetas have replaced the government. For migrants, this means there is no such thing as a safe path. They are walking through a trap where the people who are supposed to protect them, like the police, are often working for the cartel. This level of organized crime turns migrants into products to be kidnapped or forced into labor. If the Zetas control all the jobs and institutions, then regular people have to join the corruption just to survive.
ReplyDeleteThis system is very similar to the corruption in The Grapes of Wrath, but it’s also much more violent. In Steinbeck’s book, the Joad family is bullied by the Bank, which is described as a monster that "must have profits all the time." Both books show that for a migrant, the law is an enemy. In The Grapes of Wrath, the landowners and police use the law to keep wages low and burn down migrant camps. Steinbeck writes that "the works of the roots... must be destroyed to keep up the price," showing how the business world chooses money over people.
The main difference is that while the California landowners used legal ways to be cruel, the Zetas use total violence and fear. The Joads faced hunger and unfair laws, but the migrants in The Beast face mass graves and kidnapping. In both stories, however, the migrant is a victim of a system that sees them as worthless compared to power and profit.
In the book “The Beast”, written by Oscar Martínez, we learn about the long and dangerous journey of many immigrants to the United States. On this journey, they already face many dangers, but some are beyond the immigrants' control. Los Zetas would be such an example; Los Zetas is a Mexican cartel that is very dangerous and way more than a normal drug cartel. The real danger is that nobody is protected from this cartel, since even the police, who normally protect citizens, work for this cartel. And since that is the reality in Mexico, immigrants can never sleep with both eyes closed on the way to the United States. The highest force of protection of the country works for human traffickers and drug cartels in Mexico. Immigrants feel a great impact of that; they leave their homes without knowing whether they are going to survive or not. Furthermore, they can never fully rest on this long journey or have the slightest feeling of relief. But the biggest fear they face is that they are traveling through a country without functioning laws or consequences. When they know that they could get murdered and no one will be there to rescue them, and the murderer won't face any consequences, they can't be sure who to trust or be friends with.
ReplyDeleteIn “The Grapes of Wrath,” we see some similarities, since there is a lot of corruption and the law is the enemy for them as well, but there are also some core differences. In “The Grapes of Wrath”, the police are treating people unequally, but they always find a loophole to make it legal by law. So, in “The Grapes of Wrath,” there is no law that is broken, but in “The Beast,” there is just no one who cares about broken laws, since the police, the ones who should care, are involved in illegal actions.
One of the differences in corruption between The Beast and The Grapes of Wrath is the level at which it’s present. In The Grapes of Wrath, the corruption was restricted to small, local meetups of angry residents. They used their influence and positions to harass the migrants, either through the police or businesses using unfair practices. However, the federal government was not corrupt, and wanted to fix the issues, through policies like those in the New Deal, which led to those problems being solved, especially after WWII provided a bunch of jobs. However, in the Beast, Los Zetas has penetrated so much of the government that the Mexican government no longer has the ability, or at least interest, to regulate those areas. Moreover, it’s highly organized and thus able to use that influence effectively. Locals are either part of Los Zetas and profit from it so they wouldn’t help the government root out the corruption, or they are too scared of the consequences to help the government. Martinez writes, “a town has been taken over once half of it is on the payroll and the other half is scared” (122). To solve the corruption, the federal government would have to first root out the corruption, present a non-corrupt front, and only then be able to effectively fight Los Zetas. Martinez calls the efforts described in the book as “quaint little game[s], that [don’t] get results” (127). Just one person standing up to corruption isn’t enough. That one person is often tortured and killed along with their family, to scare others from doing it. But if everyone stood up to it, and presented a single front, then it would be harder to lose; it would be what Martinez calls “a real battle” (127).
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ReplyDeleteIn the book The Beast by Oscar Martinez, we learn about the journey that Central American migrants must take to get to the US Mexico border. This journey is already full of danger, with the possibility of being dismembered by the train that the migrants travel on to petty criminals killing anybody who can't cough up a few pesos, riding on the Beast is already perilous for all migrants who ride on its back. What makes this journey for migrants even more difficult and dangerous are the cartels and narcos that control everything and everybody on their route up to El Norte. Kidnapping, robbery, torture, and death are all things that migrant men and women must deal with when passing through cartel territory, and there isn’t anything they can do about it. In an interview conducted by Mr. Martinez with an undercover agent, he stated that, “They control everything,’ the agent explains, ‘every institution. Notice how so many of the kidnappings in Tenosique happen near the rails, right in front of the migrant trail. City and state officials know that one of them will die if they do so much as lift a finger.”(Martinez, 117)
ReplyDeleteEveryone who is affected by the cartel lives in fear, which is how the most infamous cartel in the region, Los Zetas, have so much power over the communities in the northern parts of Mexico. Death or compliance, that's how Los Zetas operate, and the exploitation of migrants is just another business for them.
When comparing the experiences of migrants in the story The Grapes of Wrath and The Beast, a person can see that the migrants in both stories are being exploited by people who are more powerful than them. In the case of The Grapes of Wrath, migrants are forced to work for terrible wages just to feed their families, whereas in The Beast, migrants are used for ransom and are sometimes thrown into the world of human trafficking. Even with the experiences of migrants from the two stories being wildly different, they are all still victims of exploitation by people who see them as weak and powerless.
In Oscar Martinez’s novel The Beast, migrants commonly experience violence and threats from Los Zetas, a powerful organized crime syndicate. The ruthless and unpredictable nature of the atrocities committed by this gang severely impacts migrants’ safety during their journey to refuge. These effects can be compared to those in John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, in which police and business corruption are common themes.
ReplyDeleteTo understand how Los Zetas gained enough influence and power to “control everything, every institution,” it is essential to identify the group’s strategy, which involves instilling fear within large groups of people (Martinez, 117). As explained by Martinez, “their secret is simply fear. They shake the bones of policemen and taxi drivers, lawyers and migrants. All you need to do to get someone to dance the dance of fear is to utter the famous, simple motto: we are Los Zetas” (Martinez, 114). This explanation highlights a major aspect of the gang, which is their wide range of connections, whether it be through seemingly average citizens or those meant to protect, such as coyotes and law enforcement officers. According to the book, over 40% of all state police units have been working for Los Zetas, demonstrating that systems meant to protect have been corrupted by Los Zetas, exploiting the migrant’s fear in order to make a profit and continue gaining influence over the country. Described by another reporter, migrants are “not to trust anybody. There’s no solidarity” (Martinez, 126). This is just one of the ways that overly powerful gangs, such as Los Zetas, disrupt the lives of those seeking safety, forcing them into a solitary lifestyle.
In John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath, as the Joad family migrates from Oklahoma to California in search of work and better living conditions, they quickly discover that the police fail those relying on them by focusing on money and power rather than serving the community. This is seen in many instances of violence between law enforcement and innocent migrants, particularly in Hoovervilles, which are makeshift camps for displaced “Okie” migrants during the Dust Bowl era.
While the violence and brutality of both stories are certainly unmatched, the themes of similar structures exploiting those relying on them can be compared.
Los Zetas are a group that have become widely known, they run the town. This amount of organized crime impacts the migrants' experiences because they have to be careful who they talk to. For example the migrants know that you do not mess with members of the Zetas. The migrants understand that with the police or the gangs they are not safe, as soon as the police spots them they will get deported back to where they started, with los Zetas one wrong move and they are in danger. "Whoever wants a job, any kind of job has to work for the Zetas. They control everything, every institution" This quote shows how impactful los Zetas can be towards the migrants coming through their territory. The Beast is very similar to The Grapes of Wrath, both show a common theme of corruption amongst the police. For example in The Grapes of Wrath the Joad family is constantly harassed by the police and the officials, making it hard for them to find work in many places. For example, the Joads are not welcome in California because the humans living there are afraid migrants are going to come and take their jobs. The Joads are also constantly harassed by the bank, which can be also called the “monster” which is forcing them to leave their house and move. “They control everything,” the agent explains, “every institution.” “City and state officials know that one of them will die if they do so much as lift a finger. Better to keep quiet and take what Los Zetas pay them” (Martinez 117). These quotes show exploitation and most especially corruption, in an extremely cruel way. The agent is saying that the workers of the gangs must do everything, if not they get into trouble.
ReplyDeleteIn The Beast we see many struggles throughout the book-we see violence, we see harassment, and we even see death. Some things that are causing these harsh situations are crime, corruption and immigration status. Some situations that connect to the violence seem like slavery, Martiez explains why the acts of the Zetas take away rights because if you do something wrong trouble is upon you, “whoever wants a job… has to work for the Zetas”. This proves the Zetas are trying to use force and corruption to force people to work for them. The Zetas don't pay as much as other jobs but risking not working for them could get you in trouble. In this town there is very little trust going on because once you fold the violence in the town is already bad enough so when something goes wrong something as bad as death could happen to you, Martinez writes, "I was told not to trust anybody. There's no solidarity”. This shows the struggles in central america during this time period because of all of the migrants’ rights getting taken away and the violence in the town keeps getting worse. In this town you see casual murders every day, if this was in the US there would be major consequences for their actions. This would be caused by laws in our country compared to their country where it's a lot less strict and it's affecting them because of all the deaths and violence which tells them not to trust anyone. In their country they have a lot less protection from bad people and the government while in the US we have police in every city and a stable government. Part of the reason The Grapes of Wrath is not as violent as The Beast is because they are in the US and have rights and laws to protect them, Martinez says, “a town has been taken over one half of it is on the payroll and the other half is scared”. This explains why all of the violence in The Beast happens and how it's hard for the government to protect the town and people. Also their government is scared of the Zetas and other gangs, they see all the murders, so they don't want to get murdered too. The Grapes of Wrath is different because they live in a stable and steady home and environment, however there are some troubles that happen, it's nowhere close to what happens in The Beast.
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