Blaming, Shaming, and Framing: The Immigrant as Other in U.S.-Mexico Borderland Cinema

Combining cultural anthropology with psychological analysis of the portrayal in documentary film of the complex issue of immigration from Mexico, Viktoria Byczkiewicz analyzes the talk of social actors and the various discursive resources people draw on to justify their own "truths" and to invalidate the "truth" of their opponents. Byczkiewicz shows how reality is socially constructed and how rhetoric and stereotypes are used to justify this constructed reality.