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?
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ReplyDeleteThe Los Zetas have nearly full control over the Polleros and the train tracks, which also allows them to control the migrants. The Los Zetas control almost every pollero. All of them have bosses. The polleros have to “pay his dues to Los Zetas, or hand over human loot instead”(132). The Migrants were under the control of the Pollero, who are controlled by the Zetas. The polleros who know the beast by heart who used to willingly take migrants over, now find it is a job that is not morally right. Now they have to pay the Los Zetas. If they did not pay the Los Zetas, the Los Zetas would get their money in some way. They say, “It started as something against the polleros who didn't pay. They’d take away their pollitos, their little chicks and since they already had them in their hands they figured they’d go ahead and get a ransom from their families”(96). It would not be up to them if they got kidnapped, but it would be up to their pollero. The pollero is under the orders of the Zetas. The money that their family would have to pay to make them free would be way too much for these poor migrants. The Los Zetas also control if they are even allowed to take this dangerous journey. It is up to el Puma, the people say, “He works for Los Zetas. They have to pay him if they want to get onto the train”(90). For most of these poor migrants, this could be all they have. Paying El Puma allows them on the train; it doesn't stop the Los Zetas from attacking or kidnapping them when they are in their territory. The migrants are paying for a ride that may end up killing them.
ReplyDeleteThe power of the Zetas in the society depicted in The Beast profoundly shapes the migrant experience. Migrants traveling through Mexico on "La Bestia" face not only the physical dangers of the journey but also the constant threat of violence and rape/sexual abuse by organized crime groups like the Zetas. These groups control key migration routes, demanding bribes to travel safely and resorting to brutal violence, including kidnapping, rape, and murder against those who cannot pay or refuse to cooperate. The Zetas' have such a strong grip on the greater community that, as the undercover agent notes, "whoever wants a job, any kind of job has to work for the Zetas. They control everything, every institution,"(117) illustrating how their power extends beyond the criminal underworld into everyday life. Comparing this to the corruption depicted in The Grapes of Wrath, both societies are marked by the exploitation of the vulnerable by those in power. In Steinbeck's novel, police and business interests are what suppress the migrant workers, using legal and economic issues—such as wage suppression, false arrests, and orchestrated violence—to maintain control and make money from the migrants' labor. However, while the corruption in The Grapes of Wrath is institutional and often masked by legality, the Zetas' dominance is overtly violent and criminal, with little pretense of legitimacy. The Grapes of Wrath is a much more systemic form of abuse versus The Beast being non-systemic. Both systems, though, result in the suffering of migrants, highlight the universal dangers of unchecked power whether it's by criminal masterminds or simply government systems.
ReplyDeleteWhile the corruption in police and business in The Grapes of Wrath is not organized crime like in The Beast, they both act as a ruling class that oppresses and persecutes the migrants. In The Grapes of Wrath, Jim Casy and Tom Joad are wandering around at night when they run into a police officer who “swung the pick handle. Casy dodged down into the swing. The heavy club crashed into the side of his skull with a dull crunch of bone, and Casy fell sideways out of the light” (Steinbeck, 386). The Police viewed Casy as a threat to the manipulation of migrant workers, so they executed him despite him doing nothing wrong. Even though the police are a legitimate government organization, they used their power to silence Casy in the same way that Los Zetas silences migrants in The Beast. Los Zetas is known as one of the most dangerous designated terrorist organizations in Mexico. They gained their power by hiring insiders everywhere including police stations and other government agencies. In The Beast, Martinez interviews a 35 year old Honduran man named El Puma, who reveals that “You have to pay [Los Zetas] to get on the train. Those who don’t pay, get to meet them, their crew, their machetes and their cuerno de chivo”(Martinez, 90). Similar to the police in The Grapes of Wrath, Los Zetas uses their power to persecute migrants. The migrants in both books are vulnerable, so they can be easily manipulated by powerful groups. The police and Los Zetas both take advantage of this and use violence to oppress the migrants.
ReplyDeleteIn The Beast, the control that the Zetas have over society makes the journey for migrants very dangerous and shows how deeply corruption can affect everyday life. Óscar Martínez writes about the reality faced by Central American migrants. The Zetas control almost every aspect of life for the migrants, including jobs, businesses, and government, with insiders everywhere. Even people who try to help, like coyotes, are taken over by the Zetas. One coyote said that he “has to pay his dues to Los Zetas, or hand over human loot instead” (132). This shows how the Zetas use fear to stay in control and do everything in their power to get everyone onto their team. Because of all the insiders, this organized crime group also doesn't just affect the migrants, but also affects the whole society. When one group has that much control, it makes it much harder for normal people to trust people and even trust the police to protect them. This kind of fear and control over everyday life shows how power can be used to hurt vulnerable people who are just trying to survive. This connects to The Grapes of Wrath, where families with little money are also taken advantage of. Many migrants in that book are looking for work and will do jobs that pay very little, which means they are getting taken advantage of by the business owners. This idea of doing any work for money is also shown in the Beast as, “whoever wants a job, any kind of job, has to somehow work for Los Zetas” (117). This quote highlights the power the Zetas have over the migrant workers, which is similar in The Grapes of Wrath. Similar to the exploitation of workers in The Grapes of Wrath, the Zetas use their control to force migrants into working for them. Additionally, the workers are paid very little and treated badly, and if they complain or try to stand up for themselves, they get killed. Jim Casy is an example of this as he tries to help the workers fight for fair pay, but ends up getting killed by the police while doing so. This very well sounds like something that could happen in The Beast, with a police officer who is an undercover Zeta.
ReplyDeleteIn The Beast, the migrants are facing harsh conditions as they flee home in search for a better life. This is also the harsh reality in The Grapes of Wrath. Both of these stories explore the way migrants are desperate and often targeted, and treated horribly. In these stories, the characters are fleeing for different reasons. The migrants in The Grapes of Wrath are fleeing because their land is being taken over, so they need to find work and land. In The Beast, the migrants are fleeing from all of the crimes and violence going on around their home, which leads their journey to being more risky and violent. The migrants in The Beast are at constant risk of being raped, robbed, kidnapped, or even killed by gang members. The migrants are in a situation where they have to be violent and commit crimes in order to save themselves. The migrants in The Beast experience a significant amount of physical violence, compared to The Grapes of Wrath, where they face mainly poverty and hunger. In both stories the migrants are taken advantage of, and sometimes forced to lie or commit a crime, but only so they can protect and save themselves. This shows how migration can look very different depending on where you are, and the state of the world around you. The migrants in The Beast are constantly surrounded by gangs, violence, and crimes, and they are forced to face these crimes, and even commit some to protect themselves.
ReplyDeleteAlthough the organized gangs in Oscar Martinez’s The Beast and the bank owners in John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath are different, they both share the characteristic of controlling the average people in their respective societies.
ReplyDeleteIn The Grapes of Wrath, the manipulation of land ownership and wages by the bank and company owners indicates that they have domination over the average workers in America. An example of the bankers’ land manipulation affecting the average American worker is during the Dust Bowl in Oklahoma. During the Dust Bowl, bankers began seizing farmland from the working-class families that had been there for generations (Steinbeck 35). Despite the farmers having been on their lands for lifetimes, they had no other choice but to surrender to the bank owners, demonstrating their domination. The company owners in the story often utilize cruel tactics to ensure low wages for workers. When the Joad family is talking to a stranger, the stranger tells the family about the hiring practices a business owner uses to reduce wages: Make the working-class people so poor that they will accept any wage (124). This company owner’s employment of inhumane tactics to drive down prices shows just how much control the owners have over wages.
In The Beast, the fear that people have of speaking out against or contesting the Los Zetas demonstrates the influence of the gang over ordinary Mexican people. The Los Zetas’ grip on the Mexican people is so powerful that people fear speaking badly about them. When Oscar Martinez is having a conversation with an undercover police officer, the officer explains that everyone that isn’t working for the Los Zetas is afraid of them and doesn’t dare to speak out against them, as they might face violent punishment (Martinez 110). The Los Zetas have so much power over Mexican society that even the act of speaking out against them is considered life-ending. The influence of the Los Zetas is so powerful that even law enforcement is afraid of them. While talking to Oscar Martinez, a Mexican police officer explains that he and other officers don’t go against the commands of the Los Zetas, as they fear for their and their family’s safety (125). The Los Zetas being above the law enforcement in the societal hierarchy of Mexico shows that even the people meant to stop the influence of the Los Zetas are ultimately controlled by them.
In The Beast, the Los Zetas' control over society is fully based on fear, allowing them to have an embedded power over all. Los Zetas is a Mexican criminal organization with immense power. In this book, we see that the Zetas are planted in almost every aspect of many parts of the migrant trail in Mexico, especially ones where “the beast” rides through. They exploit the vulnerability of migrants by kidnapping and extorting them. One of the things that allows them to be so efficient and powerful is that they have so many different types of people working for them, and almost anyone in the parts of their control has either encountered or is a zeta. But the main reason that they have so much control is because of the fear that resides within the society of them. Fear keeps people silent; the migrants who are exploited by the Zetas never report it because they know that if they do, they or their family will be in immense danger. Not speaking about the kidnappings was one of the Zetas' major rules for their victims, and they were known to enforce their rules: “Any attempt to break Los Zetas’ rules is punished by death. Two of the kidnapped migrants learned this when, making the best of an unusually inattentive guard, they escaped from the ranch…One of the Zetas' soldiers went to hunt them down. He shortly returned with one of the migrants, who was marched in front of the other captives and forced to his knees. ‘See what happens if you fuck with us!’ Meselit Jimenez, from Honduras, was shot dead in the back of the neck” (Martinez 113). The rule following and silence that is forced onto these people allows the Zetas to operate however they like. When no one speaks up, fear continues to take control, and there is no unity, accountability, and no protection. In the world Martinez talks of, fear doesn’t just keep people quiet—it creates a world where speaking out feels more dangerous than being silent.
ReplyDeleteThroughout the novel, The Beast, the Los Zetas gang has a stake in every part of the migrants' lives and experiences on the trail, and is a constant threat to the migrants. The gang is embedded in all of the systems that the migrants interact with, from the police departments and migration offices to the coyotes that help the migrants on their journey. The organized gang also controls the migrants every step of the way, dictating which paths they can take, where they stay each night, and most notably, ensuring they keep quiet about their treatment. Towards the middle of the book, author Oscar Martínez mentions the level of control Los Zetas have on information being spread, “A warning we had gotten back in Coatzacoalcos comes to mind:“If you go there asking about the kidnappings, Los Zetas will know in eight minutes. If you talk to any of the town’s authorities, they’ll know in three” (Martínez 293-294). The gang’s network is so intertwined within the city that they essentially have eyes and ears anywhere within the city grounds. This allows them to maintain their level of atrocities and to not be stopped, and prevents the opportunity for rebellion to be even slightly considered. Even if someone were to ask law enforcement, the people whose jobs are to protect and serve the citizens of their communities, Los Zetas will know. The migrants live in a world of constant fear where they can’t stand up for themselves, and a world of domination by Los Zetas. Another example of Los Zetas constantly affecting the migrants is the polleros, the guides who are supposed to help the migrants navigate the treacherous journey. These are the one group of people that the migrants need to be able to trust besides themselves and their family in order to make a safe crossing, and yet, they can’t even have this. The polleros, “live to push the limits, working under constant risk, repeating over and again this lethal journey. They are coyotes, polleros, the pirates of the migrant trails. They live in a world they don’t control, taking orders from narcos, those who run the migrant trails in this country” (Martínez 364). Before the rise of Los Zetas, coyotes were people the migrants could trust; people they would eat with, sleep with, and be friends with, but this is not the case anymore. Now that the coyotes are on Los Zetas payroll, they sell the migrants to the gangs for a sum. The people that the migrants depend on to be able to make their journey no longer are the migrants friends, and it's all because of Los Zetas.
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