Inside Siglo XXI

by Belén Fernández

“I doubt there’s another journalist quite like her… Fernández’s prose is so incisive, pithy, powerful, and often funny.” —Counterpunch

“A dangerously enchanting siren.” —Francisco Goldman




Much has been written about the experiences and treatment of immigrants from south of the Rio Grande once they have entered the United States. But this account, by the itinerant, effervescent and highly original journalist Belén Fernández, offers a quite different take.

In this concise, vivid account Fernández shows us what life is like for would-be migrants, not just from the Mexican side of the border but inside Siglo XXI, the notorious migrant detention center in the south of the country.

Journalists are prohibited from entering Siglo XXI; Fernández only gained access because she herself was detained as a result of faulty travel documents. Once inside the facility, Fernández was able to speak with detained women from Honduras, Cuba, Haiti, Bangladesh, and beyond. Their stories, detailing the hardships that prompted them to leave their homes, and the dangers they have experienced on an often-tortuous journey north, form the core of this unique book. The companionship and support they offer to Fernández, whose antipathy to returning to the United States, the country they are desperate to enter, is a source of bemusement and perplexity, displays a generosity that is deeply moving.

In the end, the Siglo XXI center emerges as a strikingly precise metaphor for a 21st century in which poor people, effectively imprisoned by punitive US immigration policies, nevertheless display astonishing resilience and camaraderie.

Genres: Politics

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2022

Reviews

[César Hernández · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes things don’t go the way you imagined. For Belén Fernández, fudging the truth about her compliance with Mexican immigration law worked pretty well most of the time. And then it didn’t. As she made her way through an airport in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas with plans to head back to the neighboring state of Oaxaca where she had made her home for most of the pandemic, an immigration official became suspicious of Fernández’s immigration history. She claimed to have left the country regularly, as required of people who arrive with U.S. passports for tourism, but the immigration agency’s records didn’t reflect that. The immigration official was right, as Fernández acknowledges.

Off to Siglo XXI she went. I’m not referring to the century we’re living in. Siglo XXI is also the name of a notorious Mexican immigration prison in Tapachula, Chiapas. For most people, that would spell horror. But Fernández isn’t most people. She’s a journalist with an impressive ability to turn a nightmare into an opportunity. Stripped of her phone and pen, all she had was her memory. And in Inside Siglo XXI: Locked Up in Mexico’s Largest Immigration Detention Center, Fernández wields her memories powerfully to take readers inside the prison where we meet the many women trapped there. Fernández may be sharing space with those women, but she doesn’t pretend to be in the same position as them. For her, a U.S. passport, an ex-boyfriend with a contact in the Mexican president’s office, and a journalism career mean her stay at Siglo XXI lasts around twenty-four hours. For the women Fernández tells us about, the stakes are far worse—some are fleeing for their lives, others are fleeing to make a life—and their stays much longer. It’s these women who show Fernández that human goodness can thrive in the most inhumane environments. And it’s these women that give her hope that the twenty-second century might be better than the twenty-first.

[Sofia vargas · Rating 1 out of 5]

I like that the author writes about the humanity and generosity she experienced with other detainees and in her travels. However, that’s all I liked about this book. This reads like a wanderlust, privileged woman’s travel shenanigans with some broader political commentary interspersed. I tried giving this book a chance, but towards the end of the book when she uses the “Eden” metaphor to describe Siglo XXI and complains about potential deportation to the U.S.—likening it to being in prison— I couldn’t take her seriously. She comes off as just completely out of touch.

[Glynis Hart · Rating 3 out of 5]

Al Jazeera reporter and author of "Exile: Rejecting America and Finding the World," Fernandez spent two weeks in a deportation center in Mexico after being caught with an expired visa. Unlike her sister inmates, she feared getting deported to the US, instead of out of it. After they laughed at her, however, they were kind to her: it was clear she was having a bit of a breakdown. Read it if you want an idea what it's like to be in a Mexican deportation center (awful).

[Alex · Rating 1 out of 5]

Her perception of the world is warped. Read her Aljazeera articles and you will never find a more one sided human being. It comes off as ignorance toward honesty and truth. Her arrogant point of view is part of the problem instead of being part of the solution.

[John · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very little of this book is actually about the detention center, maybe 10% or the word count.

[Clivemichael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Compelling dive into a dark reality.

[Thomas Ray]

JV7403 .F47 2022 Memorial Library