Macario (Rogello Ramos) is a poor farm worker in Mexico who only wants a better life for his girlfriend. They live in a small apartment and eat beans with tortillas every night since his pay doesn’t afford more. When he is finally laid off from his last job, he is willing to take anything that comes his way. So when a letter arrives from his brother living in Texas, he is inspired to learn how well he’s doing on a farm in the United States. His brother even suggests Macario to hop over the border to move in with him and work on the same farm. So he decides to make a run for the border. His girlfriend is far from enthusiastic – she knows how dangerous that could be.
Through an unfortunate event, he gathers enough money to pay someone to run him across the border in a cargo trailer attached to a semi. This seems too good to be true (especially when you read the title) and unfortunately for Macario, it is.
This film executes an interesting narrative form by flashing to musical numbers of the Virgin Mary giving advice to Macario and advising him of his fate. At first they seem interesting enough but soon they pop up more often than required, and most outstay their welcome. The screenplay was written by Pablo Veliz (also the director), which was inspired by an actual event in 2003 where a bunch of people were found asphyxiated in an abandoned cargo trailer in Texas. The story could definitely use further exploring but sadly, the narrative form of “La Tragedia De Macario” steers it away from the interesting and turns it into the monotonous.
