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We are living our dream to travel around the american continent
from Alaska to Patagonia
following an alternative route,
making documentary journalism,
taking photographs,
writing travel chronicles,
and sharing art, “The Social Circus,”
in the different communities we visit.
We are living our dream.
Everyone we meet
share their love,
share their bread,
and they stay with us, you know.
The people who come to teach us,
have fun with us, sing with us
they take away our despair of being migrants,
that’s what we want
our sadness taken away.
Our idea was to travel across the american continent
but not as tourists, right?
I mean, we had the opportunity to travel
with a local folklore group
and we realized how important
a voyage can be;
all the positive things we can give others
if we know how to share it.
So we came up with the idea
of traveling from Alaska to Patagonia,
to learn more about our roots,
to visit Latin American countries that are like family,
and get to know them for real, you know?
But above all, to meet their anonymous heroes;
this is what we want to document: people, or groups of people,
like here, at The Migrants House in Saltillo
where everybody's working, little by little
to make a better world.
Sometimes we forget about them,
the conventional media doesn't talk about them.
So we thought "We want to make these documentaries"
make these documentaries
along with the Social Circus
which is for us a way to get people together,
a way to break the barriers
between us.
Like, “Do I talk to him or not?”...
With art, everything is different, everything opens up.
So, last March,
we left San Cristobal de las Casas.
And you went to…?
We went straight to
the SOS Children's Villages in Comitan de Dominguez,
Chiapas.
After Chiapas, we went to Tabasco,
Veracruz, Guadalajara and Saltillo.
Here in Saltillo, we have been for a while now
because of family, you know, we always want to spend time with them.
We think… that...
we don't want our dream to depend on economic ressources.
Some of us work through internet
and have regular income
that basically provides for our needs.
We uploaded our project onto idea.me
where we were sponsored by various people,
some of them we don’t even know,
to keep on going with our project.
People support us.
For example, in the United States,
a Mexican girl got interested in the project
and she sent us a GoPro camera,
those ones you can use under water.
People also support us in simple ways, opening their houses,
sharing their meals... These are proofs of support, right?
We want to share what we're good at,
the little things we know,
with the people we meet along the way,
mainly associations, groups of people,
anonymous heroes,
those people organizing activities,
let’s say... out of the system,
like The Migrants House, for example.
The last few years, we have seen the power of social networks,
the power of technology.
So there is more space to share ideas…
try be loyal to oneself,
tell another kinds of stories
that mass media doesn’t.
Stories that are lost
not even shared.
We would like to be a new media, to create consciousness
about different things
and to share what we do,
the art, the desire to help
the desire to learn,
to share stories along the road.
That’s what we do, with travel chronicles,
some videos,
documentaries...
We also have parts in radio broadcasts
on friends' stations.
All this material is on our web site,
poloapolo.net
and well,
we're very happy to be here.
In fact, when we arrive there (Alaska)...
it will be the beginning of the journey...
that’s why “Polo a Polo” (Pole to Pole).
But first, we have to get there
it will be the beginning,
or maybe another beginning, in fact,
of everything we've lived so far.
If everything we've lived so far is so beautiful,
I can't imagine what it'll be like when we reach Alaska.
Everything we'll be able to do
share a message, connect with people.
Just like the relationships we have had,
the people we've met...
For example, we met the Dr. Nacho Espinosa in Veracruz
and then we talked about him to housewives in Guadalajara
and they contacted him.
A network starts; both know “Polo a Polo”
they support it, but now they also support each other.
From the Migrants House
to the smallest town in Veracruz,
or the villages… there in Chiapas.
If in some way,
we can all share the same ideas,
we can create something wonderful.
There is expectation
excitment,
nervousness,
and there is also hope.
But fear… we don't know that word
It's comfortable for traveling
but above all, we chose her because of her loyal engine;
it's easier to get fixed
and also get replacement parts.
She has traveled a lot
around Mexico; she's visited Chiapas many times
and I guess she has a travel history
because there were stickers from other states,
from Chiapas, so...
She's still going with us.
Often, people make offers and want to buy her,
but no
we have faith she will make it.
So that’s what happens with dreams,
not only ours.
They stay a long time in a box
'cause there is always a good excuse
and that excuse is the best one
for not following your dream, or not doing it.
So, I guess that's how you start,
that's the first step,
break the fear.