Creative writing task

1. Mexico
to the USA
A Tale of Illegal Immigrants

3. MEXICO TO THE USA
Why do people try to cross the
border illegally ?
What are the push factors ?
What are the pull factors ?

6. The border at night

7. Around 1,000,000 people a year are caught by
the United States Border Patrol trying to cross
the border. Many of these are repeat offenders.
What would make you risk a crossing ?
What do you think most American’s think of the
‘illegal aliens’ or ‘pollos’ as they are called ?
Why are some people glad to see the illegal
immigrants?

8. Creative Writing...
• You are now to begin a piece of creative writing about
migration from Mexico to the USA.
• Imagine that you are one of the many Mexicans desperate to
get into the USA, bearing in mind the numerous push and pull
factors that you are aware of….
• You cannot cross the border legally; you must sneak across.
• You are to produce a piece of writing telling the story of
how you managed to cross the border (or not!!)

9. How to write creatively…
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use the past tense
first person viewpoint (ie. “I”)
in chronological order (ie. Order of time)
opening paragraph: describe your situation, your feelings
and your plans
2nd paragraph: the start of your journey, perhaps
mentioning the push factors
3rd paragraph: your journey over the border, still
mentioning push but also pull factors
use adjectives to project the mood and describe your
feelings
include lots of your feelings; how would you feel if you got
caught??

10. Try to include:
• Details of the push factors that are making you want to
move. Think about money, housing, crime, lack of
employment opportunities, natural hazards (earthquakes),
transport systems
• What was attracting you towards the USA (pull factors) ?
• How you travelled over the border ?
• Any danger you experienced along the way; did you meet the
border patrols, did you pay a ‘coyote’ to help ?
• What you did if you managed to cross the border

11. Final 3 slides adapted from Carly Goodwin’s presentation,
available from http://www.sln.org.uk/geography
Possible formats:
A diary
A statement to the border patrol, or in court
A letter home
An e-mail home
A poem
A phone conversation