Not entirely. I thought long and hard about the name, and yes the history of the early days made sense. But I also thought the name had significance on other levels. Many of the people we came to work with in Oaxaca had loved ones living illegally in the states because there was no work in Oaxaca. Some of the palenqueros were guys who lived in the states for years undocumented and then came back home to work. In Matatlan the dream of every teenager back in the 90s was to find their way to the states because you could not make money on a palenque. We worked with guys who had been “illegal.” So there was that connection, and it is one that drives at bigger issues that concern a lot of us: immigration reform, borders, surveillance, freedom, etc.
