On May 20, 1997, 18-year-old goat herder Esequiel Hernández Jr. was shot and killed by a four-man Marine unit on a drug traffic patrol near the Texas-Mexico border. Hernández's death marked the first killing of a civilian by the U.S. military on American soil since the 1970 Kent State tragedy. Originally aired on PBS' POV series, Kieran Fitzgerald's powerful documentary The Ballad of Esequiel Hernández, narrated by Tommy Lee Jones (who directed and starred in the 2005 feature film The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, based on this same incident) attempts to figure out what went so horribly wrong. Three of the Marines from the unit are interviewed (the fourth, Clemente Banuelos, who fired the fatal shots, is absent) as the film investigates the Marines' claims of acting in self-defense (which is contradicted by the forensic evidence), while also raising the ugly question of whether Hernández was targeted strictly for being Latino (nothing suggested he was engaged in illegal activity at the time of his murder). But Fitzgerald's treatment also moves beyond the specific crime to issue a broader indictment of using military personnel to control the notoriously ill-secured border and fight the War on Drugs, along the way documenting the widespread harassment of Mexican-Americans living along that border. A tragic and disturbing documentary, this is highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (P. Hall)
The Ballad of Esequiel Hernández
(2008) 83 min. DVD or VHS: $59.95: individuals & high schools; $225: public libraries, colleges & universities. Documentary Educational Resources. PPR. Volume 24, Issue 2
The Ballad of Esequiel Hernández
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