Mexico: A Death in the Desert
June 24, 2004
Retracing the tragic journey of Matias Garcia, a chili pepper farmer who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border looking for work and died in the Arizona desert
Mexico: A Death in the Desert
June 24, 2004
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Retracing the tragic journey of Matias Juan Garcia Zavaleta, a chili pepper farmer from a small Zapotec Indian village in Oaxaca, Mexico, who crossed the U.S. southern border looking for work in 2003. That year, he was one of at least 200 migrants who died in the scorching heat of the Arizona desert.
Originally aired in 2004, Mexico: A Death in the Desert was re-released digitally in August 2026 as part of an ongoing effort to make FRONTLINE’s archive widely accessible for streaming. The documentary originally aired as part of FRONTLINE/World, a special FRONTLINE series that ran from 2002-2010 and was developed in partnership with GBH in Boston and KQED in San Francisco.
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