Open spoilers for 30-year-old movie. Hell, even the title spoils it.
Anyhoo, Andy Dufresne left Portland, ME with $375,000 of the Warden’s money, using a fake name and fake documents, and headed to Mexico, c. 1967. Would the Mexican authorities of his day given an American any static about his ID, how long he intended to stay in the country, etc.? Or would they have figured a white American driving a nice new convertible is likely to spend money on Mexico and be glad to have him, without asking a bunch of questions?
Some non-specific period of time later, Red breaks parole and goes to Mexico to see his friend. I assume he likely had a few dollars in his pocket, probably not even a driver’s license (but certainly a state ID). Would a Black American who crossed the border as a pedestrian be questioned? Or was Mexican border control at the time not concerned about which Americans came across?
The last time I crossed the border (a decade or two ago), you could go from the U.S. to Mexico pretty much at will. I don’t even remember any Mexican guards at the border. Coming back from Mexico to the U.S., an American agent would stop you and ask your nationality. If you said “American”, and said it with a gringo accent, the guard would wave you on through.
In the days of yore (before 9/11), foreigners were allowed 20 miles inside the U.S. border before they had to carry documents. Wherever a highway crosses that 20-mile mark, the Border Patrol has a checkpoint where they stop your car and ask your citizenship. If you have a foreign accent, they check your papers. I don’t know how the Mexican government did things.
I don’t think anyone would hassle Andy when he first entered Mexico. If he wanted to buy a house, or rent an apartment long-term, he would receive more scrutiny. One hopes that he bought his documents from a good forger.
In most border states, the drinking age is 21, so phony I.D.s are our biggest industry. Most people who ask you for I.D. are pretty cynical about it. They are doing so more to protect themselves than to catch any criminals.
I used to go with my family to Mexico back in 1967, going back and forth was very easy. The Mexican police never bothered you much other than to hit you up for a bribe. You didn’t need a passport. I recall my aunt (100% Mexican) carrying back a purse full of switch blades to sell back home in Ohio.
It was a different time. And the Mexicans had no prejudices against blacks. If he had enough green (like $10 or $20) to give to an officer he was as good as a white man in their eyes.
If you mean states on the US side of the border, the drinking age is 21 in all 50 states (an individual state could in principle change it, but they’d risk losing federal highway funds if they did). I don’t know about the Mexican states.
When I was growing up I had a friend whose family was very active, charity-wise, in Baja. When I’d gone to Tijuana with my family, we just walked right in. With this family, I always had to keep my birth certificate with me, out of fear border patrol would think I was Mexican. I now live about an hour away from the border and honestly, I’m kind of afraid to go anywhere near it.
As to the OP, I think Andy and Red would have been fine. Then, as now, money talks.
The part I wrinkled my nose at was Red’s plan to visit the shiny volcanic obsidian at the end of the wall.
Why not rely on good ol’ hitchhiking to finally get my Big Question answered, to fulfill my destiny? And when I get there, it’ll be sunny and the owner of the property probably totally cool with a convict on parole digging up walls and stealing stuff. After I fuck around a while, I can catch a quick hitchhike home before these shadows get too long.
Prior to the ‘Eighties hitchhiking was quite common and not especially suspicious. The field where the package was buried appeared to be remote (presumably because that was where Andy proposed to his wife), so unless Red made a big fuss he probably wouldn’t be noticed.
As for the question of the o.p., Mexican authorities would have no issue with an obviously well-off American crossing the border, and as long as he didn’t engage in serious criminal activities would not come to attention to the federales (which in 1967 would have just been a few hundred men, none of who would likely ever pass through the then remote fishing village of Zihuatanejo that doesn’t even have a direct route to Guadalajara or Mexico City) and would be of only minor interest to local authorities to the extent that they could get a few thousand pesos in bribes to let him alone. Even buying property would not be much of an issue by just greasing a few palms, or just getting an actual permanent resident visa; in 1967 US state records were not electronic, most states did not issue photo i.d. for drivers licenses, birth and death certificates were not easily cross-referenced, and a canny accountant like Andy—who had already created one fake person to launder money—could easily have created a second for the purpose of establishing himself in Mexico.
Red had money to travel south with. Andy left him some, and instructions, behind the rock. Andy told him where to find it. Probably just took a bus into Mexico. He wasn’t travelling poor.
Didn’t Andy give him money and ID in that box in the stone wall?
Plus at the time, I don’t think Mexico was all to concerned about tourists and the only color that mattered was the green of tourists’ dollars.
I grew up in Southern California and you could walk south across the border without anybody questioning you. Driving, you only had to slow down before they would wave you through.
In the late 70s, our small youth group and an adult leader went by car with the intention of going all the way down Baja.
Crossing the border was no problem but there was a checkpoint quite a ways into Mexico. We were all 17 and had driver’s licenses but no passports and the only paperwork we needed was notarized permission from our parents. Unfortunately, they wanted embossed seals, which not everyone had so we had to change plans.
We didn’t try bribing our way in, so I don’t know if that would have worked.
Red had a job at the same grocery as Brooks for a while before he decided to go to Mexico and hook up with Andy. So he had some money from there as well.
Back in the day (70’s), when I was taking a break from university, i worked with a fellow (Canadain, blond blue-eyed) who spent summers in Canada working blue collar jobs, then take that money and head down to southern Mexico and relax by the Pacific in some small town, and spend the winter in warmth and smoking pot. The way he described it seemed idyllic…
i heard later this way of life fell apart for him when recession hit in Canada and it was hard for him to get a decent job in the summer. However, never had any hassles with the authorities. Then years later, I heard about unrest in that area of Mexico. Things change.