RUN AND DRIVE
"The inventor of the automobile has had more influence on society than the combined exploits of Napoleon, Genghis Khan, and Julius Caesar." William F. Ogburn, American sociologist, 1938
All texts by Prune Paycha
In 1932, the communist Mexican painter Diego Rivera was commissioned to create a massive mural that would adorn the inner courtyard of the Detroit Institute of Arts. Since the beginning of the century and the establishment of Ford factories, among others, Detroit has experienced explosive growth. In just a few years, the city became the epicentre of the U.S. automotive industry, symbolizing thriving capitalism and the automobile, the embodiment of the fulfilled "American Dream." Rivera’s mural, commissioned by Ford, was intended to exalt this success.
An object of fascination, a sign of belonging to a particular social class, a symbol of freedom and power... Numerous concepts, symbols of modernity and success, are amalgamated around the car. “Consumed in its image, if not in its use, by an entire people who appropriate it as a perfectly magical object.” the car crystallizes all desires and satisfies all needs of industrialized societies worldwide. While Detroit's prosperity rapidly declined, the automobile's dominance intensified.
U.S. automotive production increased by 2,000 times in just over a century, from 8,944 vehicles produced in 1904 to 15,608,386 in 2023. That same year, global production peaked at 94 million cars.
At the other end of the chain, countries like Guatemala, Nicaragua, or Honduras barely appear in automotive production figures, even though they show growing demographics and demand in this area. Local markets turn to imports, mostly buying used vehicles. In Guatemala, for example, 75% of imported vehicles are used, most of which come from the United States.
Run & Drive—terms used to describe vehicles declared total losses by U.S. insurance companies—represents the story of a cross-border trade in wrecked cars, which, driven by South American drivers, are resold in rapidly expanding local markets.
Run & Drive is the daily life of these men, who live a post-industrial Western-like existence full of waiting, endless roads, and corruption.
Run & Drive is also the story of a secondhand dream fueled by a tenacious popular mythology, one that even the omnipresent risks in this venture do not seem to diminish.
PREPARATION
Otay Mesa district, Southeast San Diego, California.
Julio César Pisquiy Nimatuj, 41 years old, has just arrived after landing in Tijuana (Mexico). Adjacent to the Mexican border, Otay Mesa is one of the city's two entry ports.
For decades, thousands like Julio have legally entered various parts of the United States to retrieve cars that insurance companies have declared unfit for the road. Only upon arrival do they discover the condition of their online auction vehicle purchases, with which they are about to travel thousands of miles. Once they recover their cargo, they spend hours making the car functional and relatively safe—this will be the vehicle towing the second one. Whether they head to Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, or El Salvador, several days of driving separate them from their destination, where the vehicles will be resold. School buses, SUVs, trucks, motorcycles, or family sedans—everything has value in this world of makeshift solutions.
Once ready to hit the road, these drivers, known as mancuerneros—from the Spanish word mancuerna, meaning dumbbell, a reference to the two cars linked by the towing bar—head toward one of the two Texas border posts: Presidio or Los Indios, where they will exit the U.S. and embark on the long and dangerous journey home.
THE ROAD
Mancuerneros like Julio can travel between 800 and 1,200 kilometres per day on a journey that lasts an average of seven days and represents a total investment of about $3,000. This amount, added to the car purchase cost, covers the plane ticket, spare parts, payments to agencies handling transit permits in Mexico, food, and taxes. The transmigrants try to return with at least two vehicles to make the trip profitable. Optimizing each trip is crucial, so some of them, leveraging their networks in the U.S., fill their cars with clothes, sewing machines, medical equipment, computers, gifts, etc., which they transport south for a fee.
In addition to becoming makeshift mechanics, they must minimize all costs. Before crossing into Mexico, it’s not uncommon for them to eat and sleep in the vehicles. Some, like Julio, cook on camping stoves and rest behind the wheel in parking lots. The security risks are too high on the south side of the U.S. border, so they seek low-cost hotels to spend the night. Life on the road combines solitude, monotony, dangers, and mutual assistance. Even though the mancuerneros primarily drive alone with only their essential tools as companions, over the years and with the introduction of cell phones, a strong support network has developed, allowing vital information to be shared along the route.
Once they cross the border, Mexican authorities impose a route that must be completed within five days. This 2,800 km journey is not without risks. Drug traffickers, endemic corruption, road gangs, and even customs officers—extortion is common. All mancuerneros know these payments must be factored into the trip’s cost, as their lives depend on it.
Driver's parcel list
- 2 boxes of perfume
- 3 bathing suits
- 1 jacket for bed
- 10 boxes of eyelashes
- 1 day bag with 6 perfumes
- 2 coffee cups
- 1 fan
- 1 lamp
- 1 soldering gun
- 1 iron
- 2 extension cords
- 3 caps
- 2 drills with their bits
- 2 sets of dishes
- 5 pairs of shoes
- 2 hand lamps
- 1 television base
- 2 hammers
- 1 television
- 6 spirit liquids
- drill discs
- 1 tape
DESTINATION
Arriving safely at their destination is an achievement in itself. As for the recovered vehicles, they are sent to a very inexpensive workforce charged with making them look like new, and then resold. Soon, they will add to the frequent local traffic jams. Despite significant social and environmental impacts (pollution, severe accidents due to persistent technical failures), the middle class dreams of owning a personal vehicle, in particular to escape the growing insecurity of public transport.Arriving safely at their destination is an achievement in itself.
The recovered vehicles are sent for low-cost refurbishment, given a ‘like new’ appearance, and then resold. Soon, they will add to the frequent local traffic jams. Despite significant social and environmental impacts (pollution, severe accidents due to persistent technical failures), the middle-class dreams of owning a personal vehicle, mainly to escape the growing precariousness of public transport.
In Guatemala, the minimum wage is capped at $434 per month. By regularly making the journey—up to 15 times a year for some—the mancuerneros improve their standard of living and that of their families. Far from living in luxury, these men still acquire a distinct social status marked by admiration and relative prestige. While many are constrained by poverty and migration restrictions, the transmigrants regularly cross these borders and trade more or less freely with the United States, which remains the symbol of all possibilities. Despite the job’s proven dangers, the mancuerneros develop a sort of dependency on the road, the mindset, and the lifestyle that these unique journeys entail, fueled by a fantasy of freedom.
Protagonists of odysseys with no real return, the mancuerneros, these picaresque heroes, spend more time on the road than at home. Having traded their ships for barely salvaged vehicles, they no longer succumb to the sirens’song but to that of the divine automobile.
DOCUMENTARY
Directed and edited by Hubert Hayaud • Research: Xochitl Zepeda • Director of Photography: Arnaud Bouquet • Music: Sylvain Collin • Sound Design and Sound Mix: Fabien Noël • Color Gradding: Ismael Ouattara Baldé at Post-Moderne • Production: Patrick Fauquembergue and Hubert Hayaud
EXHIBITION
