Photographer Michelle Frankfurter had traveled to Mexico, the US-Mexico border, and Central America for years, working first as a photojournalist and then as a human-rights worker. During her travels, she heard about a particular route that hopeful migrants take to reach the United States. In 2009, she set out to follow it.
Following the path described in Sonia Nazario's award-winning book "Enrique's Journey," Frankfurter headed to southern Mexico and followed the path north.
In six journeys, she rode the treacherous El Tren de la Muerte (The Train of Death), came into contact with the drug cartels, and befriended numerous migrant families, many of whom never made it to the US.
Frankfurter has shared some of her photos with us here, but you can check out the rest at her website or in her book "Destino," available now.
The first step of the journey for Frankfurter and thousands of migrants is crossing the Suchiate River between the Guatemalan border town of Tecún Umán and the Mexican town of Hidalgo in the southern state of Chiapas. Migrants ride rafts made of tractor tires across the water.
After crossing the river, migrants hike 150 miles on foot to avoid Mexican migration checkpoints and reach Arriaga, a city in Chiapas. Here, a Salvadoran woman feeds her 18-month-old son at a migrant shelter in Chiapas after making the trek.
Frankfurter began the most significant part of her journey in Arriaga. Here, most migrants catch a freight train illegally to start their trek north.
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