(5W, 3 M) This modern tale of life on the Southwest border is set between El Paso, Texas and Juárez, Mexico. The story centers on Magdalena, a young woman from the colonias in Juárez, who flees Mexico illegally to escape spousal abuse. Desperate to survive without documentation and limited English skills, Magdalena finds work in a seedy bar in downtown El Paso, where Dalia, the matron, serves as her employer, teacher, and pimp. When Jamal, an African American solider, stationed at Fort Bliss enters the lounge, his presence unravels Magdalena’s guarded secret. A chorus of Latina women serve as the collective conscious as the divergent cultures begin to collide. Magdalena’s Crossing shifts between one young woman’s past in Juárez and present in El Paso ultimately leading to murder while the brutality of our present day immigration crisis looms in the background.