1 Hail, fine fellows! It is I, Billy... Oh, yeah! (PEOPLE CHEER) ..back once again in your living-rooms. I've lived in America almost half my life now... ..and in that time I've seen a lot of airports and quite a few cities, but not much in between. But that, my friends, is about to change... ..because I'm taking the train... (IMITATES TRAIN CHUGGING) ..into the backyard of America. Yes, I'll marry you. (BOTH LAUGH) We are heading to the places you never get to see 30,000ft in the air... (ALL CHEER) I think I've stumbled on a religious cult. ..and my route? Chicago to New York, the wrong way round. It's the story of this nation. LEE: Can you imagine bringing your bride out here? 'Honey, we're home.' (LAUGHS) 6,000 miles and 26 states, all steeped in living history. Yahoo! Can't afford a psychiatrist or nothing like that. So I sing my troubles away. A great big, fat, epic story... I'm very proud and privileged and deeply honoured to be sitting before people who changed the world. ..about people. I love to talk to somebody like you. You can understand me. Moving through a landscape straight from the silver screen. It looks like you could reach up and twist it with your little finger. Nice little day trip, huh? All this lies before you, you lucky people. (CHUCKLES) Get out of my face. Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Able 2016 # JEROME MOROSS: The Big Country Some journeys should be rushed. Others are to savour, and the next leg of my journey into America's backyard is one of those. I'm taking the Coast Starlight train all the way down the Pacific to California before taking a sharp left towards the deserts of Arizona and El Paso, Texas. Starting in the epic and evergreen state of Washington, this is going to be a 2,000-mile odyssey into a pilgrim's paradise. This is where all the beautiful misfits, loners and dreamers ended up, and I want to know if they're still out there. This was the land of plenty that was Eden. It was the Garden of Eden when it was discovered. I remember reading accounts where people on ships would throw over a basket on a rope, and it would fill with fish, and they'd pull it in. A basket. It was a little Garden of Eden. (TOOTS) My first stop is the sleepy suburbs of Vancouver, a town scattered with small organic holdings... (ROOSTER CROWS) ..and hidden away amongst them is farmer Tom's five acres of prize-winning veg... ..but that's not the only thing he's growing here. TOM: Hey, Billy, how's it going? How you doing, Tom? Great. Welcome to Vancouver. You don't look like a dope dealer to me. Yeah? Nah, I'm just a farmer, really. (BOTH LAUGH) Let's go take a look. Medicinal weed is now legal in almost half of America, but Washington State has taken it one step further, and is about to legalise it for recreational purposes... ..which is a polite way of saying Washington folk will soon be able to smoke pot for fun. (LAUGHS) Well, somebody's got to do it, right? I used to call it "Majumba". "Majumba", huh? Yeah, it was a policeman. I was going to a festival once when I was in a band, and he leant his head in the door of the van, as they do, for a good sniff, you know... (SNIFFS) Yeah, yeah. He said, 'I hope you're not smoking that Majumba.' So you're a Majumba grower as far as I'm concerned. All right, I'll take it. (CHUCKLES) Here's my garden, right here. Is it quite safe to inhale as I walk through here? Yeah, you'll be fine. (LAUGHS) So, this is my go-to over here. It keeps me going all day, it just makes me want to work. And work really hard and it takes away the pain. Really? Do you suffer from something? Yeah, I got into a car accident in the late '90s. I have neck, and shoulder, and back pain. The medicinal properties of cannabis has been well-documented... ..but what I had no idea about is how many varieties there are of the stuff. Uh, this one right here is... ..Timewreck. This is UK Cheese, and then we have the Perps up here. Each one has a different high and name, and a trading card to match. Yeah, there's Pineapple Express, there's a Girl Scout Cookie in there, there's, uh, Amnesia Haze. Amnesia Haze. This one up here, Jacky Herer, that's a real sativa, and if you smoke too much, it's not good. What do you mean, it's not good? What's gonna happen? It's just gonna get you a little anxiety. Too much of a sativa will bring some anxiety in your life... That's always happened to me. I haven't smoked for years because of that. That's... It made me paranoid. And I believe that when you mix the chemicals in with this, it really gives you that uptight feeling. So that's why we go the organic route. So, you are going to have customers coming here? I have patients that come through. Patients. Patients. Yeah. I'm a medical grower now, I'm gonna segue into "recreational", but right now, I'm a medical grower. (LAUGHS) I've kinda been grandfathered in. (BOTH LAUGH) That was a lovely manoeuvre! Yeah, right. You liked that, huh? But weed is far more than a cottage industry. It's booming. Legal marijuana is now the fastest-growing industry in the US. Now, has the legality changed the kind of customer? Oh, yeah. The big customers now are your 50- to 80-year-olds. The seniors, the baby boomers. They really want... Get out of here. Oh, they want their cannabis. You know, they smoked a little bit and it made them feel pretty good in college and now they're retired, and, you know, they want to smoke some cannabis, and they're the biggest customers out there. Right now, between Washington and Colorado, we've collected over $200 million in taxes in the last 16 months. That's pretty impressive. What? $200 million in taxes. So those Republicans have big smiles on their faces, and you watch how quickly cannabis is legalised here in the United States. That's extraordinary. I think I'll get myself a shovel. Right. Start planting. (BOTH LAUGH) If you're coming through Washington, go and visit my friend Tom. Tell him Billy sent you, because even if the Majumba isn't your thing, I promise you his melons will be. Well, you're good at what you do. Thank you. Do you believe in the ring of truth? That was Big Ben. The man is lovely, from bottom to top, inside, outside. You can see it in his eyes clear as a bell, telling the truth, singing a song, rejoicing. Optimism. That's what we need more of around here, not weary-willy politicians. We need more of these guys. The next part of my journey is a 25-hour, that's right, a 25-hour train ride... ..850 miles down the Pacific Crest trail, the mighty backbone of the West. It's a big trip, one that changes your perception of both time and place. Endlessly rolling, you slowly stop counting miles and start to measure distance in time... ..and then you realise it's all going by way too quickly... ..and then before you know it... ..you're in California... ..the pot of gold at the end of the pioneer rainbow, and the halfway point of my journey. As coastlines go, there are few better. Even amongst all the dot-com billionaires and movie mogul retreats, there's more than enough room for all the Hollywood sunsets and hazy beach days you always dreamed this state was made of... ..and it's rich, not just in wealth, but in nature and wildlife, and some of it is surprisingly easy to get to. This is San Simeon, California... (SNORTS) ..and these are sea elephants. They've been gathering here in this love-handle-fest for thousands of years. The whole point of this gathering is to have sex. The males try and get a harem together, and they fight each other to see who is the supreme. This is accompanied by a lot of belching and farting. (BELCHING) This is the biggest colony of elephant seals in the world, and at its peak, there are up to 7,000 erupting bum-holes on this beach... ..and what's truly remarkable is the fact you don't have to go miles out of your way to find this. It's just off the main road. Only about a third of the males get to have sex. The rest of them are doomed to wander the oceans of the world shag-less for the rest of their lives. All in all, a deeply unfair affair. It's funny, if you just take a look over there, it should remind you of the Costa del Sol on a July afternoon. A lot of people full of pizza and McDonalds... ..watching their skin peel. Personally, I'm all for it. Especially the belching and farting. 1 (TOOTS) UPBEAT TRAVELLING MUSIC I'm riding south through California, looking for what remains of the pilgrims and wayfarers that ended up in the Golden State. My route, the old hobo trail. UPBEAT TRAVELLING MUSIC CONTINUES During the Great Depression, these trains were full of hobos, a raggle-taggle gang of drifterers and wanderers who would travel from town to town looking for temporary work... ..hopping onto box-cars, sleeping where they lay, all the while trying to avoid the police. To me, a boy from Glasgow, it sounded like the greatest adventure of all. Most of the old-timers are long gone, so I can't begin to describe my delight about meeting Guitar Whitey, the last of the great hobos. (PLAYS GUITAR) You're 94? I'm 94, yeah. Yeah. I smoked for 40 years, and people ask me, 'How come you're still around?' I have a friend like that. The doctor kept nagging him to stop smoking, until eventually, the doctor died. The doctor died? The doctor died? Classic! That's a classic. Do you know Utah Phillips? Oh, I've known Utah Phillips. I sold him a watch one time. You sold him a watch? I sold him a watch. He wanted to buy a railroad watch, and I had one. Is Utah still alive? Oh, no, Utah's been dead five years, six years. Has he? Oh, that's a shame. Yeah. He was great. But he was a hobo, wasn't he? Oh, he was a hobo. Yeah. He was a good one too. How do you become a good hobo? Well, you have to love to be a train rider. (TOOTS) I've always been one of the running kind... ..leaving always on my mind. Home was never home to me at any time. (PLAYS GUITAR) So when did you start being a hobo? How old...? 13 years old. 13? 13. Every time you see a train in those days, there would be from one to 200 hobos on it. Really? Yeah. I thought, 'That's what I want to do.' (PLAYS GUITAR) So, where did you go on your first ride? Seattle to Portland, 200 miles on a fast merchandise train called Hotshot. Spent a little time in Portland and came back the next night, and that was my first ride. Oh, that's lovely. Oh, I just loved it, couldn't get enough of it. Then I finally became a "fruit tramp". Are you familiar with that term? No. A fruit tramp, in the days of the late Depression, you would go out and pick cherries, pick apples, dig potatoes, and make from $1 to $2 a day, which was dandy. That was a living. Between trips, we would ride the freight trains. Yes. Yeah. And say you picked apples up in Wenatchee, Washington, you'd come out of that late October with $50 cash money tucked away in your shoe... ..and you'd send that... That's a lot of dough. ..you'd send that home to your mother, and that would take care of her for the whole winter. My sisters and my mother would live on what I made as a fruit tramp. Oh, that's brilliant. Yeah. Why did the police dislike hobos so much? Of any films I've ever seen or anything I've read about it, they were very cruel. They would beat... Oh, beat the brains out of them, yeah. And sometimes, down in Texas, they would shoot them. Really? Shoot them right off the trains. So you hide in the weeds and in the jungles until the train comes, and then you make your run for it and ride. That's great. Ain't that something? What a life. I, uh, thoroughly enjoyed Guitar Whitey. It was such a privilege to meet a real hobo. When I was a child, I had my reading book in primary school. It had a picture of a tramp at a cottage door, with his coat tied with a piece of string and a bag of stuff on the end of a stick, and he was eating a big sandwich - it was obviously jam. It was red. And I thought, 'What a gas.' You know, imagine living like that and going and getting pieces and jam at cottage doors. What a life. That's the life for me. I just chose a different kind of tramp, you know, the on-the-road man, hitchhiking and having a laugh. There's very little about the sleepy train stop San Luis Obispo that would give any indication that back in the golden age of Hollywood, this was America's most exclusive playground. Charlie Chaplin, Greta Garbo, Winston Churchill, even. An endless parade of the famous and influential would arrive every weekend to stay here... ..Hearst Castle. America's most famous private home. The host was Randolph Hearst, the man who invented tabloid journalism. With 38 bedrooms, 42 bathrooms and 14 sitting-rooms, it's OK if you like marble and ostentation, but I have somewhere far better to take you. In 1928, a local garbage man called Art Beal... ..who lived round here bought the piece of land behind me. Now, you must keep in mind this is six miles from Hearst Castle, owned by Randolph Hearst, the well-known shit. He bought this piece of land and spent the next 50-odd years building his dream house. Incidentally, the house is called Nitt Witt Ridge, not for no reason. He built it purely from things he found and got for free. I love these stairs. You'll notice the abalone inlay. GENTLE BANJO MUSIC As you can see, the plaster is strengthened by beer cans. A novel idea. I could happily live here. Not a lot is known about Art Beal, apart from the fact that he was born on the West Coast at the turn of the century... ..and in the 1920s, he appeared in the International Fair at Toronto with a one-legged bicyclist and a fearless stunt dog. I would pay good money to see that. I love it here. The neighbours round here hate it, incidentally, and want it pulled down. I would fight them every inch of the way. He was here first, they should keep that in mind. His favourite spot was on the roof, his outdoor throne from which he would harangue his neighbours. My kind of guy. Who are you looking at? Bugger off. Go on. In 1989, he was taken off to an old folks' home against his will, but he escaped and hitch-hiked back and lived out the rest of his life right here... ..and who would blame him? Not I. Just as we were preparing to film this, the neighbours drove past - they must be from that house up there - and the woman looked out the window and said, 'We live above it.' That's what she thinks. So, it's time to say, 'Goodbye, California, the land of farting seals and maverick old coots,' because the desert is calling. Arizona, here I come. 1 LOUNGE MUSIC I've passed the halfway point of my trip from Chicago to New York the wrong way round, and now I'm in Arizona, with only another 3,000 miles to go before I reach home. It's a beautiful but very tough place, with a people and a history to match. The United States Army fought Native American tribes like the Apache and the Navajo for sovereignty of this state right up till 1918. I just keep waiting to see Indians. A big line of Indians... ..the way you used to see them in the movies, standing still with just the feathers waving in the wind in their hair. ROCK MUSIC I'm from Glasgow. I've got an affinity with the Indians. (DRUM BEATING) # CHOKER: Honeyblood We used to cheer the Indians and boo the cowboys. Arizona has the largest population of Native Americans in the States. These are the 1% that you never hear about. The 1% that had all the land and then had it taken away. If you don't know about the Trail of Tears, look it up, but be warned, this tale of mass genocide and moving a nation to a hostile desert, it doesn't make for pleasant reading. But despite everything that's happened, they still hold on to their culture. When you see a pow-wow, tribes united, dancing and singing as they have done for hundreds, maybe thousands of years, you know in your bones that when everyone else has gone to the moon, they'll just walk out of the reservations and continue their song of life as if the last 200 years had never happened. # CHOKER: Honeyblood I think they're beautiful people. It was very obvious to me, when I was a boy, that they had been cheated and robbed. Today, Arizona is still far from peaceful. Drug wars, poverty, and unspeakable violence south of the border in Mexico has created a supposed biblical exodus into the US. In the last ten years, 7 million immigrants have been arrested trying to cross this border. Everyone, not least the politicians, are panicking, and now they've built a 15ft-high steel fence across 362 miles of border. What was paradise is now a militarised zone... ..and I've come to meet the men and women on the front line of it all, the US Border Patrol. PILOT: Ah, OK, here we go. There are some maxims in life that always work. Songs with cowbells rock... Roger. Clear for take-off. ..never make eye contact while eating a banana, and when travelling in a helicopter... ..always take the doors off. The numbers involved in patrolling the US-Mexican border are staggering. In ten years, the government has spent $90 billion on helicopters, drones, robots, radar and 23,000 agents. We're just outside Tucson with the Border Patrol. We've arrived in a Black Hawk helicopter, a bit spectacularly, and now this is the other end of the scale, the horses. Hello, Bobbie. Hi, how are you today, sir? How do you do? Nice to meet you. It's lovely to be here. In this wonderful Arizona heat? Oh, yeah. Well, I can't get enough, I'm Scottish. It's the last thing you expect to find amongst all the high-tech gadgetry, a bunch of modern-day cowboys on some horses, but these guys are the front line of the Border Patrol. So, what do you do with horses that drones and stuff can't do? We work in a lot of real mountainous, rugged terrain. They can tell us what's down on the ground, but the drones can't go in and get them, so they can see over here, they get the big picture, and then the horses come in and they are the ground assets, to make the apprehensions. They're remarkable animals, these horses. Caught in the wild, they are then trained by prison inmates to work in law enforcement... ..and once they are paired with an officer, it's for life, like an arranged marriage that works. Just being a wild animal, they've better senses, they can see and hear stuff we can't. We ended up getting a dope load. The horse told me the dope was there probably about a half-hour, an hour before we've even seen the bodies. Really? His ears will come up hard like that, he'll lock up, his head will come up, and you can feel his body change through the saddle, and you know there is something around there that you need to start paying attention to. So, what's your main function here? Is it to catch drug-smugglers or illegal immigrants? Both. Both. There is a lot of talk about who's crossing the border. Some claim it's drug-smugglers and rapists, and others say it's just people trying to achieve a better life. The one thing no-one can refute, however, is that 4,000 people have died trying to cross this stretch of land in the last five years. It's a sad irony that the very people the immigrants are trying to avoid are often the ones who end up saving their lives. How do you guys feel about the people you round up? Do you have respect for them? Most of us do. All of us, I think, treat them with respect, and most of us respect them. It's a job, and, I mean, they're still breaking the law, you know, all we're doing is enforcing the law, and there's really not a lot of feeling in it. We're just doing our jobs. Yeah, I understand. # BING CROSBY: Don't Fence Me In Some are calling the steel barrier that runs along the border... ..the Great Wall of America... ..but I don't see what's so great about it. This is a nation built on migrant dreams, and to stop those would be to break the very thing that keeps this land a beacon of hope to so many in need of it around the world. (GUITAR STRUMMING) # Welcome to my home # No fear of pneumonia # This is paradise. It's Tucson, Arizona # Hawaii's got surfin' # We got cactus # LA's got Hollywood # We got cactus # New York's got night life # We got cactus # Florida's got beaches # And we got cactus # We got cactus # And lots of it to stab your butt on. But cacti aren't the only phallic-shaped weapons to be found in Tucson. Beneath all this desert dust is America's Cold War secret... ..a biblical weapon of mass destruction. This is the Titan Missile II. Primed with its warhead, it was 650 times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb. Now it's a museum. That's right, a museum, open to the public every day except Christmas between the hours of 8:45 and 5:00pm... ..and I'm here to meet the former Missile Commander Yvonne Morris, the woman with her finger on the trigger of World War III throughout the paranoid '80s Reagan administration. Well, Yvonne, you were in charge here, for four years, of the Mutually Assured Destruction programme, weren't you? Yes, 23 years old, finger on the key. It's uh, maddening to think about it now. It's maddening for me to think it was a key. I wish it was a button. Well, you know, everybody does. Everybody always thinks it's a button. I wanted it to be a big game show button. Right, it should be, don't you think? Oh, yes. But instead, the blank for this key is a vending machine key. So, you know, irony all the way round. That acronym MAD, it was applicable to everything about the Cold War. I mean, imagine living down here for months at time, your every move monitored by closed-circuit TV, able to trust no-one. In a place where it took a Yale key to unlock Armageddon, paranoia ran rife to the extent that Yvonne and colleagues were not allowed to undergo surgery for fear they would blurt out secrets under anaesthetic. Did you ever have a false alarm? A couple of times the former Soviet Union neglected to tell us that they were testing one of their launch systems, and so our early warning system detected a launch. (ALARM RINGS) (SIREN WAILS) Everybody is, kind of, holding their breath, until they see if it turns the direction towards the test range, or if turns the direction and keeps coming to the United States. Fortunately, it was always the test. (PEOPLE CHEER) Here's something to think about. After one call from an ex-B-movie actor in the White House, it would have taken just 58 seconds to launch this thing, followed by 30 minutes for it to land, and then the world would have been changed forever, all in less time than it took to watch an episode of The A-Team. Was there ever a little part of you that wanted to do that? (EXHALES) There is a big part of me... You can tell me. I swear I won't tell anyone. OK. All right, between you and me. There's a little part of me that never, ever, ever wanted to do this, and wanted to run screaming from the room, but there is a very big part of me that is pretty sure that I could have done it if I'd had to. I mean, my family lives 100 miles south of Washington, DC. By the time I got a launch order, my family is gone. Life as I know is over. For me, that was a lot of motivation. Payback is absolutely necessary in that instance. That's kinda weird. You're like the Omega Man. I don't know if I could do that kind of thing. Well, the whole reason that I could come to work every day is because it wasn't my mission to launch the missile. We were part of a big machine that's projecting a credible threat, that says to the former Soviet Union, 'Listen, we've got the biggest, baddest missiles on the block. 'Even if you launch against us first, 'we are going to come back at you 'so hard that you're not gonna survive it either, 'and so you don't want to take us on.' That was my job, peace through deterrence. That's how... You do it well, because I completely believe you. Well, you know, I completely believed it at the time, and I think I still believe in it today. (EXPLOSION) So, you slept OK? Yeah, I slept well. I slept better then than I do now sometimes, really. You know, I mean, we knew who the enemy was. Today, that's... It's not as clear-cut. No, and bombs aren't gonna get rid of the new enemies. No, the new enemy can't be deterred with the threat of annihilation. I'm always astounded when I meet people like Yvonne, who have this incredibly important position, like, the future of the western world in her hands when she goes to work in the morning. They come over so ordinary. I mean that in the nicest possible way. They come over like ordinary human beings. I think I expect the devil with fiery horns when I meet them and it never is the case, and it's always astounded me. Like, the men who make landmines drop their children off at school first, and then go and make this nightmarish object, and they, kind of, rectify it in their own minds by saying, 'That's bad guys I'm killing.' And it always leaves me in a total quandary where should I be grateful for the protection there for me... ..or should I be horrified that they're doing it in my name? I think I'll be puzzled for the rest of my life. MAN: Did you do the CND marches or anything like that? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I went to get women. (LAUGHING) Most of the decisions I've made in my life were for that reason. I made a mistake with the banjo. You know, nobody's shagging the banjo player. It's one of those lines you'll never hear, 'She's sleeping with the banjo player.' (LAUGHS) 1 JAUNTY LOUNGE MUSIC We're in Texas, the Lone Star State, skimming through the remnants of what was once the Wild West. Nothing seems permanent around here. There's a lot of barely-towns, places you feel are about to be swallowed up by the rocks and dust any moment... ..and it's vast. So big it has two separate time zones and a lot of guns - 22 million of them, to be exact, which is ironic, considering the state motto is "Friendship". El Paso, the cowboy boot capital of the world, and just round the corner from the surprisingly grand station is a place very close to my feet. Two things say Texas louder than anything else. One's a Stetson, the other is cowboy boots. I don't have a Stetson because of something Keith Richards said to me years ago, but I'm not telling you what it is. I do have cowboy boots. These are my favourites. Now, they were made here at Rocketbuster in El Paso, so like a salmon going up the river it was born in, I've brought them home. Hello. I'm Nevena. Wow, those are looking great. They still feel good? Oh, yeah. Soft? Oh, yeah, they're lovely. Rocketbuster Boots represents everything that's brilliant about Americans. To take something iconic, rip up the rules and build it into a star-spangled 15-gun salute to the working classes... Chinese dragons that wrap all the way around. ..all with an $8,000 price tag. For foot aficionados, coming here is akin to walking into Rembrandt's studio. 100 leather masterpieces, each one of a kind. I can't take my eyes off that guitar. That's Eddie Cochran's guitar... That's Eddie Cochran's? Uh, yeah, it's his Gretsch, acoustic electric with music from Summertime Blues, and then the other boot is Buddy Holly's Strat with music from Rip It Up. That's... Oh, it's a Buddy Holly? Oh, my God. Yeah. So, this is... 'It's Saturday night and I just got paid.' (LAUGHS) Let me see that one. Lady Luck. This one? Oh, my God, it's a bit like tattoos. (LAUGHING) Yeah, exactly! Nevena has assembled a disparate crew of artisans to create these boots. Customers from all over the world send in their ideas and designs... Oh, look at these. She had me add her dog who just passed away. ..and then over the course of 12 weeks, their bipedal dreams come true. Big thing about cowboy boots is the stitches per inch. Over here, Raoul's stitching. Just look, he never misses. And Raoul probably stitched your skeleton boots. Really? Your Day of the Dead boots, because he's been here longer than anybody, right, Raoul? Yes. You've been at Rocketbuster forever. Uh-huh. He's like the... 30 years. Yeah. Hello, Raoul. Hi. Nice to meet you. Oh, and this is my office, and my customers send me pictures of them as children. So even all the way from Japan, they got pregnant, then they got their son boots, and now he is growing up, and now they've bought a ranch house in Osaka. (CHUCKLES) Oh, God. Pretty cool, huh? Pretty rich, I would imagine. It's a treat coming here, and everyone's love and enthusiasm for what they do is really infectious. I wanted to make a pair of boots that looked like blue jeans... Oh. (LAUGHS) ..but see, they're all working pockets. They're gonna look really good once we just... Beat them up a little? They've got to be really beat up. It's great somebody is still doing that traditional work. Well, that's why I try to teach people, because if everything keeps going to the Orient and these giant factories, then you're going to lose the hand art that's traditional. Absolutely. So, you know, like, Deedee is a sculptor, and Elena is a graffiti artist/architecture student, and, you know, I need a sushi chef to learn to cut leather. Knife skills are knife skills, right? Thanks for making my lovely boots. Oh, my pleasure! I shall treasure them always. (THUNDER RUMBLES) # MARTY ROBBINS: El Paso The story of El Paso is in fact a tale of two cities. You'll know the phrase "the wrong side of the tracks". Well, the train line that brings you here are those very tracks. On the opposite side of this fence, to the south of the Rio Grande, is Juarez, for three years in a row the murder capital of the world. El Paso, on the other hand, is the safest city in America, and the only thing that divides them is this fence. Yet both feed each other. El Paso provides a finance and in return receives the best of Juarez's rich and vibrant culture. I'm in El Paso under an underpasso... ..waiting for a wrestler. But not any old wrestler, a Lucha Libre wrestler... (CROWD GASP) ..you know, the stuff with the mask and the pants. But before you scoff, know this: after football, Lucha Libre is the biggest sport in Mexico, and I'm going to meet Cassandro. He's an exotico, apparently. Oh, my God, here he comes. Hello! Cassandro. How are you? No need to strip. Oh, just wanted to look good for you. How lovely to meet you. What a privilege. That's extraordinary. Just to explain to the people who will be watching this, what is an exotico? An exotico is a flamboyant wrestler. Way back in the days, it was somebody who just played the gimmick of being gay, but since I came around, since 1987, I am what you see. I am really gay. We brought the make-up, the panty-hose, the bathing suits, and we just glamorised. Your courage is extraordinary... Thank you. ..to stand up as a gay man in that world. It's a macho sport. Yeah. Imagine coming from a macho culture and then to a macho sport. I went through a lot of rejection and discrimination back when I started... I should imagine. ..but that didn't define me, that defined them, and look at me now. Lucha Libre is integral to El Paso. This is where the sport originated back in 1929, and it's never been more popular than it is now. Every night you hear it, the El Paso beat - the sound of hundreds of aspiring Lucha Libre wrestlers crashing to the canvas. And as a teacher, Cassandro is regarded in awe... ..but success has come at a price. I love it. The fans keep me going. After all my four surgeries... What, for injuries? I've four surgeries in my knees, and then I had a fracture, I had eight pins in there, but now my hands are giving up because of all my cervical damage... ..and then I bought my teeth, like, three times already because they've been knocked out. Really? And everybody thinks it's a kind of phoney sport. Ah! I wish. I would have been a millionaire. (LAUGHS) I would let anybody beat me up. Most sports can inspire passion, but the commitment and larger-than-life roles the likes of Cassandro and his colleagues play can take the passion to the point of craziness. I've been attacked by women. They think I'm beating up on their boyfriends, husbands, lovers or whatever, and they just can't handle me. I read in a thing that a woman stabbed you? Yeah, she started screaming at me all this bad words, and I turned around, I said, 'Lady, stop it, you're gonna get a heart attack.' And she's like, (MIMICS BABBLING) and then I went, 'Calm down, calm down.' And she got those, you know, those nail clippers? Yeah. And she just stabbed me right in my stomach. My God... And I was like, 'Oh, no, you didn't!' (LAUGHS) Did you? Oh, hell, yeah. Popped her once. (MAN GROANS) (SPEAKS SPANISH) How did your family accept this change? (SIGHS) My father never wanted anything to do with me until, like, six years ago, we started talking, and I told him, like, 'I blamed you for everything and I forgive you for nothing cos you didn't know any better. You didn't know how to deal with me, you never loved me, you never asked me how I was doing in school.' It's that macho thing. But now he's my best friend, he's the last person I call when I leave, and the first person I call when I come back. Is he proud of your success? I just found out that he has followed me throughout my life... Oh. ..even though he has never seen me live, because he says, 'I can't take it, I wouldn't be able to see somebody beating you up.' I think I'm in the last lap of my career. Yeah? I seriously think I can't handle no more than three years of wrestling, no more. How old are you now? 45. Really? I'm 45. You look amazing. Thank you. Well, I'm deeply impressed by you, Cassandro. Thank you, sir. Give us another cuddle. Thank you. Thank you so much. And there you have it in one beautiful, sparkly, coiffed package - all that is right about America, a place where a gay Mexican wrestler can become a loved world champion. In the end, it's all about perspective. You either look at all that space and root yourself to the spot, or you open your arms, catch a train, and hurtle towards the future. I know what I choose.