Book Review:

The Devil's Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea

I read this book a month or so ago - throughout the entire book, I could barely put it down because I wanted to know what would happen next.

The book tells the story of the Yuma 14, as the group of men who died are referred to, and how their deaths came to be. The group started out with 26 men (Wellton 26) who were trying to cross the border through the Sonoran Desert in Arizona. Some were crossing to emigrate for good, some were just planning to work the summer then bring the money home to rebuild housing, etc...
Due to some careless and inexperienced Coyotes (the men/boys who are paid big bucks to lead/traffick crossers over the border), the group was led astray and eventually got lost. They spent days in the desert heat, well into the 100's, without food or water. Luis recounts truthful facts about the men's trip through the desert as well as vivid accounts of how things most likely felt and happened - this was done because so many of the men died that the stories had to be pieced together to paint a picture for the reader to visualize the conditions or scenerios a border crosser faces.

Myself? I put myself into those men's shoes and could imagine why they wanted to cross, how they were feeling when they left home, how painful the journey was (I had heat stroke in New Mexico about 10 years ago) and how scared and upset they must have been.

After reading The Devil's Highway, I do feel a new respect for those that do make the trek over the border (for legitimate reasons, not drug trafficking). If for no other reason, because they MADE IT and made it ALIVE. I get that border politics are messy and I would rather not get into what's right or wrong - I just want to recognize that if most Americans grew up in the conditions that some border crossers did or do, those same Americans would probably do the same thing.