Devil Highway Essay

In the reading land of open graves by De Leon, discusses the dangers that millions of Mexican and central Americans face when trying to get into the United States undocumented. These people include people who have the dream of living in America and creating a new life where they can support their families. Also for those who have been deported back to Mexico being separated from their families and are in hopes of being reunited with their loved ones. These people face a hard battle ahead of them because they have to travel through the Sonoran desert of Arizona that is one of the largest deserts in North America. And have to deal with not only fighting the harsh desert elements, while only caring as many supplies as they can. They also have to deal with the structural violence that goes under looked that thousands of Mexicans have to face while migrating to the United States.

Walls and Mirrors: Mexican Americans, Mexican Immigrants, and the Politics of Ethnicity. By David G Gutiérrez. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995).

apprehend lawbreakers, it was equally their duty to save the lost and the dying” (Urrea 18). The Border Patrol is the antagonist for the immigrants because when they get caught they send them back to where they came from. “Now they had a choice. Cross the road and stagger along the front range of the mountains, or stay on the road and hope the border patrol would find them” (Urrea 14). Throughout the story some Mexicans were wishing to get caught by the border patrol yes their enemy.

Enrique’s journey from Honduras to the U.S. unveils the innate loyalty of a loving child to their mother and presents the dangers that a migrant faces on the road with consistent angst; nevertheless, it supports the idea that compassion shown by some strangers can boost the retreating confidence within a person. In Sonia Nazario’s “Enrique’s Journey,” he seeks the beacon of light that all migrants hope to encounter; “El Norte.” Like many children before him, it is the answer to the problems of a hard life. While being hunted down “like animals” leading to “seven futile attempts,” he is

(E) The motif of the entire novel revolves around fire. Fire is used as a literal object as well as a

Mario García’s study of this era could also be considered prophetic to many Mexicans in the mid-nineties as the North American Free Trade Agreement was signed, it sank México’s economy, lands that the Mexican revolution had provided for farmers were gone, and as México was now obliged with treaty to buy produce from the United States. Mexican farmers unable to compete fled México once again in search for a better life to the United States.

In her book, Labor and Legality: An Ethnography of a Mexican Immigrant Network, Ruth Gomberg-Muñoz describes the lives of ten busboys, she referrs to as the Lions, living and working in the Chicago area. Gomberg-Muñoz provides an insight into the lives of these undocumented Mexican workers. They share their stories of crossing the border, the affects of their absence on family back in Mexico, and the daily struggles of living in a country without the benefits of citizenship. The Lions, as well as other undocumented Mexicans, have to face Americans stereotypes every day. Probably the biggest stereotype the Lions contend with is the belief that all Mexicans are hard workers.

Why do you think McCarthy has chosen not to give his characters names? How do the generic labels of “the man” and “the boy” affect the way you /readers relate to them?

The Land of Open Graves was a dynamic piece that followed stories of the Mexican-American Border land through a series of anthology-like stories. What made chapters 1 -5 so impactful were the ways in which the stories were conveyed. The author began with a tale of people scouring the desert for undocumented, human remains. Then there was a fictitious journal that mimicked the reality of four migrant workers. Other entries included an explanation of death in the desert, the following of humor in migrant workers and life in the deported role. Although all of these different stories seem divergent, they have central theme that the author draws on throughout the first 100 pages – the unparalleled hostility and negligence perpetrated by the government. The author is adamant about the idea of “Prevention Through Deterrence” and the harsh reality about the border and the way the United States treat those who cross the border. I would like to explain my reaction to each of the chapters below.

Crossing the border is a horrible experience. Unlike the 1930’s when migrant workers could carry some things, the immigrant has to carry light because at times they have to cross the Rio Grande and must be able to float (wnd). Other ways of crossing the border include riding on top of cargo trains. Crossing the border is not a safe feat neither, in certain parts up to 134 illegal immigrants die each year as they are trying to cross (National Geographic). The immigrants also have live through the animals, the heat, and the border patrol and immigration officers. As a result of increased border patrol, crossing the border has progressively become more difficult to do and has resulted in the decrease of number of immigrants. But how do the immigrants not get lost? The crossing of the border has become somewhat of a business and there are now crossing helpers known as “coyotes” that lead groups of immigrants; sometimes in these groups are young children that have their parents in the United States already (García). Coyotes charge up to $2000 and more for their services; at times they get lost and even lose people (Dougherty). The migrant workers of the 1930’s had a route to reach their destination; it was Route 66 (Steinbeck). The immigrants of the 21st century have no routes and follow landmarks such as mountains and even cactuses (National Geographic). Sometimes immigrants are not always certain of where they are in some cases and use roads to let

The Devil's Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea is undeniably a book that is absolutely worth reading. It recounts a nightmarish tale through a desperate landscape and the tales of struggle of 26 real men who risked everything in search of a better life. The Devil's Highway is a real geographic destination; it refers to the Arizona desert on the Mexican border. Some assert that in order to survive this particular region, one would need two gallons of water per day, as the temperatures can be higher than 100 degrees. In fact, some say the Devil's Highway is so hot that dead bodies naturally mummify when left by the side of the road (8m.com). This demonstrates one of the main reasons that the book is so worthwhile to read: it tells the story of human survival against a hostile environment. In many ways this has been the fundamental story of human beings from the beginning. Human beings have continually fought to overcome adverse or difficult environments as an aspect of human survival. Nature and the elements even if nature manifests simply by an inhospitable temperature can be one of the most formidable threats to a human being because human beings cannot control nature; they can only react to it as best as they can. Thus, one can easily argue that people will never tire of reading this story because of its dominance to the human condition.

Urrea explores the “Devil’s Highway” through the lens of the cops and his vision, which are both gruesome and informative. The Border Patrol sectors are divided into two regions, Tucson and Yuma. These regions are called the “Devil’s Highway” due to the deaths of many illegal immigrants who attempted to cross the borders. Urrea describes one scene that illustrates the horrid deaths of the women and children who died while trying to cross the border. He writes, “All the agents seem to agree that the worst deaths are the young women and the children. Pregnant women with dying fetuses within them are not uncommon; young mothers have been found dead with infants attached to their breasts, still trying to nurse” (Urrea

To the uninitiated, the writing of Flannery O'Connor can seem at once cold and dispassionate, as well as almost absurdly stark and violent. Her short stories routinely end in horrendous, freak fatalities or, at the very least, a character's emotional devastation. Working his way through "Greenleaf," "Everything that Rises Must Converge," or "A Good Man is Hard to Find," the new reader feels an existential hollowness reminiscent of Camus' The Stranger; O'Connor's imagination appears a barren, godless plane of meaninglessness, punctuated by pockets of random, mindless cruelty.

An individual’s discovery is transformative on their perceptions of the world. This is the case for the book ‘The Motorcycle Diaries’ by Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara and Keats’s sonnet “On first looking into Chapman’s Homer”. In this book, we are taken on Che’s journey as he travels Latin America as a young man, before the fame. His diary entries lead the reader into his own eyes, as a typical young man on an adventure, not the revolutionary figure we all associate him with. Through his descriptive entries of the landscape he journeys across, we discover his deeper connection to the land of South America and the love he has for its people. As well as the beautiful things that South America has to

Author Anthony Di Renzo notes the effectiveness of O’Connor’s use of thematic revelation.Rather than opposing one another, good and evil instead exist as “equally odd, equally absurd, and equally shocking” (122).The good and evil ironically converge to relay the message of grace, common throughout her works. O’Connor wanted her stories “to reach the unbelieving reader,” and the shocking aspect of the grotesque was the most effective way to reach him/her (Hawkins 28-29).