The Devils Highway

The Devils Highway, More than Just a Name.
The Devil’s Highway, by Luis Alberto Urrea, New York: Little, Brown, 2004. 220 Pages. Reviewed by Patricia Castillo. Luis Alberto Urrea is the recipient of a Lannan Literary Award, an American Book Award, a Western State Award, and a Colorado Book Award. He has received the Latino Literary Library Wall of Fame for this book and was one of the finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction.
The book, The Devils Highway, gave me a very different perspective of what undocumented people coming from México have to go through and the struggles and barriers they face. Even though I had an idea of how and what undocumented people have to go through, after reading this book; Urrea, opened my eyes when

he goes into detail and describes the impact of these groups and their experiences through the desert and at when they are trying to cross over to the United States.

The Devils Highway it is not just a name of a book to get the attention of the reader into the book; but moreover, it is a very widespread desert in southern part of Arizona which is also known as El Desierto de Sonora, one of most dry, dangerous, and deceive areas in the United States and part of Mexico. El Desierto de Sonora is the most hazardous desert on the entire continent in which not a lot of people would go through; therefore, the very few people who challenge themselves and do make it alive have to go through some harsh condition. This desert has taken so many live away that our law enforcement has to think twice before they perform their patrol. The Devils Highway book centers the attention on an undocumented group of Mexican Immigrants who struggled in their journey to

the other side of border through the desert of Sonora or the Devil’s Highway on May of 200. In this book Urrea begins by telling the traumatic conditions of how the group of twenty-six illegal Mexicans was founded; however, the count was something unexpected, fourteen men dies in inhumane conditions and the twelve men that made it out alive had traumatic signs dehydration and due to this conditions it was hard, almost impossible to survive.
Throughout the book Urrea supports his thesis by elaborating and explaining in fine detail, by providing his reader with sets of examples that support his findings. For instance he mentions immigration and the vast numbers of people who migrate to the U.S, in hopes to find the “American dream.” Immigration has seemed to be a broad issue, where not everyone can agree too. The government has done their best to set up systems that will prevent people coming through the boarders that divide Mexico and the U.S. Some of the most common grounds of immigration are said to be through the walls of San Diego California and El Paso, Texas, these are places in which border patrols have higher monitoring systems in order to keep people from coming in. Due to these measures, this leaves people with no other choice than to take drastic measures and take a route that is said to be dangerous: The devil’s highway. Urrea mentions in the book that “No matter where they entered, they had only to step over a drooping bit of wire fence, or across an invisible line in the dust…Along the Devil’s Highway near Tinajas Altas, there is nothing but a dry creek bed and a small sign telling walker: ya’ll better stay out or else we’ll be, like, really bummed!…At best, the signs imply, in bad Spanish: TO USE IS PROHIBITED!” (Page56-57). It can be understandable that the whole reasoning behind having border patrols or as Urrea refers to as “la migra” is to protect the borders from people immigrating into the states, although this is not a crime but it is against the law.
Although I can disagree with border patrols preventing people coming into the U.S only in hopes to find the American dream I admire their state of wellbeing by contributing to the elimination of deaths that occur “if it was the Border Patrol’s job to apprehend lawbreakers, it was equally their duty to save the lost and dying” (Page 18) in places such as the devils high way where millions of people have said to have died.

For many of these border patrol officers the people in hopes for a better living who try and cross the borders are nonetheless but enemies. Many of the people who are said to help these immigrants cross the border who are referred to as “coyotes” only want the money and simply do not care about the life of these immigrants or if their life is in danger. There have been numerous of cases where Urrea explains that there have been findings of “toxic materials appear in jugs that look like drinking water. Humane Borders’ water stations are vandalized, the three-hundred-gallon tanks broken open so they run dry. Small groups of Mexicans are found tied and shot in the head” (Page 214). This book goes in great depth and truly gives the reader a clear understanding on what an undocumented immigrant goes through, although this is something we can only imagine but will never know what they actually go through as it is something one has to personally experience it in order to truly

understand.
I would recommend this book to others, but most importantly refer this to other classes. I feel as college students it is important to understand realm issues that occur pertaining to our country, as it is important to be knowledgeable in all aspects to help understand the world better. This book will help students understand immigrants and the struggles they endure, educating them with new perspectives all in which will help when elections come around to really identify who it is we want representing our country when it comes to foreign political debates. We have to understand that most immigrants are not here to exploit this country; we always gave back in one way or another. We seek for better opportunities not just for ourselves but for our children.