The Devil's Highway: A True Story

Author: Luis Alberto Urrea

Rating: ⭐ 4/5

Date Read: 2013/04/12

Pages: 239

A beautifully written book about an ugly event, the Devil’s Highway chronicles the deaths of 14 men as they attempt to cross the desert from Mexico to Arizona. That they had been attempting to cross illegally should not take away from the magnitude of this tragedy.

Many people have their own view on immigration. I’m in favor of providing more routes to citizenship for Mexican immigrants, mostly to keep people (regardless of country of origin) from being exploited. It’s entirely possible for people to make it across the border, only to become slaves on Florida tomato farms (as outlined in [b:Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit|10222093|Tomatoland How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit|Barry Estabrook|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347474148s/10222093.jpg|15121820]). Citizenship means slaves wouldn’t be terrified to report their conditions to the authorities. Higher wages for undocumented workers also means that wages for Americans aren’t artificially depressed. Maybe prices for goods increase, but Americans buy too much stuff anyway. And don’t forget that Mexicans are also affected by American jobs moving to China.

I get the feeling that Urrea feels similarly, although he’s not quite so outspoken about it (at least, not until the end). He presents a fair look at all involved: the would-be immigrants are portrayed sympathetically, and so are the border patrol agents. The coyotes won’t win any humanitarian awards, but Urrea remains fairly agnostic as to whether the guías who guided the Yuma 14 through the desert deserve all the blame. Urrea also realizes that the problem is systemic, and there’s not easy solution. Eso si que es, but maybe we can begin to make things better by understanding the human cost involved.