“Books are the carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill.

                    Barbara W. Tuchman (American Historian and Author, 1912-1989)

The Devil’s Highway

By

Luis Alberto Urrea

“The Devil’s Highway” by Luis Alberto Urrea is the true story of 26 Mexicans crossing the United States border in Arizona illegally. This happened in 2001 and 14 of the 26 died during the attempt.

In the late 1990’s the border patrol clamped down on illegal immigration in Arizona, California and Texas. The migratory traffic was funneled to much more remote areas; one of these areas is the “Cabeza Preta National Wildlife Refuge” in Arizona. Within the refuge is what is known as “The Devil’s Highway”, a desolate route that has been claiming lives since the 1500’s. The refuge is almost 900,000 acres (about 1,406 square miles) and is composed of desert, mountains and 110+ degree temperatures. The most common cause of death is to be “cooked” by the extreme heat.

Mexicans yearning for a better life or, simply the wish to earn enough money to house their families (and many other reasons) are recruited by organized crime, charged money, loaned money and put together with “coyotes” who are supposed to guide them across the border. The coyotes are other Mexicans in search of a better living who will guide migrants across the border for so much per head. In organized crime hierarchies, coyotes are sort of “middle management”.

That’s the plan; however, it doesn’t always work out.

Mr. Urrea tells this story through the eyes of the migrants, coyotes and the border patrol. He does this with an amazing ability to relate the events graphically without demonstrating a political bias (an amazing feat considering the sensitivity of the issue and his Mexican heritage), however, does demonstrate the broken immigration systems on both sides of the border despite the best intentions of those migrants and the border patrol.

Mr. Urrea also explains the economic impacts (bottom line) to Arizona and Mexico from “illegal aliens”. Arizona profits approximately $8 billion annually from these migrants, while Mexico profits approximately $5.5 billion annually. Please note, that is just for the State of Arizona. Interesting. Mr. Urrea provides the breakdown.

Whatever your views may be of this salient issue, it will be hard for you or your views not to be affected or reinforced by this book. Mr. Urrea’s own views may be determined by the dedication of this fine book, “For the dead, and for those who rescue the living”.