The Devil's Highway

I will mostly focus on my experience reading this book in this review as it is my wish that any eyes reading this go read The Devil’s Highway for themselves. I usually read horror, and little nonfiction and literature, but recently this has begun to change with each new book I try that I wouldn’t have picked up otherwise— this one takes the cake, it feels like a damn broke after reading it. I want to learn more. I want to read more of this author’s work. I just keep saying “I just read the most brutal thing ever in my entire life”. And it will make you angry and it will make you want change, if you let it.The author has an extensive knowledge due to his research on the region, of the border patrol offices, of the geographic, of certain statistics but… The Devil’s Highway is such a detailed account of what it’s like to die slowly in the desert and what that must’ve been like for the people who went through it that there were portions of it that made me physically afraid, I started reading it by myself and then I had some friends over and I was like “you have to listen to this”. I have the kindle version, the physical copy, and the audio book version. The audio book was played— my friends were alright starting in the middle— and a fun hang out night turned into an intense reading session. as the author read aloud what he had painstakingly researched about this event where around 30 people had died trying to cross the border (they had gotten lost on the US side of the desert), it was like we all became mesmerized by the immensity of it’s torture and senseless tragedy. my friend borrowed the physical copy I had and started reading ahead. My twin was listening with me until it was 1 AM. It was like a train wreck, we couldn’t look away. They both told me that when they got to the part that described the stages of heat stroke they said the writing was such that they themselves felt as if *they* were about to die. I felt the exact same way. I got weird phantom pains and my heart raced as I read it. Absolutely tragic and brutal stuff. Feels like my brain chemistry has been altered.—There were moments where the author chose to describe the dying moments with surrealism, mirroring the confusion and pain that must’ve been feltThis book will open your mind to their sheer stupidly of two governments, of ignorant people in power, of the brainlessness of strict, uncreative and unproductive border patrol policies.Brace yourself.

Engrossing story. Sheds a lot of light on the problems at the Mexican border

I received a red paperback version instead of the blue version shown in the photo, but it doesn't matter. It's the same book. It was published in 2004, and has approximately 200 pages, not counting the "Afterward", the "Acknowledgement", and the index. There are 16 chapters divided into four parts (Part 1, Part 2, etc).Written in the first person, it's a true story about a group of men who try to cross the border from Mexico to Arizona. Their so-called "guide" is known as a coyote, and he's supposed to help them get across. His real name is Jesús Lopez Ramos, but he has given himself the code name Mendez, in honor of his girlfriend, Celia Mendez.To the Border Patrol, Mendez is known as "Rooster Boy", because he has a punk-rock hairstyle with a bunch of red-dyed hair hanging in front of his eyes.Each chapter tells a little more about Mendez, the men in his group, the TERRIBLE climate and desert conditions of Sonoita and Yuma and Ajo and the Sonoran Desert, the men's deteriorating physical and mental condition, the Border Patrol and their daily activities and the conditions under which they work and the special terminology they use, miscellaneous bad situations that they have encountered, how the coyotes operate, and other interesting information.Here are a few random facts, quotes, and descriptions from the book -1) "Drags" are desert roads created when bundles of tires are dragged by trucks driving in an east-west direction (coyotes and their groups usually head north).2) The Border Patrol is also called by the slang term "La Migra". They have a unit called BORSTAR, which stands for Border Patrol Search, Trauma, and Rescue.3) Sign-cutters and Shadow Wolves (Native American sign-cutters) are trained to "cut sign". A sign-cutter is an expert at reading the tracks, trails, and clues that people leave behind when they're walking.4) At the end of the book, Mendez and the few survivors are all picked up in Arizona by the Border Patrol. They're all sent to the same hospital, where they're all guarded by the Patrol, but for different reasons. Mendez is finished; he has no future. The Patrol guards his hospital bed because he is a criminal; his greed, negligence, and stupidity have resulted in many deaths. The other men, the survivors, are watched because the Patrol wants to ask them many questions about Mendez. Therefore, although the survivors are not actually given official permission to stay in the USA, the American and Mexican governments kind of turn their back on the fact that the men are there, because after all, the men are supplying very valuable information.5) "Today Mendez sits in a cell in the big prison in Safford, Arizona. He has no visitors. He doesn't answer letters." (p.211)6) "Temperatures soared well over the hundred mark. When the [Dept. of Public Safety] tow truck finally arrived, the crew noted the stench. They pried the trunk open. Two young men lay within. They were twenty-one and sixteen years old. The police reported there was evidence of movement before the young men baked to death." (p.210)7) "The temperature screamed into the nineties before nine o'clock...Their mouths were as dry as the soles of their feet. Their tongues were hard and dense and could not bend. They sucked and sucked at the insides of their mouths, but they couldn't raise any spit." (pp. 157-158).8) Coyotes have a special word for people who try to cross the desert. They call these people "pollos", for "chicken". However, the author explains the importance of the word: in Spanish, "chicken" is "gallina", but a COOKED chicken is "pollo"!!This is a very hard book to put down. At the end of the book, there is a list of other books on the topics of illegal immigration, the Border Patrol, etc. I can't wait to read them.

Upon recommendation- I bought a copy of The Devil's Highway several years ago in Tucson, during a blistering hot afternoon on July 31st. The next morning at 6am, I was scheduled to begin my first day (of eight in a row), physically working/volunteering until sundown, with a humanitarian organization along the AZ/MX Sonoran desert border, from Nogales to Sasabe and all the way to Lukesville (sometimes even further west).I knew what I'd signed up for by volunteeringwith this organization. The grueling nature of the work required, the dangers/hazards of the hilly desert terrain of Sonora, the brutally oppressive heat, animals/reptiles/insects/Cactus, the potential sand storms or monsoon downpours, plus the "unknown" people or situations we may encounter along the way. I was both excited and increasingly anxious.But after reading The Devil's Highway that evening (in one sitting) - the author's brilliant, vivid, honest and matter-of-fact writing, reminded me both WHY this type of work is so important & that the immigrants who endeavor to cross this unforgiving land; suffer FAR worse than anything I could ever personally imagine. The author's words, the stories of bravery, pain, despair, sadness in some cases leading to their ultimate demise, rang in my ears the next day while working in the brutal Sonoran desert. Those same words & stories of bravery continued to ring loudly during all the remaining days that followed on that trip and on all of my subsequent, annual, late summer volunteering trips to the AZ/MX Sonoran border. It is now a part of me too.This absolutely brilliant & beautiful book, about a such a terrifying and tragic subject; has made more of a personal impact on me, than any other book that I've ever read. I highly recommend The Devil's Highway to literally anyone and I thank the author for his astonishing work.

The Devil's Highway should be a must-read for North Americans of every political persuasion. Urrea is a vivid, even poetic writer who brings his skill as a storyteller to the brutal facts of an incident in the dessert, examining all angles with unbiased eyes. The reader will only lay it down to come up for air.