The Devil's Highway: A True Story,   ISBN:9780316010801

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Ahhh, such a good book!!! Full disclosure though, in my work I serve low income clients, a large percentage of whom are immigrants and refugees. This of course includes people who crossed the Southern Border illegally. Now when one of my clients exclaims, "I almost died when I crossed the border," I have a much clearer understanding of what he/she means.

The narrative style of Urrea is entertaining and the details of the story itself kept me from wanting to put the book down. I cried. I worried over father and son. I had nightmares after one night's read. The aspect that I most appreciated, however, was the fact the Urrea made no one a complete a**hole or complete angel (well, maybe Rita Vargas was complete Angel). Everyone was a multi-faceted human being. The people crossing the border are simply trying to make a life for their families. The border patrol agents are simply doing their jobs trying to protect the border. Sometimes they can be jerks (the root of the word "tonk") and sometimes they can be heroes (the rescue effort described in great detail would make any American proud).

Everyone should read this book; it could help temper prejudices on all sides.

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The Devil's Highway is a stirring story of twenty-six men who crossed the Mexican border into the harsh Devil's Highway of Southern Arizona. Through Urrea's in-depth investigative work, the reader is able to enter into the deadly, desolate region where only twelve men were able to make it out alive after being abandoned by their coyotes. Urrea's work is a well-crafted combination of interviews and rst-person testimony, history, culture, and immigration policy. The Devil's Highway was a nalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for general nonction. This is an excellent book for use in a high school classroom and would allow students an opportunity to closely examine illegal immigration.

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I was really looking forward to reading this book. I knew the story would be gut-wrenching: 26 illegals walked into the Arizona desert in mid-May. Less than 4 days later, 12 would be found alive. What was their story? Who were these men, and what drove them to undertake such a devastating journey? And what sort of evil would even conceive of taking them there?

Mr. Urrea sets up the book in 4 parts, and unfortunately, the story of the Yuma 14 (or Wellton 26) doesn't really begin until part 3. Now, some of this is to be understood: Mr. Urrea does give some history to the region, which I didn't know that much about. But he seemed to go off on tangents quite frequently, and weaved in and out, until I wasn't quite sure how the information being relayed pertained to the story at hand. It was more than confusing at times.

The story of the Yuma 14/Wellton 26 actually is told fairly quickly, in relation to the rest of the book. It seems Mr. Urrea really wanted to write about the politics of the Mexican/American border, and used the guise of this story to draw more people to it. That would have been fine with me, had Mr. Urrea at least been unbiased in his reporting. He was quick to lay blame on the men funding the coyotes, the Border Patrol, the Immigration Policy of America, American talk radio, American conservatives - however, he leaves out any mention of Mexico's part in all of this. What's up with that?

At the conclusion of the book, Mr. Urrea (who informs us this isn't about numbers) gives the readers nothing but numbers, which are heavily skewed to his bias. He states this is a story of the heart, but seems to forget (or ignore) that when an American citizen's Social Security Number, and therefore identity, has been stolen by an illegal immigrant, it can create a specific kind of hell. If one is going to report the facts, at least report ALL the facts!

I was also appalled at the veiled, unsubstantiated allegations Mr. Urrea makes against the Border Patrol and "vigilante civilian border watcher groups" regarding rapes and murders. If Mr. Urrea wants to be taken seriously as a writer, he needs to back up his claims with facts (he seems to be able to find them when they suit his bias), or not pass off his work as "truth." (And no, I'm not some "right-winger." I just like honesty) And his animosity towards the Border Patrol was something I did not understand at all. Even though he ultimately presented the Border Patrol as compassionate and sympathetic, he was not hesitant to hold back mild disgust for an agency of men who do not set policy, but simply enforce it and sometimes put their lives on line while doing so.

In the end, this book lost direction for me. For the story of the walkers: 5 stars. For way in which Mr. Urrea attempted browbeat his opinion into his reader: 1 star. Therefore: 3 stars.

Customer Rating: 

When picking up the Devil's Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea, be forewarned: this is not the story of 26 men who walked into the desert and fought futilely against death that it is made out to be - it is a ramble about illegal immigrants and the Arizona desert which just happens to contain a section about the Yuma 14/Wellton 26 and their disastrous encounter with the Devil's Highway area of that desert. Many of the 26 men walking across the desert - the supposed main characters - are not introduced by name and backstory until seven-page-long Chapter 11 - more than halfway through the book. Some of the characters don't even get that much - some merit only a single reference at their death. One comes away at the end feeling as one knows more about the recruiter Don Moi, Mendez the Coyote guide, and definitely Rita Vargas, the Mexican consulate agent who oversaw the aftermath (why does so much concentrate on her in particular, one has to wonder?) than 90% of the actual walkers.

The walkers' real story doesn't even seem to begin until Part Three of the book's four sections - maybe the end of Part Two. Up to that point (and even past it) the book's narrative seems to leap aimlessly around and spends pages upon pages of its own aimless wandering in the desert - entire passages are taken up by such irrelevant (and some just downright weird) topics and stories as folkloric creatures and spirits said to reside in the Mexican desert, Mexican rap, religion in Sonoita, campers dying in the desert, the medical benefits of urine, statistics, and the shooting of a Border Patrol. The narrative seems to spend an excessive amount of time on things that leave the reader asking "And the relevance to the story was...?" Even a riveting passage about the stages of hyperthermia seemed out of place jammed in the middle of the Wellton 26's walk and between three pages of relating other terrible but unrelated desert deaths and, "And the men headed deeper into the desert." In addition, at least twenty pages at the end of the book, after the end of the survivors' story, is dedicated to touting numbers on illegal immigrants immediately after Urrea claims that the situation isn't a game of numbers but a story of the heart.

Sections of the story, in brief, have other things jammed into and in between them and lose their power even when written well, such as in the excessive but powerful descriptions of the desert. Quotes, too, are thrust in without adequate lead-ins and some even without relevance. The result is a story that is padded with irrelevant sidetracks and, even worse, has very little if any flow, leaving it confusing and certainly not clear-cut or efficient; the majority of it should make any sensible editor (or reader) cringe at the hack-job.

In addition, the book seems to attempt to hide a bias at first, but it inevitably leaks through. Although considerable poking at gringos and American "Yanquis" (Yankees) is to be expected, one section states: "White Europeans conceived of and launched [immigration northward] just as white Europeans inhabiting the United States today bemoan it." Urrea has seemingly forgotten that most Mexicans are as much Europeans through Spanish conquistador blood as Americans are European. In addition, minute racial prods can be found at Arabs, Salvadorans, Native Americans, the Chinese, and at one point an African American is referred to as "exotic." A bias especially comes through in the treatment of Border Patrol agents. Although in the afterword Urrea says that he wanted to introduce, "The Border Patrol agent - a law enforcement officer who is disrespected and demeaned" he still seems to blame them, and throughout the book, the Border Patrol is referred to as "la Pinche Migra" - the damned Border Patrol - and once even as "Trailer Trash." Urrea seems to echo an opinion quoted in the book, "America was to blame!" and his bias becomes evident.

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The Devil's Highway is a harsh, but relatively even-handed account of a dark chapter in US-Mexico history - the death of fourteen Mexicans trying to make their way on foot through the Arizona desert in an attempt to immigrate illegally into the U.S. So many grueling deaths would seem like a prime subject for blame assignment, but Urrea's reportorial approach attempts to tell all sides of the story. The immigrants are for the most part well-meaning providers trying to make a better life for their impoverished families in Mexico. The Border Patrol on both sides (especially the U.S) make a sincere effort to enforce its nations laws while respecting the lives of those who try to cause. Even the coyotes, young Mexicans who lead the crossings, are portrayed more as incompetent guides than murderous exploiters. This last sobriquet probably fits best on the bosses who organize the trade and hire the coyotes. To them, the immigrants are primarily sources of revenue, and once fees are collected from them the immigrants' lives are of little consequence. Policies of both the U.S. and Mexican government regarding immigration and economic policy don't come off much better.

Through much of the narrative, The Devil's Highway is about as grim as Cormac McCarthy's post-apocalyptic The Road (Oprah's Book Club), and even scarier when you realize that the events happened in real life as opposed to the author's imagination. Now almost 10 years old, the book can still serve as a cautionary tale about policies that fail to respect human life. Four stars for adult readers only.