How Did The Devil's Highway Kill

The book, The Devil’s Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea, is based on the true story of the Yuma-14 or Wellstone 26, who were Mexicans that crossed the American border and died while doing so. This novel goes through not only the story of the Yuma-14 but the background of what happened before their journey and after their deaths, as well as the mentalities of the Border Patrol agents. It gives you the complete picture of what had happened.

Throughout history, humans have always been afraid of anything and anyone unlike their culture. Even in the twenty-first century, there is heated debate surrounding illegal immigration in America; some believe that illegal immigrants from Mexico are stealing jobs and harming the economy. These irrational fears are discussed in Luis Alberto Urrea’s book, “The Devil’s Highway,” which tells the true story of 26 illegal immigrants who are abandoned after crossing the U.S. border. Through this true story, Urrea shows the mistreatment of illegal immigrants, and his use of historical examples reveals that immigrants have always been subject to prejudice and persecution in the United States.

“The amount of deaths along the Oregon Trail was drastic, and it is estimated that five percent of migrants died on the journey, about 15,000 deaths in total” (Alchin). Pioneers suffered from many issues while on their journey. Due to the many obstacles they would have to overcome. The pioneers traveling on the trails faced the most difficulty trying to survive and thrive in the West due to resources, weather, and disease.

Humans are like parrots; what society tells them, they repeat and believe to be true. However, this habit often creates unseen barriers that divide and alienate people from one another. In Luis Alberto Urrea’s book The Devil’s Highway, Urrea tells the story of 26 illegal immigrants who are abandoned as they attempt to cross the Mexico-U.S. border. Through their story, Urrea reveals that there are invisible borders that create discrimination, such as language, ethnicity, and economic status. In order to break down these borders, education is essential to prove that they are unnecessary constructions of society.

Imagine the sight of an open blue sky, trees growing, and warm dry grass moving briskly by the air. And, in front of this scene, there is a wonderful endless pit, stained by blood and some partial limbs. The whole world has just decided to jump off a cliff, because why not escape the dark gripping fears that life holds? Society has darred and pushed each other off to this dark encasing hole. Sure it will hurt, but only for a little bit, right?

Railroads were superior to water routes in that they provided a safer, less hazardous mode of transport.” (Boundless). The advantages of the railroad system reduced the

Some terrains and environments made the journey hard and possibly deadly. The National Oregon/California Trail Center says that “Crossing rivers were probably the most dangerous thing pioneers did. Swollen rivers could tip over and drown both people and oxen. ”There were many rivers to cross during the long ride, and crossing them was the only way to get around the rivers. These accidents were almost unavoidable.

Also, primarily, 4,000 men, woman, and children died from disease, exposure to extreme conditions, and hunger. It is now remembered as The Trail of Tears”. (“How-the-Native-Americans-Were-Treated-In-The-1800 -

Humans rarely change their ways; they stay in their own worlds and always interact with the same types of people. Unfortunately, this habit often creates unseen barriers that divide and alienate human beings from one another. In Luis Alberto Urrea’s book The Devil’s Highway, Urrea provides a personal perspective to immigration by telling the story of 26 illegal immigrants, known as the Wellton 26, who are abandoned as they cross the Mexico-U.S. border. Through their story, Urrea proves there are invisible borders among people that create prejudice, such as language, ethnicity, and economic status. By reading The Devil’s Highway, it is clear that these barriers must be broken down to ensure harmony within society.

John’s book, like all others, holds various strengths and weaknesses. Largely, St. John’s thesis is supported by offering a varying look at the borderlands throughout multiple decades and discussing the progression of change as it occurred across eras and regions. St. John provides interesting historical details that would otherwise probably not be known to the reader, such as her statement in the Introduction that the desert border running from west of El Paso to the Pacific Ocean did not conform to any previously existing geographic features. This fact, like others provided in “Line in the Sand,” might not seem interesting but indeed is in the sense that it forces the reader to consider it and to contextualize it based on what the reader knows of the border. For example, reading this fact, I was forced to contemplate how the border boundary was formed west of Texas and how the line that is in place to day came to be.

In this report, the author claims that the Mexican population dropped from 30 million to 3 million due to the European colonization. It also states how this drop was mainly due to the spread of diseases like measles, smallpox, yellow fever, and many more. Because the native peoples had never been exposed to these diseases prior, the spread of them caused a devastating number of deaths. This report is written by a third-party author, causing it to have little bias. As well, the author does not exaggerate Europeans barbarianism, but rather disease, as the main cause of death during the colonization of the New

The Devil’s Highway, by Luis Alberto Urrea is the true story of 26 men who attempted to cross the Mexican border through the bleak Sonora Desert in May of 2001. Urrea describes the lives of the men who attempted to cross, what happened to them, and the response of the people working on the border and who encountered them. He explores the issue by describing both the personal experiences of people trying to emigrate from Mexico to the U.S., and of people working on the border. The story was made both realistic and compelling through the information gathered and research conducted for a full year prior to writing the story.

Ever had a mental “fork in the road?” Of course you have. We all have those tough decisions to make at times. William Stafford’s “Traveling Through the Dark” is about one of those very instances. But there’s more to it than meets the eye.

“Yuma Territorial Prison.” Lecture, Yuma, AZ, January 8-9, 2018. Hodge, Hiram C.Arizona as It Was, 1877.Chicago: Rio Grande, 1962. Murphy, Marti. " The End of the Territorial Prison and the aftermath.

Though at first, the Spanish were reluctant, they soon realized that it was imperative to try to heal the sick as their own survival depended on it. Estebanico describes that “the cures we performed may not have healed everyone we attended, but I can vouch that they saved four lives: our own” (Lalami 232). The interactions between castaways and the Indians were substantial in challenging the common European perspective of the Indians as “inferior savages”. Though the conquistadors in the novel were initially wary of the Indians, they later realized that their ways were crucial to