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The Devil's Highway Summary

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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.
In this paper I will explore how the U.S. government developed such strict laws and attitudes regarding Mexican immigration. …show more content…

There are many aspects that contribute to the sense of urgency felt by many immigrants.
NAFTA, The North American Trade Agreement, was enacted in 1994, between the U.S., Canada and Mexico. This agreement pushed lots of cheap imports into the Mexican markets, which pushed many farmers and low wageworkers out of a job, because their people could not compete with them. Lack of job prospects and a steady source of income lead many people to abandon their homeland for what seems like the only option for a better life.

“We as Mexicans became the enemy. After September 11, they sealed the border, built a wall, and began persecuting immigrants and justified it as a problem of security. This perspective became an excuse for everything,” said Sandra Rodriguez, an investigative reporter for Ciudad Juarez’s largest newspaper El Diario.

The border and immigration are hot button issues in American politics. Brought up in speeches by candidates from all sides of the aisle and can easily factor into a successful campaign. As media constructions shape peoples views on Mexican immigration, and form viewers beliefs for years politics also have great influence. This appears especially true, as recent political campaigns and voter initiatives indicate, in the case of Mexican

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and Mexico by providing a wealth of information on many different aspects on it. This book was written to cater to a wide and differing audience by providing so much information for different people to pick up on. This information can make it difficult to read the full book, but the author’s purpose is not for everyone to read the full book and comprehend everything. Her book allows for very detailed information to be available on everything imaginable that a person could want to know about the border. This lets people pick and choose the important information to them that they would like to read about and retain.

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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.

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