Illegal Crossing on the Devil's Highway

While recently traveling in Jordan I read The Devil’s Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea. At the time I had no idea that the “Day Without Immigrants,” protest was planned. The book certainly gave amazing insight to what some Mexicans go through to get into the US. When I lived in Scottsdale I frequently traveled the area that the book covers. It is a beautiful but extremely cruel stretch of desert and mountains that I used to blow through on my way to Puerto Penasco for sun and cheap shrimp. It was Phoenix’s beach hideaway just across the border.

The book covers one illegal crossing that cost many lives and gives insight into the worst kind of characters, coyotes, Migra and lost souls. It saddens me to think that while I was loading up on beers at the border town of Sonoita, many were buying jugs of water for an impossible trek. It also made me grateful that I had the luck to be born on this side of the border.