Ted Conover's Coyotes Essay

Ted Conover’s Coyotes is a first hand description of illegal immigration from a point of view that many Americans may have maybe never before considered. It is descriptive and emotional, and at many times controversial. The US has seen a rapid increase in immigrants who have come into the US seeking better lives for themselves and families. These immigrants, like those throughout US history, are generally hard workers and make important contributions to the economy through their productive labor as we examined in class through the Bracero Program. They are paid low wages with little potential for advancement, are subjected to hazardous working conditions, and are threatened with losing their jobs and even deportation if they voice dissatisfaction …show more content…
Conovers presence in this book allows him to connect with an audience that that might have no idea what it is like to come into the United States illegally. His personal experiences gives him the ability to induce sympathy from the reader, because he brings readers along for the ride as he creates relationships with the illegal immigrants along the journey. Conovers early on made friends with a man named Alonso who he met in Mexico City, “His parents, small farmers, gave him money to go to secondary school, ‘but some friends and I used it to get to Texas’.” It was apparent that even from the young age of …show more content…
They come with hope to seek a better quality of life, which the standard of living in the US is better than Mexico’s. Mostly men cross the border to seek better paying jobs, and evaluate consequences of possibly being caught to not outweigh the money they will be able to obtain to help take care of themselves and family. Making the decision isn't easy for most, especially if you have family, but when people are put into situations where they see no other option but to take a risk and reap rewards by illegally entering the US in order to support their family. The Mexican natives and their hometowns suffer from immigration. Families fall apart and towns are emptied for months at a time as men crossed the border in search of jobs in the US. Conover said, “If anyone truly suffered because of the whole immigration mess, I thought, it was women like Evangelica, and the wives and kids who stayed at home.” (Conover pg. 253) His insight helps us see into the lives of people we know has illegal immigrants, that they don't just come and go as they please, but out of desperation to support their family. The sad truth is, no one wants abandon their family and friends, illegally enter another country, lay low below the radar to not get caught by authorities in order to support themselves and family. Conover ran into a man named Jose who was a seasonal worker who would cross the border