The Devil's Highway Essay

In the book, The Devil’s Highway, the author, Luis Alberto Urrea truly captures the emotions of the reader. In the initial chapters on the book, I was confused. I felt as if there was a hidden purpose in the writing. I felt like I was being swayed to believe in the cause of one type of people versus another. By the middle of the book I realized that this book was an honest recollection of events by all parties involved. I felt as if I was part of the situation. I felt as if I was enduring the suffering of the individuals that had “Heat stress, Heat fatigue, Heat syncope, Heat cramps, Heat exhaustion, and Heat Stroke” (Urrea, 2004, p. 120). This text describes the Southwest in a unique light. It explains that the dessert of the Southwest is unbearably unforgiving. It also explains that it is unbiased. The desert does not care if someone is rich or poor, or Mexican or American. It is just as brutally harsh to anyone who finds themselves lost in its walls. The Devil’s Highway also describes specific similarities that are sometimes overlooked between two of the types of people in the book. The illegal aliens that have crossed into the United States and the Border Patrol share a mutual, “deep distrust of its own government and each sides …show more content…
Our ranch was located adjacent to the railroad tracks, many illegal aliens would find their way to jobs in Tucson and even Phoenix by following the railroad tracks North. While reading this book, I found direct correlations between the descriptions of the people in the book and the people in my memories. I believe in the ten years that I lived there we only had a few occasions of people causing mischief. For the most part I remember our main contact was people asking for water, especially during the hot months of the year. Living as close as we did to the border, I also have many memories of positive contact with border patrol, they always seemed on their guard but friendly and