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Lynette Saldana
Torres
Junior English
21 May 2018
The Devils Highway
Challenges are rough, they make it difficult to perceiver; they let you think it is easier just to

give up. The book “The Devils Highway” is a nonfiction novel written by Luis Alberto Urrea on

the long and painful journey of those Mexicans trying to cross the border into the United states.

The author can describe from his own experiences how difficult this challenge was, this book

created an impact on the way they view those who do this and survive.

The book was written about Yuma 14 (also known as Welton 26) the incident that occurred in

2001, however the book was published in 2004. The meaning of the book is “The Devil's Highway,

a desolate place along the Mexican-Arizona border, witnessed the tragic death of fourteen Mexican

immigrants, part of a party of twenty-four souls, in 2001” (Urrea, Luis Alberto). The worst journey

any human being can go through. It is known to be “What we take from granted in the United

States as being Mexican, to those from southern Mexico, is almost completely foreign. Rural

Mexicans don't have the spare money” (Urrea, Luis Alberto). Those Mexicans trying to cross the

border would use up their very last dime to cross the border, many of the Mexican army can be

bought off.

Luis Alberto Urrea was born in Tijuana, Mexico but was raised in San Diego, his father was

Mexican and his mother was American. The way Urrea can grab the reader’s attention is

significant. Through all sixteen chapters he gives great detail on what is going on the pain the

characters are going through. He gives powerful images that help paint the image he is going for.
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Many will say “Urrea focuses on the individual subjects and the circumstances that brought them

to make the decision to cross the border and risk death” (ENotes). In the book Urrea put in his

input on these men called coyotes, they were “The guides are young, uneducated, and desperate

to earn money, respect, and status” (ENotes), in a nutshell they took care of the group or so they

tried.

The book put an impact not only on peoples’ minds but in their hearts as well, Urrea states

“we try to put numbers on a story that is, at base, a story of the heart” (Urrea, Luis Alberto).

Throughout the story Urrea does not just give one example from one point of view on the

tremendous experience he gives varies ones, he gives an insight on how the desert was known to

be different names. At the beginning of the book he describes how “fallen angels” have landed

there and old Mexican legends such as la Llorona and El Cuycuy lived in the desert and just that

alone gives the fear to the desert alone. The desert is known to kill you due to “The intense heat

and sun in the desert causes horrific physical afflictions: swollen and cracked lips, black urine,

organs that “cook” inside bodies. Urrea describes the heat as sizzling “at the edges of things.”

(ENotes). Reading the book, you can fill what they are going through. Having Americans read

this book it opens their minds on the struggle people will fight for and risk just to live here.

In Mexico their wages are less than ours in the united states, many Mexicans coming have

absolutely no spare change and they waste all their survival money to cross over, Urrea gives an

excellent choice of words to create a prefect image for those who do not know what Mexican

have to go through just to enter the united states. During this era had a lot of effect on when the

story was written and it comes to show it had an effect on Americans. Me as a student reading

this novel and hearing the stories and point of views of the different walkers breaks my heart and

makes me appreciative of what I have.

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“The Devil's Highway Summary.” Enotes.com, Enotes.com,

www.enotes.com/topics/devils-highway.

Thompson, Bridget. “The Devil's Highway.” Prezi.com, 25 Mar. 2015,

prezi.com/ibtggmcwq3bk/the-devils-highway/.