<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>In May 2001, a traveling party of 26 Mexican citizens tried to cross the Arizonan desert in order to enter the United States illegally. Their attempt turned into a front-page news event after 14 died and 12 barely made it across the border due to Border Patrol intervention. Against the background of consistent tightening of anti-immigration laws in the United States, my essay aims to examine the manner in which Luis Alberto Urrea’s <italic>The Devil’s Highway: A True Story</italic> (2004) reenacts the group’s journey from Mexico through the “vast trickery of sand” to the United States in a rather poetic and mythical rendition of the travel north. Written to include multiple perspectives (of the immigrants and their coyotes, the immigration authorities, Border Patrol agents, high officials on both sides of the border), Urrea’s account, I argue, stands witness to and casts light on the often invisible plight of those attempting illegal passage to the United States across the desert. It thus humanizes the otherwise dry statistics of immigration control by focusing on the everyday realities of human-smuggling operations and their economic and social consequences in the borderland region. At the same time, my paper highlights the impact of the Wellton 26 case on the (re)negotiation of identity politics and death politics at the US-Mexican border.</p></abstract>

In May 2001, a traveling party of 26 Mexican citizens tried to cross the Arizonan desert in order to enter the United States illegally. Their attempt turned into a front-page news event after 14 died and 12 barely made it across the border due to Border Patrol intervention. Against the background of consistent tightening of anti-immigration laws in the United States, my essay aims to examine the manner in which Luis Alberto Urrea’s The Devil’s Highway: A True Story (2004) reenacts the group’s journey from Mexico through the “vast trickery of sand” to the United States in a rather poetic and mythical rendition of the travel north. Written to include multiple perspectives (of the immigrants and their coyotes, the immigration authorities, Border Patrol agents, high officials on both sides of the border), Urrea’s account, I argue, stands witness to and casts light on the often invisible plight of those attempting illegal passage to the United States across the desert. It thus humanizes the otherwise dry statistics of immigration control by focusing on the everyday realities of human-smuggling operations and their economic and social consequences in the borderland region. At the same time, my paper highlights the impact of the Wellton 26 case on the (re)negotiation of identity politics and death politics at the US-Mexican border.

“In the desert, we are all illegal aliens”: Border Confluences and Border Wars in Luis Alberto Urrea’s <italic>The Devil’s Highway</italic>

American, British and Canadian Studies

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

“In the desert, we are all illegal aliens”: Border Confluences and Border Wars in Luis Alberto Urrea’s 

In May 2001, a traveling party of 26 Mexican citizens tried to cross the Arizonan desert in order to enter the United States illegally. Their attempt turned...

“In the desert, we are all illegal aliens”: Border Confluences and Border Wars in Luis Alberto Urrea’s The Devil’s Highway

Published Online: Dec 21, 2019

Page range: 189 - 205

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/abcsj-2019-0022

Keywords
US-Mexico border, desert, illegal immigrants, militarization of the borders, death, bearing witness

© 2019 Raluca Andreescu, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

“In the desert, we are all illegal aliens”: Border Confluences and Border Wars in Luis Alberto Urrea’s The Devil’s Highway

Published Online: Dec 21, 2019

Page range: 189 - 205

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/abcsj-2019-0022

KeywordsUS-Mexico border, desert, illegal immigrants, militarization of the borders, death, bearing witness

© 2019 Raluca Andreescu, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
US-Mexico border, desert, illegal immigrants, militarization of the borders, death, bearing witness