The Devil's Highway

Luis Alberto Urrea’s book, The Devil’s Highway, tells the story of a disastrous border crossing between Mexico and The United States. The Devil’s Highway refers to a particularly brutal stretch of desert. In the past, it was not used as often as other routes, but as the story shows, the development and proliferation of the Border Patrol has made it necessary to use this dangerous route.

The story is divided into four sections: “Cutting the Drag”, “Dead Man’s Sign”, “In Desolation”, and “Aftermath”. In Part One, a group of men stumble out of the desert, burned almost beyond recognition and close to death. The reader knows immediately that, even though these men made it, the majority of the group did not survive. This lengthy opening section introduces the logistics of working for the Border Patrol and the brutal history of the desert. Folk legends—generally centered on the many lives the desert has consumed—set the scene for the world in which the walkers will find themselves.

In Part One, little attention is paid to the walkers themselves. They are treated as a group, or as the desires and aspirations of the group. Scant time is spent on their backstories, or even their personalities.