The Devil's Highway

It was one of those summer days where I just wanted to dip my feet in the cold water and to feel the warm breeze on my skin. Instead, I got freezing cold air-conditioner and a fan. I was stuck in the mall working all day. It could literally see the sunrays seeping through ceiling window but it didn’t feel like summer because I stuck in a cold room. Those were the days I read the Devil’s Highway. To be completely honest, it was very hard for me to get into the book at first. I was really bored at work and I all I really wanted was to read something that was fast pace and full of dialogue, not descriptive and political. However, I made it past the first few chapters with all the descriptions of the dessert and the border patrols. I was very intrigued with the book when Urrea started diving into the men’s stories. I felt like I could really empathize with these men. I understood their motivation for embarking on such a dangerous trip. Urrea’s depiction of the Mexican families and their struggles reminded me of the life I had before I came to America. When I was eight years old, my family and I left our homeland, Vietnam. I was forced to abandon more than just my favorite belongings, but my entire childhood. I found myself waving goodbye to communism, oppression, poverty, fear, and corporal punishment to discover democracy, freedom, capitalism, wealth and opportunity. My whole life I heard my parents, relatives, neighbors, and friends, talk about the “free world” like it was heaven. Food tasted better there, material goods are limitless, cities are beautifully lit up at night, and everyone is living the “good life”. Thus, it wasn’t hard for me to imagine the drive and willpower of the twenty-six Mexican men who tried to cross the Mexican/American border. Like them, my parents had wanted to give my brother and I a better life, a future. Indeed, we wanted to be able to have the financial stability that would allow us to help out the rest of our family who was still living in Vietnam. I realized after reading this book that poverty is a powerful motivator and that survival instinct is beyond my imagination.