Why a Booktrail?
2001: Such a remarkable journey – that of the 26 Mexicans who attempted to cross the border in 2001 across some of the deadliest countryside known as Devil’s Highway.
The Devil’s Highway
What you need to know before your trail
In May 2001, a group of men attempted to cross the Mexican border into the desert of southern Arizona, through the deadliest region of the continent,known as the “Devil’s Highway.”
Three years later, Luis Alberto Urrea wrote their story. Comes with a map of their journey.
Locations
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The Devils Highway
The Devils Highway is a journey that you will remember for the shear stress of having gone through it yourself via this book. The heat,the events these men endured and the sheer determination to get to their destination is clear and strongly evoked.
The men in the story were from a group of 26 and within this the so called Yuma 14 were those who succumbed to the dangerous and inhospitable land and conditions they met along the way. The first white man known to die in the desert heat here did it on January 18, 1541
This journey was one of illegal immigration of course and the reasons and explanations of how this turned into kind of ‘industry’ where people make advantage of those most in need.
The journey these men take is one of sheer desperation – what they find is exhaustion and the remnants of the past –
“Abandoned army tanks preserved forever in the dry heat, stood in their path, a ghostly arrangement that must have seem like another bad dream. Their full sun 110-degree nightmare”
Not surprisingly, much of their journey is difficult beyond belief, suffering in extreme heat is graphically described. The confusion due to heat stroke is painful to read about and the various stages of what the body goes through is shocking.
But then just imagine what these people actually went through.
The Journey:
Quitobaquito
Blue bird pass
Growler mountains
Ajo
Granite mountains – where the guides abandoned them and where some succubmedt to the elements. The most graphic part of the journey
Dateland Arizona – where the guides tried to reach after leaving the group
Sonora , Mexico
Booktrail Boarding Pass Information: The Devil’s Highway
Author/Guide: Luis Alberto Urrea Destination: Mexico, Arizona Departure Time: 2011
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