Get to know THE DEVIL'S HIGHWAY by Luis Alberto Urrea

In my future English 10 class, I would like to construct a unit that explores the themes of (im)migration in the Americas, and when searching for books, I came across Luis Alberto Urrea's THE DEVIL'S HIGHWAY on the YALSA website.  I started this book and could not put it down. The journalistic writing with it's piercing language tells the story of the Wellton 26--the name used to refer to the  group of men on an ill-fated attempt to cross the Mexican border into Arizona in May 2001.  Urrea presents a story that puts a human face on the struggles of the undocumented as they attempt to survive the deadly terrain and conditions of the southwestern deserts--all the while describing the landscape with such precision that a reader feels everything from the angry heat of the desert sun to the unmet and oppressive need for water.  This book is not just mentioning illegals who die in the desert.  This book is reminding us all that there are human stories at the border, and regardless of our position on the undocumented immigrant debate, we cannot afford to forget that these undocumented migrants are human beings--not political campaign talking points, victims, criminals.  Simply human beings who die and risk death because of hope.

The websites I have here would supplement our study of this very important book. This site from University of California, Davis offers an excellent interactive map that I would send my students to in order to gain further insight about the setting of this book.  The map is marked to correspond with the significant locations along the journey of the Wellton 26.  Students can move along the various points on the map which are annotated with quotations from the book. This way, they can get a much better sense of dangerous journey these men undertook in search of hope and opportunity.

This is a video from University of Washington in which Urrea is giving a talk about his experiences--both familial and professional--and the book itself.  The video is a bit long, so while I would encourage students to watch the whole thing, I would most likely pinpoint certain places in the video for them to play closer attention to.  It might be effective to show those parts of the video in class, pausing at certain places to pose discussion questions (I would give them time to write their answers first) that the students would then connect to the reading.