Mexican American Border Analysis

On January 18, 1541, the first death on The Devil’s Highway was recorded. On May 23, 2001, five Mexican men stumble onto The Devil’s Highway, parched and delirious, leaving behind them a winding map of burnt bodies leading towards the Mexican border. However, the Mexican American border is not the only relevant border in their story. The borders that the Wellton 26 face separate not only themselves, but humanity as a whole. History, economics, and the borders between this world and the possibility of the next are all borders that everyone will come to face in their lifetime; whether or not they are crossed is a different story. History is behind not only exact borders between countries, but it serves as an explanation for the actions of humans
The border between Mexico and the U.S. is seen by people on both sides as a line of wealth, American consumerism and considerable economic wealth makes it so, as Urrea claims, “Even the gringo trash is better than anything else they can buy.”. Urrea asserts that the Mexican economy is “the economy of hunger,” and the high volume of illegal trafficking is proof of that. Even though the coyotes come from the same poverty as the people they traffic, they are known as”polleros” or chicken wranglers while the people who pay for their services are “pollo” or chicken meat. This gives off the not so inaccurate illusion that these people are dead meat for the coyote to make their money off of. Many are desperate for money, so they succumb to this uncaring and cruel job, or they become indebted for the possibility of a future outside of their economic caste by traveling to America via the Devil’s Highway. There are countless who fit into this description so they go unnoticed until they almost die. The border between this life and the next was one that each of the Wellton 26 faced, but thankfully not all crossed. Everyone in their life, however, will eventually have to face this. The Devil’s Highway is described as a land of death, the perfect place for this border. With mountains of bones supposedly buried in the sand and legends referring to the area as a gate into hell, one must feel close to death; especially for illegal immigrants whom the coyotes ferry, like Charon, in some cases through a graveyard, and some to their deaths. Either way immigrants crossing this place face the end of their lives as a possibility. Confusion, as a symptom of heat death, begins to erase the persons rationality and personality. Additionally, the heat and lack of water begin to physically change the person until they are unrecognizable. In one horrifying moment, one man tears off his