Reference Urrea, L. A. (2004). The devil's highway a true story. New York: Little, Brown.
The American dream is a combination of hard work and higher education to meet the standards of the employers of the twenty first century. The issue is that every single individual deserves an opportunity and there are some people that are forced to drop out of school in order to help their family because of the scarce resources of their family. The Devil’s Highway is a book that provides answers related to the tragedy that touched the hearts of leaders and activists that after the tragedy sought to identify why people risk their lives attempting to cross the border. Why it is that money is not invested in local city to create more jobs and prevent this problem of immigration? In The Devil's Highway, Luis Alberto Urrea presents to the readers a macabre story, which exposes the readers to all the hardships that the twenty six men went through but only fourteen could survive while crossing the border between The United States and Mexico. These men became examples for other Mexicans because they risked their lives in order to gain a better future. The details given in this book make the readers feel the hot weather, the thirst of hardworking men fighting against themselves, the fury of the desert, and all the inconveniences along with the trip. The book begins with a vast description of the conditions of the kind of lives that these men had in Mexico, including the types of jobs and the tribulations that they went through in order to provide a better life for themselves and for their families because of the limited resources of their country. Worth emphasizing that not only Mexicans attempt to cross the borders pursuing a better future, there are other nations that go through the process even a longer trip because they come from countries that are further away “OTM- Other than Mexican- covers all the Central and South Americans swelling the ranks of the walkers. Many Americans don’t know that Chinese and Russian refugees cross desolation as well” (Urrea, 2008, p. 34). By pointing this out the author clearly identify that not only Mexican should be in the eye of the prejudice that American have created throughout the years, however Mexican are the majority of all immigrants in The united Stated because of the proximity perimeters. Urrea presents this tragedy as a way to alert the immigrants to think twice before going through this because at the end of the day life is more important than a couple hundred dollars and a house for the parents. This reality seems not to be important for most of these courageous men and women who dare to cross the border in their live. The Yuma fourteen, as they are also known are men that died trying to cross the American border. Such tragedy caught the eye of the tabloids and new papers because of it magnitude. The lives that unnecessary were lost in that tragedy that ended costing more money to former the former Mexican government and American authorities “What if she, she asked, somebody had simply invested that amount in their villages to begin with” (Urrea, 2008, p. 199). All of this tragedy could be avoided but our society has a tendency that something bad have to happens first in order to take action. This activist was questioning why the authorities didn’t invest money in those villages? Instead, later on se pointed out how China was taking over the jobs that were created for the Mexican. The book seems to attack on the people in power that they only care for the money. On the other hand, twelve men that survived obtain