Coyotes in terms like these are people that help immigrants travel treacherous journeys for a better life. When you look at a map of the Southwest you see routes, highways, paths, trails, but these immigrants see hope, a better life, and an opportunity to grow. “The experience of the Southwest is best described as the overlays of cultures and the influence of the various people that have resided here (Melendez)”. The Southwest offers better opportunities and many individuals have chosen to trace over the past and renew themselves through the land for a new life. In The Devil’s Highway the author Luis Alberto Urrea shares a heart-rending story of a group of men attempting to cross over the borderlands into Arizona. These men lose themselves in the dehydration and over powering heat waves crossing a dangerous path known as the devil’s highway. The Devil’s Highway focuses on the desolation of the desert environment, the strength it took to leave everything behind, and the context used to label the immigrants. “I lost my mind, I lost my soul and I know that I’m never going home (The Sidewinders)”. One…show more content… In previous lectures we discussed the Anglo/Euro American settlers moving west for opportunities for land, wealth and adventure. In the same context the undocumented migrants shared a dream to move into the Southwest for better opportunities by putting their life at stake. Betrayal was one of the themes that stood out in the book, “You need a new kind of prayer…to negotiate with this land (Urrea)”. When all hope is gone you just keep going and that’s what these men did it took every ounce of them to not give up. This book included the challenges of desolation and the living hell of the desert that was misleading for a quite a distance. In the Southwest cultural values are what make up culture
