The Line Becomes a River
The Line Becomes a River: dispatches from the border by Francisco Cantu
This is a sterling little book, written by a guy who grew up along the US-Mexico border, studied it at university, was a border patrol agent for 4 years, then went back to school to learn how to write about it. In my opinion, he did a heck of a job. My biggest takeaways from Line are:
1) Border Patrol agents are not, in general, bad guys. They're just regular guys doing a tough job the best way they can, and trying not to think too much about what brought the poor buggers they find (dead or alive) in the desert to where they are, or what being caught and being deported back across the border might mean for them or their families. This was the same impression I got from reading The Devil's Highway, by Luis Alberto Urrea. In fact there are probably as many commendable acts of kindness, even heroism on their part, as there are of callousness and willful brutality.
2) The real issue is the whole US legal and justice (or injustice) apparatus that towers above them and that they are only the footsoldiers of. This becomes woefully apparent in the story of José, a 30 year resident of the US befriended by Cantu, who had built a life and a family (wife and 3 sons) on hard work and "doing the right thing", only to be nabbed crossing back into the US after going to visit his dying mother in Oaxaca. With the help of his former employer, family, friends and Cantu; a lawyer friend of the employer is able to build about as good a case for being allowed to stay in the US as is possible, short of seeking asylum, which he could not, in all honesty do. Nevertheless, Jose is deported, leaving his family distraught and in a bind, and him desperate to get back. By the end of the book, he's tried just that, three or four times without success, and is still willing to risk it all for another shot. He himself says that this speaks volumes about how bad things really are in Mexico. The really sad thing, for the US, is that this is exactly the kind of immigrant we need to "make America great again"!
3) Along the way Cantu chronicles the latest descent of Mexico into one of its tragic 100 year cycles of self-destructive violence (the War of Independence from Spain and its aftermath, the Revolution and now the Narco Wars), which makes for very sad reading.
4) While he interjects just enough of his personal story, as the son of an Anglo father and a half-Mexican mother, to effectively support the development of his theme, he never wades so deep into it (as does Alfredo Corchado in Midnight in Mexico) that it becomes maudlin and a distraction.
5) personally, I very much enjoyed the setting of his tale, including descriptions of old haunts of mine like the Buffalo Bar in Silver City, NM, and new haunts like the ICE detention centers in Arizona.
6) His Epilogue, which involves a trip on horseback across the Rio Grande from Big Bend National Park, Texas to Boquillas, Coahuila, done with no hassle, no papers, no visible law enforcement presence on either side; serves not only (I'm guessing) to give the book a title, but to remind us all of what we've lost with the last 20 years struggle to "secure our border with Mexico".
All-in-all I'd rate "Line" an excellent read, recommended for anyone interested in the history, present and possible future of the US's troubled southwestern border.
