In the last few Chapter of The Devil’s Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea, the heartbreaking scenes emerge to the reader. The tragic stories are full in the context, some immigrants may or may not make it through the desert. As a reader, it is hard to image the pain or suffer that these immigrants went through.
The undocumented immigrants do not have enough basic supply for their travel, most immigrants died in the middle of the road. In order to achieve their dream, the immigrants have to bear the painful outcome. Lots of survivors not only have to go through mental and physical treatment, but they also have to endure assault from the Border Patrol.
Later in the book, Urrea depicts how Mendez betrays the immigrants. “The walker did ask Mendez to go for water, but that Mendas rejected all pesos. It was only the long green for Mendez” (Urrea 153). When they were out of water, Mendez took the money from the immigrants and lied about to get water and help. Without any reasons of coming back and helping these immigrants, Mendez left them to die. The action that Mendez did on the immigrants is dehumanization, hard to believe that a human will does such a thing to another.
From my point of view, Mendez’s crime is unforgettable. Mendez only cares about himself and the money, he does not see the immigrants as human beings. In often times, we do not realize how someone’s actions or words can have such a drastic impact on a single individual. Under that circumstances, people should be more united. They cannot turn their own back to another based on their own benefits.
Picture Cited
http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/02/middleeast/saudi-yemen-robertson/index.html
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/alfredo-j-ramirez/an-open-letter-to-immigra_b_9191416.html
http://newsfirst.lk/english/2014/07/group-illegal-aliens-sri-lanka-caught-entering-america-mexico/46930