Oscar Martinez knew that in order to report first-hand the treacherous journey immigrants were making from South America to the United States he would need to experience it himself. Martinez actually rides “the beast”, the train that travels from places such as Guatemala and Honduras to Mexico. But the train ride is not what it appears to be as the people do not ride in the train as passengers, but rather on top of the train. The should cause one to pause as we are talking about a human person, perched precariously on top of a train that is traveling at speeds up to 75 miles per hour, holding on for dear life for days with nothing to do except to not fall off and die. Martinez brings his book to life through actual people that dared to ride the beast and lived to tell their tale, giving the story a humanistic style.
Todd Miller also reports his story in a narrative style of having first-hand experience with crossing borders, but not just from Mexico or South America but also in other parts of the world. Miller addresses the global “empire of borers” and how much money is at stake in the scramble for countries to secure their borders, especially the U.S. It would almost seem as if the global demand to provide a physical barrier to separate countries has become a multibillion dollar industry itself with the U.S. taking the lead.
If you look at both Martinez and Miller and their writings they are similar in that both authors have shared the experience of crossing borders into other countries, the difference though is that both of these men were crossing legally. However, both of these men also have had the experience of watching others cross borders illegally and seeing how their determination and ingenuity will always prevail over the physical border.
The U.S. seems to be the common denominator for both of these authors in that the U.S. cannot stop the influx of immigrants no matter how much money it throws at the ‘wall’. The U.S. sends out resources such as money, weapons, and technology to other countries in an attempt to help other countries secure their borders also, but why? The answer is clear, because the U.S. sees our border as being other countries’ borders also. This becomes very apparent when one looks at how the U.S. has pressured Mexico to curtail the influx of South American immigrants into Mexico as that puts them much closer to our border.
In the end plain old ingenuity will always win out and people will always find a way to circumvent that silly border wall that the U.S. is so worried about. The border patrol will never fully prevent illegal immigrants from entering the U.S. and perhaps, someday, people will realize what a waste of money the wall really is and start using those funds to help marginalized people rise up instead of shutting them out.
AmyHist516 