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Chapter 1: The Rules of The Game (p.4-14)

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Chapter 1: The Rules of The Game (p.4-14)

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Since even before the Devil's Highway had gotten it's name, it has a rich history of death and mystery. The first man to ever be recorded to die was Melchior Díaz on January 18th, 1541 due to an unfortunate accident that happened while defending his sheep from a wild dog. From then we can infer that thousands of deaths, maybe even millions have occurred on this path. Many believe it's because of demons, others claim it's the spirits angered, and some say it's chupacabras

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Chapter 1: The Rules of the Game (p. 14-18)

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Chapter 1: The Rules of the Game (p. 14-18)

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These few pages entail the thoughts on border patrol and about the border patrol. It was one of the worst fears, but also biggest relief to get caught by border patrol. Though for the people in the border towns, stories go around about them doing the most ungodly things to people. Despite this, for the men in the story at the moment, finding border patrol (Agent Mike) was a godsend with how thirsty they were. With the men now in custody of the border patrol, they tell them about the countless men at the moment dying on the trail. The men decide it's now their duty to help save them.

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Chapter 1: The Rules of the Game (p.18-28)

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Chapter 1: The Rules of the Game (p.18-28)

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A lot of things are said about border patrol, but overall the consensus is that they aren't exactly good. We get somewhat of a glimpse of how they all interact with each other, what they do, and where they all come from. A lot of them are ex-military while others were police officers. To put it lightly, they are all experienced with crime and combat. The neighboring towns like to say how they rape and kill people. Plenty of fear to go around in these parts.

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Chapter 1: The Rules of The Game (p.28-40)

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Chapter 1: The Rules of The Game (p.28-40)

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Here we see an in-depth look into how border patrol tracks down people in the desert. A notable way of tracking was called "dragging" in which they would leave trails in the sand, and if they find footsteps onto it then they would know if someone's been there. From there they could track pretty much track where you've been and where you're going. Here we are introduced back to the five men we met earlier in the chapter and we are introduced yet again to the Wellton 26. As they go back on the trail we can discover how the bodies have began to decompose in the sun, which their stark black skin and described to have them literally turn into dust.

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It is here where we are introduced to Don Moi, a man who hooks the others into making a perilous journey for the price of 13,000 pesos. We see the likeness of the Baustia Boys, Reymundo, and his son, Nahum Landa, Enrique, and Reyno. All of which are trying to make it to America to make money. Of course, most of them, if not all of them are now going into debt because they can't make the money, which are given warning that if they bail out now Chespiro and the Coyotes will go after their families.

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The Cercas family. They are the people basically running all the whole human trafficking jazz. A group of mobsters that everyone believes are related to each other. The gang consists of Don Moi, Daniel, El Negro, and El Moreno. Even without their help they still found a way to make you pay for just stepping foot into the desert. Coyotes, like them and others, are very much hated by the government, and signs are put up in hopes people don't fall prey to them. Unfortunately, not everyone can read or speak Spanish/English on the signs so its purpose is completely useless.

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This chapter features Antonio Lopez Ramos, aka Mendez. Mendez is one of many guias to lead on the Devil's Highway. Guias in the mob hierarchy however are about the lowest of the low. Highly expendable and just get paid enough to make a living wage. Mendez as quoted in the last paragraph, "he was welcome to die for the Cercas brothers."

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Jesus, as described in this chapter, was growing up poor. He had been making bricks for a living and made less than a hundred a week. He meets Maradona, who persuades him into joining their gang. He had claimed he made about a thousand dollars a week, so of course, Jesus joined him. The chapter encapsulates life in the gang and almost glamorizes it, saying that even low-life guias were considered hot stuff.

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Mendez and Maradona are given an assignment, lead the later to be known as Yuma 14 across the border. Along the way taking them to Sonoita, they are caught by border patrol, however no one recognized Mendez as Jesus, so they are eventually released again. If they had been taken in it's theorized that Yuma 14 would've still been alive.

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The journey is finally about to start, but first Mendez and the Guerrero brothers begin to stock up. The pollos have complete trust in Mendez at this point and so they pack a couple of liters of water and Pepsi and candies. Just like the "hotel" they had to pay for the bus fee that would take them to the border. Once at the border they begin their impending walk ahead.

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The walk finally begins, and many don't know what to expect. This includes Mendez as his calls show his incompetence and lack of knowledge of what is to come. Mendez leads the people, keep in mind all of this is happening at night. The walk goes somewhat alright until border patrol pulls around and they are forced to hide. One of the Guerrero brothers drops a whole gallon of water on this, but ironically it starts raining. From then they continue, but that may have been a sign of the bad luck to come.

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Deep into the walk if it wasn't obvious before, it is now that Mendez is completely lost. Men are dying at this point and doubts and tension are brought up. Mendez keeps making mistakes, and Santos finally gets fed up. Santos suggests they should just head back, but with Mendez being the idiot he is, denies and tells them to keep going. Santos decides to go back with anyone who wanted to go, however, it is never documented what happened to them after. They were never found. Mendez who is still going keeps going despite him literally being on his deathbed.

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This chapter shows their names. Names, background, story, and relationships. From what we can see here everyone was trying so hard to get to America to get a new life, but as we've seen in the other chapters not every man will make it. You can see how many men thought they had a chance out there and that they were determined to make it through. You can see that they're all very different people too with different ages and strengths. It just goes to show that Mother Nature can and will anyone she can.

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The men at this point are all dying. Mendez and Lauro decide it's best to ditch them as most of the accounts say. The two of them get money from the other men, some say it was $90, some say it was $200, and with said money, they would go out and get water. Well in theory if they went through with actually wanting to help them. Mendez and Lauro instead just go ahead and leave them in order to help themselves, claiming that the group was just way too slow. The other men at this point are reconciling with God and begin to walk again, all believing that they are going to die soon.

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Everyone is dying at this point. They keep trying to go on, but for most of them it's impossible without water or anything. At one point they try to start a signal, but there was no one. First it was Edgar Martinez, then it was Abraham Morales, Reymundo Jr., Reymundo Sr, Julian Ambrose Malaga, Rafael Temich, and a nameless man. All of them died Tuesday, May 22nd. If hope wasn't gone before, it certainly was now.

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Steadily, everyone is dying at this point. The only one who seemed to have a chance at survival was Mendez, who let's not forget abandoned everyone and was about to abandon Lauro too. However with a stroke a luck, the group of survivors were found. Sadly however with the rescue coming, many still managed to die even on their way out into salvation. It's really cruel, but some men including Mendez survive in the end.

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The walk at this point is over. The surviving men are taken into custody and being taken care of. No one man however is certain about what lies ahead after this. Many questions are brought up among them, but at least their thankful to have a bed and an AC for the time being. Cops and reporters question the men but they know they can't snitch on Don Moi or the Cercas family in fear that their families would get murdered. The men however rat out Mendez in some glorious revenge for him abandoning them and having the luck of surviving for all the men he killed.

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Everyone is ratting out Mendez and he now faces the trial. He writes a letter, but it's pretty obvious that he's at fault for killing all these men so it's implied that he's sent to prison; especially since it's clear that he was working for Coyotes. After all this, it's now time to identify the bodies in order to finally put them to rest. It was their time to finally go home.

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The trial of Mendez occurs. A little before this, however, we have the surviving men returning home with the government throwing them a huge festival, though as Vargas states, it's all staged. Going back to Mendez's trial, the Reporters and his lawyer try to get the whole situation out, but of course, he didn't say anything, especially about his gang. The lawyer for his trial was discussing how they were going to pin it on border patrol. During the trial, Mendez pleads guilty to escape any death penalty and is now spending the rest of his life behind bars.

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The surviving men are given jobs in the United States and are allowed to stay. Ironically the jobs they were given were at an all refrigerated meat packaging factory so that they will never work in the heat of the sun again. This case was helping with immigration, however, 9/11 hit just afterward and it was back to how things were, if not even stricter. The border from then on became a place of crime, with sexual assault, literal murder, and of course the continue gang offenses with Coyotes.

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The years continue, Mendez sits in jail while Agent Mike F. retires to the K9 Units. Life continues on, but to those working at the border the situation of the Wellton 26 will forever haunt them. Precautions have been made in order to try and save people, with light towers and food/water stations but a lot can argue how effective can that really be? Border Patrol and security has forever been a long debated issue, however with the statistics with illegals only costing $55K a year and the US making a profit of 2.2 billion a year from them the argument goes that immigrants are good for the economy.

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About ten years from initially writing the book, Luis Alberto Urrea shares his thoughts and goes back to the tragedy that happened to the men. He basically discusses what his feelings are about border patrol, immigration, and crime on the border. More or less it's his commentary on how society is towards "illegals" and how he despises that of Coyotes who smuggle and literally murder other humans who were just trying their best.