THE BOOK FAIR

Review:

Yuma 14, the name given to fourteen Mexicans found in the Yuma sector of the Arizona dessert, who tried to cross the border illegally into the USA in May of 2001, and died in the dessert.

 

Luis Urrea describes the views of people south of the border intent on entering the USA illegally.  Urrea relates the poor economic conditions of Latino laborers and their reasons for leaving their countries, primarily Mexico, as he describes their uncertainties, their fears and their desires to improve their finances for themselves and their families.

 

Twenty-six men pay Mexican gangsters, who support and fund the racket of coyotes.  The coyotes, brutal and corrupt, transport people across the border illegally.  The coyotes drop the men off with a general direction of which way to head for the border.  The bewildered men soon find themselves wandering in the relentless heat, thirsty, hungry, lost, and with no border crossing in site.  Fourteen of the twenty-six men die a terrible death in the dessert wandering for days without water, food or protective clothing from the sun.

 

Border Patrol agents eventually find the survivors who are quickly hospitalized, and locate the others, who already perished.

Law enforcement later prosecutes the coyotes, demanding information from the survivors who are then awarded immunity and allowed to stay in the USA.

 

Urrea blames the deaths of the illegal border crossers on the U.S. for tightening border security and refers to the crackdown as the 'Final Solution' for border crossings.

Urrea opens his book using the argument of Latino precedence in North America long before the English arrived.

Urrea offers statistics of economic contributions by illegals, with no statistics of medical, education and other costs of illegals.  Urrea does not mention criminal activity by illegals and states Latinos do not enter the USA for welfare or have children to grant them citizenship.

Mexico enforces zero tolerance for illegals or interlopers from the US side in Mexico.