the line becomes a river by francisco cantu

His new job means surveilling camera and photo footage from the desert and conducting intensive research into drug cartels’ activity and smuggling.

The American desire for a physical border, as denoted by “monuments” placed by surveyors in the 1800s, becomes increasingly difficult to negotiate over time, given the harsh and destructive desert conditions.Ĭantú is transferred out of field work to a Border Patrol intelligence office in Tucson, Arizona. These experiences are accompanied by a history of the US-Mexico border, primarily from the 19th century to the ongoing Mexican war against drug cartels and the widespread violence that has ensued. He begins having stress dreams about his time on the force and grows increasingly paranoid even while not on the job. Though he can offer them water or snacks, Cantú realizes there is little he can do to help them in a meaningful way. These migrants are more than likely deported back to the often dangerous and violent places from which they came. As he adjusts to life in the Border Patrol, he arrests undocumented migrants and witnesses firsthand the horrific conditions the migrants endure for the chance to cross the border into the United States. Despite his college degree in international relations, he wishes to gain hands-on experience relating to border policy and the ways migrants are treated. Part 1 follows Cantú’s time as a field agent, chronicling his various encounters with undocumented migrants and his fellow Border Patrol agents, many of whom are Latinx or originally from Mexico themselves.

His personal narrative is told primarily in short vignettes that are braided together with historical and journalistic research, cultural sociology and psychology, Mexican literary references, descriptions of dreams, conversations with Cantú’s mother, and more, to create a complete picture of the way the US-Mexico border has embedded itself-as a place, as an ideal, and as a set of ethics-in Cantú’s mind.

The book is split into three parts, chronicling Cantú’s time working as a Border Patrol agent in the field, in an intelligence office, and after his resignation from the force, when he returns to civilian life and graduates school. The physical and emotional terrain of the border is something he wishes to understand on a human level, which leads him to join the US Border Patrol, despite his mother’s concerns that the institution will corrupt his ideals. Francisco Cantú is a third-generation Mexican American immigrant raised in Arizona by his mother, who served as a park ranger in the desert.

The line becomes a river by francisco cantu