Defend a line in the sand
The US-Mexico border was a contentious issue way before Trump declared “Build a wall”. The two countries fought a war about the land that constitutes the modern-day border territories — a 161km buffer zone either side of the border — and many subsequent treaties have established the route of the divide and compensation for lands lost as a result.
Francisco Cantu introduces us to this land through the eyes of his mother. She was was a National Parks ranger when he was a boy. She showed him through the deserts, mountains and forests of the region and there is a hint that this is their land from generations ago: we know that Cantu and his mother are of Mexican descent but not from where exactly.
Cantu worked as a border patrol agent, despite the disapproval of his mother and a promising future as a writer (he was a Fulbright Scholar), sworn to defend this arbitrary line in the sand. It has been cited as the most frequently-traversed border in the world with as many as 350 million illegal crossings annually in addition to those doing so by right.
Despite surveys and the Boundary Treaty of 1970 that settled all pending boundary disputes, the border still follows the Colorado and Rio Grande rivers, which have a tendency to shift over time.
Cantu dutifully rounds up the illegals (migres) and is on high alert for the drug mules and their drivers flooding the US with narcotics. He is sympathetic to the thousands who cross every day in desperate search of a better life. Many don’t make it; Cantu and his colleagues are tasked with picking up the remains.
Crossing the line is a struggle for would-be migrants but it is also torment for some who defend it. Cantu is haunted by nightmares and a humanity that suggests he may be willing to turn a blind eye to people who risk their lives to escape the horrors of cartel-run border towns, fleeing on foot through sun-parched desert and struggling with a culture and language that is not their own to make a better life for their families.
The book is presented in three parts. The lack of a binding narrative in the first two parts makes the reading hard going at times.
Things really pick up in the third part of the book after he has abandoned the patrol for civilian life. His friend returns to Mexico for a family funeral but is barred from returning to his young family in the States as he is an illegal. Cantu is bound up in the family’s struggle to get their father back as he attempts several dangerous desert crossings.
The Line Becomes a River takes us to a place we so often hear about through the media but shows us the true human experience of what this border really is.