Crossing the Wire

This book was very adventurous and interesting to read.  I was sitting there wondering what was going to happen next with Victor trying to cross the border and if he would ever make it.  I do have to admit that this book changed my perspective about illegal immigrants crossing into the United States.  I always had this idea that it was a little ridiculous how illegal immigrants would come and try to take jobs, but this book has completely opened my mind and made me think that I was being a little narrow-minded.  I never realized the reasons behind them wanting to come to the United States and how difficult of a journey it was for them.  I didn’t know that some of them were trying to raise money for their families back home and a lot of them had to abandon their families so that they could support them.  It’s really sad to think about it.  In a lot of ways, the journey that Victor and many others were trying to make reminded me of the Holocaust.  I drew a lot of parallels between the conditions they had to sleep in and how they were starving most of the time.  Also when Victor and Rico were with the drug mules, this part really reminded me of the Holocaust and the leaders of their drug haul were like the Nazi leaders.  They would make them haul large loads and wouldn’t give them hardly any breaks.  The mules felt like they wanted to die while carrying these loads.  It was really hard to read some of the parts of this book because I couldn’t imagine having to suffer through those conditions.  The culture of Mexico is very poor and there were hardly any jobs available which led to so many people crossing the border.  But at the same time, the culture in Mexico is that these people are very hard working and will take any jobs that people don’t want or think that they’re too good for.  These people are very grateful for any kind of job and income that they can make.  They will go through so many rough conditions, but hardly complain.  Also during the journeys across the border, after being beaten down so many times and getting so far and then having to come back, they kept trying to cross over and over because they worked hard to get what they want and to make sure they provided for their loved ones back home.  In their culture, family was a very important aspect to them and usually the man of the house would do whatever it takes to provide for his family and make sure they were taken care of. Victor was a very brave boy to do what he did and he endured many more hardships by the time he was fifteen than many of us will endure in a lifetime which is crazy to think about.  Overall, this book really opened my eyes to what illegal immigrants have to go through and that I should be more open minded to their situations.  This book made me sad to read the struggles that they have to go through, but in the end I was happy to see Victor make it to Washington and finally earn money to send back home to his family.