An Anthropologist Unravels the Mysteries of Mexican Migration
*That’s a title you’d probably only find in National Geographic, and it did the trick for me – I clicked and read all the way through because an anthropologist talking about Mexican migration in Nat Geo is bound to be a good read. Jason De León is a Rio Grande Valley native and a National Geographic Emerging Explorer who wrote a book, The Land of Open Graves: Living and Dying on the Migrant Trail, in which he “he travelled up and down the border, interviewing would-be migrants and the relatives of those who died making the crossing. Their often harrowing stories give a human face to these desperate journeys—and overturn many of the negative stereotypes used to discredit them.” It’s a good afternoon read. VL
By Simon Worrall, National Geographic
More than five million people were arrested between 2000 and 2013 while trying to cross the border from Mexico into Arizona. A further 6.4 million were apprehended in Texas, California, and New Mexico. Thousands more perished in the furnace-like heat of the Sonoran Desert, their bodies rarely recovered. Yet despite the arduousness of the crossing and the high-tech surveillance systems arrayed against them, most of the survivors will attempt to cross again.
Jason De León, an anthropologist and National Geographic Emerging Explorer, grew up in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas. His father is Mexican, his mother is from the Philippines, and he spent his childhood speaking Spanish. For his book, The Land of Open Graves: Living and Dying on the Migrant Trail, he travelled up and down the border, interviewing would-be migrants and the relatives of those who died making the crossing. Their often harrowing stories give a human face to these desperate journeys—and overturn many of the negative stereotypes used to discredit them.
Speaking from the University of Michigan, where he is an assistant professor, he talks about why U.S. border crossing deaths go largely unrecorded while European migrant deaths are headline news; why American economic and drugs policies helped create the crisis; and why he calls the Prevention Through Deterrence program, which funnels migrants towards the Sonora Desert, a “killing machine.”
Click HERE to read the full story.
[Photo by Diane Cook, Jen Jenshel, courtesy of National Geographic]
