Down to the River
N A CRISP DECEMBER MORNING IN 2017, Austin Alvarado paddles his canoe along a remote stretch of the Rio Grande’s Lower Canyons. The 25-year-old Guatemalan-American river guide strokes the water beneath his boat, careful not to disturb the silence surrounding him. Alvarado typically finds peace in these moments of solitude, an exercise he’s mastered over his five years leading river trips in West Texas, but he’s nervous this time. Until now, he’s never seen the place where his parents crossed into the United States illegally nearly three decades
