Spare Parts: Four Undocumented Teenagers, One Ugly Robot, and the Battle for the American Dream

By Joshua Davis

The true story of four underdogs from the mean streets of Phoenix and how they took on the best from MIT in the National Underwater Robotics Championship

The story that inspired the major motion picture produced by George Lopez, directed by Sean McNamara, and starring Marissa Tomei, Jamie Lee Curtis, Steven Michael Quezada, and George Lopez, La Vida Robot is an underdog story about four undocumented Mexican-American teenagers from Phoenix who form a robotics team. With $800, used car parts, and a dream, they build an underwater robot that wins the national robotics competition, taking down reigning champion MIT.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Dec 30, 2014
• ISBN: 9781443436052

Joshua Davis

JOSHUA DAVIS is a contributing editor at Wired and co-founder of EPIC magazine, and he has written for The New Yorker, GQ, Outside, Men's Journal, Men's Health, Maxim and Food & Wine. His writing was anthologized in the 2012 edition of The Best American Science and Nature Writing, as well as the 2006, 2007 and 2009 editions of The Best Technology Writing. In 2002, Davis completed The Beast Within, a documentary film about his attempt to become the lightweight armwrestling champion of the world. The film won Best Documentary at the 2003 Telluride Mountain Film Festival. In April of 2003, Josh snuck into Iraq to cover the war for Wired and later that year became a contributing editor at the magazine. In 2005, he published his first book, The Underdog, a recounting of his arm-wrestling, bullfighting, sumo, sauna and backward running adventures. La Vida Robot is his second book. WEB: joshuadavis.net TWITTER: @JoshuaDavisNow FACEBOOK: Joshua Davis TUMBLR: joshuadavisnow.tumblr.com 

Reviews for Spare Parts

[hobbitprincess · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Undocumented high school students in Arizona compete in an underwater robotics contest, going against MIT and other colleges. This true story is inspirational, both for what the boys accomplished and for what the teachers did to guide them. You will have more faith in the young people today after reading this, although it may challenge what you think about illegal immigrants. It's not as cut and dried as it would seem.

[lisa.schureman · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

You read this to find out if this foursome can actually beat colleges like MIT that they're competing against. You're introduced to the teenagers, how they wound up in United States, and how the high school robotics program helped kept them in school, giving their school a boost as well. To remain in the robotics program they had to maintain a certain grade point average and it became a family away from home where they could express their ideas. They were always in danger when crossing state lines that they could be picked up by ICE and came close when their teachers took them to California to see the facilities where they'd compete. Fortunately, they were traveling in school vans and their teachers managed to get them by the checkpoint and back home. One started the Robodevils at Arizona State University before deporting himself so he could enter the United States legally. I only put this book down when I was forced to.

[ingrid98684 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I'm a sucker for come-from-behind underdog stories, so loved this one. Four undocumented teenagers from Arizona take on well-funded college teams in an underwater robotics contest, overcome many, many challenges, and end up astounding everyone, including themselves. What happens afterward isn't quite the happy ending I'd have wished for them due to the pervasive anti-immigration sentiment at that time. Well written and compelling, it's an interesting challenge to the current "rapist and drug-dealer" stereotype.

[brainannex · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A fascinating look at a robotics program that had nothing but sheer interest and willpower and became a fierce competitor on the national stage. An inspiring read.

[quaintlittlehead · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is an interesting account of the unlikely team from a low-income high school in Phoenix, Arizona that entered the collegiate division of a national underwater robotics competition and beat MIT for first place. It is also an unapologetically biased narrative of how conservative policies towards illegal immigration could cost the country the talents of students like the ones described here. This is a very important and timely contribution to the national conversation about immigration, because unlike much politically oriented reporting, it puts a true human face on the issues. However, I couldn't help but ask myself why the situation these students faced had to be what it was. Why didn't their parents immigrate legally? Why didn't Oscar, who ends up voluntarily deporting himself and struggling to gain readmittance to the United States, make his choice to return to Mexico before he turned eighteen and a half so that he wouldn't have been seen as a lawbreaker, when he knew fully what the law stated about his residency?My other quibble with this book is that it seems incredibly dishonest about the role of the teachers involved in coaching the robotics team. Throughout, they are painted in an almost passive manner, doing little more than encouraging their proteges to ask the right questions to the right people, magically leading them to figure everything out. In reality, I am sure that they did much more work than they are given credit for in this story. Another book could easily be written about how great teachers get extraordinary results from their students, and I would love to read that book, but that isn't the focus of this book, nor would that fit the bias of the author, who seems intent to suggest that these students are extraordinary in and of themselves and deserve to be citizens of the United States for that reason.There is no question that I fell in love with the students described here, and that I was deeply moved by the writing and feeling every emotion along with them as they progressed in their journey and in their personal struggles. I do, however, feel that their example was used to make a particular point, and it seems odd that a science writer would ask readers to extrapolate from such a small data set to such a broad conclusion about what the country should and shouldn't do in terms of its policy.

[ladypembroke · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

What an amazing story that was in turns something to cheer and something to weep. I could write an entire commentary on how we treat immigrants in this country, but I am here to talk about the book. The author does a wonderful job of sucking you into each student's life, from Mexican roots to struggles with post-high school life. The structure and writing keep you engaged throughout, and not once does the pacing or commentary leave you bored. My heart was with these guys as they worked their way to the final competition, and I wept with joy when they started getting awards. I really hope they all end up with their dreams coming true -- I especially hope that Cristian manages to finish school. I was heartbroken that he had to drop out because of Arizona's laws.