The Beast: Riding the Rails and Dodging Narcos on the Migrant Trail
By Oscar Martinez and Francisco Goldman
4.5/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
Searing true stories from two years of immersion reporting on the migrant trail from Chiapas to Arizona
One day a few years ago, 300 migrants were kidnapped between the remote desert towns of Altar, Mexico, and Sasabe, Arizona. A local priest got 120 released, many with broken ankles and other marks of abuse, but the rest vanished. Óscar Martínez, a young writer from El Salvador, was in Altar soon after the abduction, and his account of the migrant disappearances is only one of the harrowing stories he garnered from two years spent traveling up and down the migrant trail from Central America and across the US border. More than a quarter of a million Central Americans make this increasingly dangerous journey each year, and each year as many as 20,000 of them are kidnapped. Martínez writes in powerful, unforgettable prose about clinging to the tops of freight trains; finding respite, work and hardship in shelters and brothels; and riding shotgun with the border patrol. Illustrated with stunning full-color photographs, The Beast is the first book to shed light on the harsh new reality of the migrant trail in the age of the narcotraficantes.
Read more from Oscar Martinez
The Beast: Riding the Rails and Dodging Narcos on the Migrant Trail Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A History of Violence: Living and Dying in Central America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Beast: Riding the Rails and Dodging Narcos on the Migrant Trail Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to The Beast
Related ebooks
Survival Math: Notes on an All-American Family Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Coyotes: A Journey Across Borders with America's Mexican Migrants Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Solito, Solita: Crossing Borders with Youth Refugees from Central America Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5All the Agents and Saints, Paperback Edition: Dispatches from the U.S. Borderlands Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Everyday People Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Torn from the World: A Guerrilla's Escape from a Secret Prison in Mexico Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Essays Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5In One Person: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shadowlands: Fear and Freedom at the Oregon Standoff Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gritos: Essays Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Committed Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Thousand Lives: The Untold Story of Hope, Deception, and Survival at Jonestown Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5House of Jaguar Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5It Occurs to Me That I Am America: New Stories and Art Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Great Escape: Nine Jews Who Fled Hitler and Changed the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Doctor Benjamin Franklin's Dream America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWriting Tricksters: Mythic Gambols in American Ethnic Fiction Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGoodbye Paris: Pono Hawkins Thriller, #3 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Shadow Catcher: A U.S. Agent Infiltrates Mexico's Deadly Crime Cartels Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dreamer: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Who's Afraid of Post-Blackness?: What It Means to Be Black Now Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Curious Exploits: A Family Seeks Success in Nineteenth Century America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLost Nation: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Assassins Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Vast and Fiendish Plot:: The Confederate Attack on New York City Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Two Spirits: A Story of Life With the Navajo Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Last Savanna Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhy America Matters: The Case for a New Exceptionalism Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Daughters of Juarez: A True Story of Serial Murder South of the Border Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blues for Cannibals: The Notes from Underground Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
World Politics For You
The Great Awakening: Defeating the Globalists and Launching the Next Great Renaissance Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Great Reset: And the War for the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Likewar: The Weaponization of Social Media Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A World Without Jews Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Afghanistan Papers: A Secret History of the War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty | Summary Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mao's Great Famine: The History of China's Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958-1962 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Six Day War: The Breaking of the Middle East Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gulag Archipelago: The Authorized Abridgement Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ten Myths About Israel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rise of the Fourth Reich: The Secret Societies That Threaten to Take Over America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Read Donald Duck: Imperialist Ideology in the Disney Comic Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Light in Gaza: Writings Born of Fire Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ishtar Rising: Why the Goddess Went to Hell and What to Expect Now That She’s Returning Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Antisemitism: Part One of The Origins of Totalitarianism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Enemies and Neighbors: Arabs and Jews in Palestine and Israel, 1917-2017 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Palestine: A Socialist Introduction Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gulag Archipelago [Volume 2]: An Experiment in Literary Investigation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Putin's People: How the KGB Took Back Russia and Then Took On the West Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Political Awakenings: Conversations with History Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5On Palestine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Beast
7 ratings1 review
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This book presents itself with a cover photo of a migrant on a freight car and says it's about "riding the rails". True enough, the book starts out in Guatemala and Honduras with the migrants working themselves into southern Mexico to start the migration up to the U.S. Like the non-documentary film, Sin Nombre, it does an excellent job of explaining why so many people feel compelled to flee their homelands and confront so many serious obstacles to reach America. The first part of the book could have been the basis for the film's screenplay. It's that similar. Both the book and the movie state very clearly that it's as much, if not more, of a factor of how untenable the existence is in Central America for migrants as it is how much America offers. Yet, about midway through the book, the author shifts focus to the vast Mexican border and the million and one obstacles that migrants face in crossing over into America. The U.S. Border Patrol is, in many respects, the least of those obstacles. This book covers the migrant experience is great depth. The feature that most distinguishes this book, however, is that this is almost entirely first person reporting. The author and a companion photographer place themselves throughout, in the midst of the migrants, their families, and those supporting or conflicting or merely observing those same migrants. This is not an historians perspective, nor that of a reporter showing up at an event and then rushing off to write a story. This is journalistic immersion. The reader will respect and admire what the author has done to tell this story. I very much look forward to reading his next work.