Soldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling

by Jason De León

WINNER OF THE 2024 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR NONFICTION

A TIME 10 Best Nonfiction Book of 2024 An NPR Book We Love 2024 A New York Times Notable Book of 2024 A Boston Globe Best Book of 2024

“A work of extraordinary reportage and compassion...[it] will shock you, move you, and leave you changed.”
—Matthew Desmond, Pulitzer Prize-winning and New York Times bestselling author of Evicted and Poverty, by America

“An enlightening, frightening, unforgettable read.”
—Sandra Cisneros, bestselling author of The House on Mango Street

An intense, intimate and first-of-its-kind look at the world of human smuggling in Latin America, by a MacArthur "genius" grant winner and anthropologist with unprecedented access

Political instability, poverty, climate change, and the insatiable appetite for cheap labor all fuel clandestine movement across borders. As those borders harden, the demand for smugglers who aid migrants across them increases every year. Yet the real lives and work of smugglers—or coyotes, or guides, as they are often known by the migrants who hire their services—are only ever reported on from a distance, using tired tropes and stereotypes, often depicted as boogie men and violent warlords. In an effort to better understand this essential yet extralegal billion dollar global industry, internationally recognized anthropologist and expert Jason De León embedded with a group of smugglers moving migrants across Mexico over the course of seven years.

The result of this unique and extraordinary access is SOLDIERS AND the first ever in-depth, character-driven look at human smuggling. It is a heart-wrenching and intimate narrative that revolves around the life and death of one coyote who falls in love and tries to leave smuggling behind. In a powerful, original voice, De León expertly chronicles the lives of low-level foot soldiers breaking into the smuggling game, and morally conflicted gang leaders who oversee rag-tag crews of guides and informants along the migrant trail. SOLDIERS AND KINGS is not only a ground-breaking up-close glimpse of a difficult-to-access world, it is a masterpiece of narrative nonfiction.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Politics, Audiobook, Crime, True Crime, Anthropology

Audible Audio

First published March 19, 2024

About the author

Jason De León is Professor of Anthropology and Chicana/o and Central American Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, with his lab located in the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology. De León is Executive Director of the Undocumented Migration Project (UMP), a long-term anthropological study of clandestine migration between Latin America and the United States that uses a combination of ethnographic, visual, archaeological, and forensic approaches to understand this violent social process while assisting families of missing migrants search for their loved ones. His academic work has been featured in numerous media outlets, including National Public Radio, the New York Times Magazine, Al Jazeera, The Huffington Post, and Vice. De León is A 2017 MacArthur Fellow.

Reviews

[Emily Kirk · Rating 4 out of 5]

“I want to be clear, though. Human smuggling is exploitative and violent. It also cannot be stopped. But it is not the problem. The monstrous injustices created by capitalism that drive migration are the problem: poverty, political corruption, the drug trade, transnational gang violence, climate change patterns created by the richest countries and disproportionately felt by the poorest. These are the things that make undocumented migration (along with its ugly symbiote, smuggling) a lifesaving necessity. These are things that help make the Chinos, Jesmyns, Almas, Flacos, and Kingstons of the world. Border walls, anti-smuggling task forces, and heightened security measures are expensive and ineffective tactics to deal with a world-wide crisis that has deep economic, political, and environmental roots. When we blindly ratchet up security, we only fuel the smuggling industry. If we want to eradicate undocumented migration, we have to address the push and pull factors that keep the global poor in perpetual motion. This perspective of course upsets those with the myopic and naive vision that migration is just a security dilemma to be resolved with concrete and steel. Those people can’t seem to fathom how horrible things must be at home to make loading your family into the back of a semitruck or trudging through the jungle holding a baby feel like your best available options. Those people are also more likely in denial about how much their daily life benefits from the fruits of undocumented labor. Perhaps the best way to start a conversation is to accept the fact that humans will forever seek places where they and their loved ones can thrive and feel safe. This means that wherever there are border walls separating the haves and the have-nots, you will always find desperate people and enterprising smugglers working their way over, under, and through those barricades at all costs.” (Pg. 329)

A note: human smuggling is NOT human trafficking.

[Haley Planicka · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. Speechless doesn't even begin to cover it. Brilliant, raw, and humanizing ethnographic work that delves into the lives of human smugglers to challenge the narrative that all smugglers are evil, corrupt people. The reality is that many themselves are victims of exploitation, extortion, and endless violence, and are drawn to the economic and social prospects that a life of moving people throughout Mexico and Central America can provide. Jason's writing, research style, and layered insights will leave you breathless. It was even more moving reading this as I'm working at the border with people who are migrating and seeking asylum who more often than not hire smugglers for parts of their journey to Southern Arizona. I thought that the epilogue in particular provided a refreshingly honest approach to an issue that has no clear-cut or rosy solution. What we are left with is the assertion that blaming smugglers for their involvement in clandestine migration removes culpability away from the real culprit- the U.S. government's inhumane, cruel, and negligent immigration policies that force people to seek out illicit and dangerous avenues in order to migrate for a better life. This book, and Jason's ethnographic approach, is exactly why I want to become an anthropologist.

[Traci Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really interesting book that takes you deep into the world of the people who smuggle humans into the US across the US/Mexico border. It is ethnography not journalism so the questions of closeness and ethics was so present as I read. It challenged me on those grounds. It felt a little long, and sometimes I struggled to keep people separate in my mind because the author follows around 8 people.

[John Devlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

(3.8) So this work is heart wrenching and should make anyone living in the West extremely grateful they weren’t born in the impoverished South…Say Nothing, Behind the beautiful flowers, City of Thorns, and Enrique’s Journey are similar efforts in depicting the impossibility of surviving, prospering and leading a virtuous life in many places around the globe.

The author writes well and his compassion and insights are sharp even when directed at himself…but here’s the problem. He blames capitalism and the West… “Smuggling is a symptom of border enforcement policies and capitalism itself…The monstrous injustices created by capitalism that drive migration are the problem: poverty, political corruption, the drug trade, transnational gang violence, climate change patterns”… “Children being raised by siblings, grandparents, or nonbiological kin is a functional response to capitalistic systems that disenfranchise the poor, lower their life expectancies, and provide a constant source of familial disruption. Poverty forces migration. Poverty begets”

Capitalism has lifted a billion folks out of poverty in the last 30 years…before capitalism life was nasty, brutish, and short…before capitalism everyone was poor.

And then there’s the global warming hokum, “coupled with rising sea levels,..drought, and the appearance of environmental monsters like super hurricanes”

hurricanes have decreased in frequency over the last 100 years and bc of capitalism,even though far more people live close to the ocean death from weather events have dropped over 90%…and sea level rise? Where? the author spends much time in Honduras and Mexico…what new parts of those countries are underwater?

Yeah, I didn’t think so…

He points out that the migrants who do make it to America have almost no skills, “ But there is little focused or nuanced outreach to help newly arrived undereducated kids who grew up poor and fostered by street violence. Many of these refugee children have little education to begin with, so the idea of putting them into a normal school system and expecting them to thrive is ludicrous. Flaco is already wild when he lands in California. LA gang life simply provides a new (but familiar) setting where he can mature into an adult criminal.”

None of the many people he features have any recognizable skills that would allow them to prosper in a 21st century western economy…none even speak English…

And then there’s this fallacy…
… “harden its borders and pour money into migrant detention and deportation-industrial complexes. Build barricades….But history has shown us that border walls are no match for human determination and the will to live”

No, just ask the Israelis about the Wall they built with Egypt..

Building the Wall ends human smuggling…

If Hondurans or Guatemalans or Mexicans knew that there was no mythical Emerald City on the horizon that would make all their dreams come true, they'd stay home, love their children, and work on making their country a place people didn't want to flee from.

To those who say a fence won't stop everyone -- I agree. For example when Israel placed a fence over part of their border with Egypt the 3 year total of alien immigration went down from 40,000 to about 120. I'll take that kind of reduction.

To those who say the wall would have to be 2,000 miles along and the US can't build such a structure, I hasten to remind these folks that the US was the country that went to the moon. If we can't build a really long fence, how can you believe the gov't can do anything substantial.

You see the compassionate heart isn't just filled with the milk of human kindness. The compassionate heart is tempered by wisdom. The wisdom that understands that enticing people to risk live, limb and family so that American can enjoy cheaper fruit or a low cost housekeeper/nanny is actually not kindness at all but blatant self -interest cloaked in the insidious mantle of helping the poor.

[Klavs Sedlenieks · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first hand report based in participant observation is hands down fascinating. However, although the author is an anthropologist, I would not consider this neither an ethnography nor anthropology. It is a series of violent and horrifying life stories that basically fill the entire book and have little variation. As a result one can browse up and down the chapters and get mostly the same picture. The author seems to try shocking the reader with more violent stories, but although larger context of global or even reguonal inequality and exploitation is mentioned, it never really enters the story. In the end the author admits that he cannot provide any hint of meaning to all this and thus somehow fails the expectations of what a reader might expect from a learned academic person. It seems that this doctor stops at describing how ill is the patient (in graphic details) and then says: now here we are, my job is done. The author is repeatedly frustrated by the readers who do not understand why he insists on telling these stories and blames the readers who allegedly are expecting simple solutions. It seems he does not realize that such perception of his work might be due to the way the story is told. Needs more macro perspective and analysis. A bit of a lost opportunity.

[Tomes And Textiles · Rating 5 out of 5]

ALL THE AWARDS. EVERY SINGLE DAMNED ONE.

Full review to come.

[Emelia · Rating 5 out of 5]

"If we want to eradicate undocumented migration, we have to address the push and pull factors that keep the global poor in perpetual motion. This perspective, of course, upsets those with the myopic and naive vision that migration is just a security dilemma to be resolved with concrete and steel. Those people can't seem to fathom how horrible things must be at home to make loading your family in the back of a semi truck or trudging through the jungle holding a baby feel like your best available options. Those people are also likely in denial about how much their daily life benefits from the fruits of undocumented labor. Perhaps the best way to start a conversation is to accept the fact that humans will forever seek places where they and their loved ones can thrive and feel safe."

[Catherine · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF at 26%
Sorry, I find the approach to the research for this book to be too ad hoc. I don’t think there is good source material being used, it’s just based on the author’s experiences getting to know different smugglers. Much of what he is telling us seems obvious and not that insightful. The writing isn’t that good. It’s always a bad sign when the author wants to tell you about themself.
When non-fiction is done well, nothing is better, but usually the author has more of an investigative journalist type of background and is able to bring forward a compelling narrative.

[K]

Wow. Totally deserving of the National Book Award.

[Brian Meyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

De León has written an informative and thought-provoking piece of enterprise journalism that examines an extremely timely topic through a unique lens.

Understandably, some readers may view sections as an attempt to paint human smugglers in sympathetic strokes. The author stresses that he’s not trying to “humanize” these guides, only trying to show that those who make a living guiding people across grueling geopolitical boundaries “are themselves human.”

Even though author spent years with some of the key characters, he made an effort - not 100% successful - to maintain some journalistic distance.

During a “Book TV” interview at the 2025 Tucson Festival of Books, the author shared that he was a “train wreck” in high school and has battled depression and occasional feelings of “emptiness” his entire life. De León said this project helped him to learn more about his own personal struggles and helped him to “reckon with my own story.”

The takeaway from this well-researched book is that the world of undocumented immigration is “complicated,” a world that’s shaped by a number of larger forces, including geopolitical issues, political corruption, global inequality and the brutal drug trade.

De León proposes no simple solutions, a fact that might frustrate some readers. He writes: “I’m an anthropologist, not a policy maker.”

[Audrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Americans love their heroes to be perfect and their villains to be the worst humanity has to offer. Those who smuggle their fellow man over borders illegally seem to be the most evil type of villains. So when this book won this year's National Book Award in the Nonfiction category, there were doubts aplenty as to whether the author could make good his promise of portraying complex, often violent, individuals as those who have often been under threat of death, live close to the bone themselves, and at best are survivors of dire circumstance. Imagine the surprise when Mr. De Leon accomplished this and so much more.

[Ethan · Rating 2 out of 5]

There’s a 5 star New Yorker article in here somewhere.

[Ellie · Rating 5 out of 5]

i’m speechless. i literally had to go take a walk after finishing this. this was so incredibly well written. i have read Jason’s the land of open graves as well. he writes ethnography with a vulnerable lens. this book is as much about violence as it is about grief and pain. he demonstrates through his interlocutors stories and his interactions with them just how poverty, drug trade, gang violence drive migration. as he discusses in his introduction, he is not trying to humanize smuggling rather show that the people making a living guiding people across the surveilled, increasingly political border are human.

“Their scarred and tattooed flesh is a dark-skinned road map marking pain, adventure, and dumb luck: a poorly repaired bullet wound peeks out from under a T-shirt collar; a bare arm shows off a crudely drawn pair of praying hands in blue-black ink asking for forgiveness; the ghosts of machete and knife blades walk across arms and legs. These birthmarks of violence speak a thousand truths about living through (and with) trauma, experiences that Jesmyn has come to know as quotidian”(80-81).

[Greg Talbot · Rating 4 out of 5]

The monster is known by many names. Poverty, corruption, disenfranchisement and rage (p.70), is responsible for the migrant migration. Some 2.5 million encounters at the Border occurred last year, more than 50% were families from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. Extortion, violence, and fear that compel many on their trek northward continue on their trip to States. Human smugglers, often affiliated with cartels and gangs, are systematically involved in the migration from central america to the universe. A cruel parade of appeasing their guide, avoiding immigration forces, and surviving trails such as the unrelenting Sonoran desert.

Jason De Leon’s “Soldiers and Kings” is an ethnographic account of his embedding with smugglers from Pakal-Na to the U.S. border. Through his eyes we meet the smugglers and travelers. We get to know their backstories of survival, their dreams, goals and impediments toward this mirage of “freedom”. We also encounter the GOET agents, U.S. trained to fight the M-13 gangs and prevent migrant flight northward. He sees the monster that stalks the neighborhoods of Honduras, and the unsustainable thrill seeking of sex, drugs, and gang life (p.71).

These are first hand accounts by individuals like Chino,Flanco, Jesmyn, Kingston, Santo and Papo. Often difficult and heartbreaking stories of their neglect, violence and trauma are discussed in their unguarded moments. All of them encounter the senseless violence amplied by drugs, quick money and youthful exuberance. The smugglers, many struggling with the threat of violence and financial instability, have their status games for position within hierarchy.

This is a deeply human subject about very uncomfortable topics. The lottery of birth. The U.S’s tacit involvement in Latin America and largely unacknowledged role in the instability of the region. The chilling ethics of smuggling desperate people and unchallenged moral compasses of the largely young men involved in organized crime. The sexual ethics of women and men on the migrant trail - often bartering or being forced into compromising situations. Through Leon's eyes, an American sociologist, a Professor of Anthropology and Chicana/o studies, we see how privilleged we are for institutional and personal security.

Part of the reason we read is to keep our hearts from callusing, and seeing the universal nature, that we honor in ourselves, in another’s eyes. Especially with people that don’t look or act like we do. “Soldiers and Kings” was an emotionally exhaustive read that showed just how stacked the cards are for anyone in the smuggling business; the threats of reprisal violence are always ont he corners of the pages. Nevertheless this is a book that can turn the heart toward the people who have not see enough kindness afforded to them.

[Molly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am left in awe of De Leon's ability to navigate and convey such a complicated and emotional story. It left me speechless, crying, and angry. The media and political attention placed on migration and migrant smuggling make it so easy to view it all in black-and-white. De Leon presents the reality; that migrant smugglers are complex individuals who were, themselves, facing struggles that we could never begin to imagine and who got caught up in an unjust and violent system that presented false promises of a better life. It's easier for us if we ignore that, and blindly classify migrant smugglers as cruel actors exploiting vulnerable migrants. Then we wouldn't have to open our eyes to the horrific tragedies that migrants in our border region and along the migrant trail face as a result of the inhumane policies that we have implemented in the US and encouraged/funded in Mexico. It may not be easy; it may make us feel so hopeless and guilty for all that we can't do but wish we could; but it's so incredibly important to open our eyes to it and to end this narrative that we've allowed the media and politics to tell us about migration. De Leon forces his readers to realize the messy truths of the migrant experience and all the actors who participate in it.

More than anything, I am left inspired and determined by this work. In the epilogue, De Leon is faced with the "but why should we care?" question that those involved in migration research have grown all too familiar with. In the limited amounts of work I've done so far with migration, I know this question can make you feel so dejected and left wondering what the point in your research even is if people can't recognize that migrant suffering and death is important enough to care. Reading De Leon reminds me why there is a point; why the research and work to expose the truths of the migration experience are so important; why we ALL should care.

I am grateful to De Leon for his continued devotion to this research and for allowing us all a glimpse into his experiences in the world of migrant smuggling.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am the minority here, but the writing style did not work for me. The author opted to start chapters or new sections with an action-packed 'in medium res' present tense scenes as if this were an action novel. And while I was able to figure out when and where we were fairly quickly, every new section meant the reader was yanked to a new time and place. I can see this being used to great effect in a fiction novel, but non-fiction is in my opinion better served by clarity. And having the reader wonder for the first 2-3 sentences whether we are now talking about the child of the person we were interviewing or one of their friends, or the same person themselves is not going to help with that clarity. A single short sentence, or using more than present tense would have helped. Alas, I'm on William Strunk's side here. Clarity is key for me when reading non-fiction. I derive more pleasure from the entertainment of watching a clear story come together under my eyes, rather than heart-pounding adventure. DNF at 50%.

[Kenzie | kenzienoelle.reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

After watching the National Book Award ceremony, I knew I wanted to read this book (the winner for nonfiction!) De León is an anthropologist and in the seven years that led to writing this book, he lived among the humans who smuggle other humans into the US at the Mexico border.

The work this author did is ethnography (def.: “a qualitative research method that involves immersing oneself in a community or organization to observe and understand their behavior and interactions.”) He is telling these people’s story. The where, when, how and why of how they found themselves in such a line of work.

This book ended up on my Best of the Year list because I thought it was fascinating and so well done. The stories of these men and women are truly heartbreaking. I think this book brings a lot of nuance, thought and humanization to a subject that is often looked at as very black and white.

[Stephanie Goodman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Guy parties with human smugglers and writes about it.

I’m not the first to level this criticism, and the author tries to address it in the introduction and epilogue. But his reasons are weak. He says he wants to explain the conditions that drive people into this business. But their victims face exactly the same conditions and don’t seek to exploit others. The book also lacks any real detail on the policies that contribute to the flight of immigrants or the role of smugglers. Much better read: Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here: The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis by Jonathan Blitzer.

[Katy O. · Rating 4 out of 5]

2024 National Book Award for Nonfiction. This is a book that takes work to read, and I'm happy that I just read a bit at a time over weeks. It is the work of an anthropologist, compiling seven years of time in the field with human smugglers in Mexico and Honduras, and it definitely reads as such. It is not concise, it is not a page-turner, and it is often repetitive and almost always more in the weeds that most casual readers would be looking for. I know why De Leon wrote this book in this fashion, though, and it's valid ~ he lived with these people and loved some of these people and to truly know them, you have to read their actual dialog in transcript form and be immersed in their day to day life. The format is not strictly linear or topic-based - I was confused numerous times throughout the book, trying to figure out when in time this was happening, flipping back to previous sections to remember which smuggler this was and where they were.

The fact that Matthew Desmond blurbed it as, "Extraordinary." makes complete sense though - if my memory serves me correctly, this is somewhat how Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City read as well. When writers (ethnographers) embed themselves with their subjects, it's harder to put topics and people into neat little boxes ~ it's all content, and it's all connected, and it all matters.

What this book does best is humanize the people earning money to bring people north, show how dire the situation is in the global south, and just how diabolical American politicians are in their immigration policies. It opens reader eyes to the fact that Mexico is a place to flee to, even when it's just a stop on the way to America. This book isn't really about getting to America, though, it's about why so many people are trying to flee their home countries to anywhere better. The money is staggering, the humanity is raw and heartbreaking, and the future is bleak.

Read this book not for an easy story, but for an urgent call to action, perfectly summed up by this statement in regard to a scene of thousands of Haitians who have fled to Mexico:

"Driving by, it feels like I am looking into a crystal ball. Masses of displaced people fleeing earthquakes, hurricanes, viruses, corruption, violence, and of course, poverty. No disrespect to my Mexican family and friends, but shit has to be pretty unbearable in one's home country if you're seeking refuge in Chiapas, the poorest state in Mexico. All this parking lot is missing is a neon sign that reads Welcome to our global future.

Source: public library hardcover

[Anika (Encyclopedia BritAnika) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This National Book Award winner for nonfiction will be sitting with me for a while. De Leon spent years with smugglers along the route from Honduras to America, mainly in Mexico, who worked to cross migrants into the US. He humanized these smugglers that we have only seen in black and white so fully, I was in actual tears as I read about them. The conditions that drove many people *as children* from Honduras and elsewhere to escape, to run from the gangs, from the violence, and hope to find something better across the border. They are extorted along the way. They meet with violence. Many times they are sent back. But they try again. This ending passage is the one that really hits with everything this book is saying:
"Human smuggling is exploitative and violent. It also cannot be stopped. But it is not the problem. The monstrous injustices created by capitalism that drive migration are the problem: poverty, political corruption, the drug trade, transnational gang violence, climate change patterns created by the richest countries and disproportionately felt by the poorest. These are the things that make undocumented migration (along with its ugly symbiote, smuggling) a lifesaving necessity."

This book is an absolute must read.

[Alicia Guzman · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars, rounded up to 5.

This is an important book to read, especially if you’re someone who likes to stay informed about the struggles of asylum seekers coming to the U.S. Over the past few years, I’ve read memoirs and books about the crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border, but one perspective that was starkly missing ,until now, was that of coyotes/guias/smugglers.

I grew up hearing stories about guias. They are vital for those attempting to cross into the U.S. safely, but I always wondered who they were and what circumstances led them to take on this role. Soldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling by Jason De León answers these questions.

De León, an anthropologist, presents this book as the result of years of ethnographic research. Through a compilation of experiences, he shares his time living with, following, and conducting interviews with several coyotes. He captures their stories, struggles, successes, and fears, offering an intimate and often unsettling look into their world.

At times, the interviews can feel a bit lengthy, and the narrative occasionally jumps around in ways that disrupt cohesion. However, the stories themselves are powerful and well worth reading.

[Larry Bassett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maybe it is just because I am getting old but all of a sudden it seems that the books I am reading often seem to be unnecessarily long. This book tells the story of guides who help people to travel north through Central America and Mexico to reach the US border very effectively. The author wants to tell the story of these people as actual human beings and not so much as the criminals as they are often portrayed. The book accomplishes this mission successfully, although there is also enough description in the book to ironically also support the position of Mr. Trump that these are “very bad people“!

A good deal of the book takes place in Honduras, a country that I visited quite a few years ago and is the epitome of a country dominated by poverty. The book is graphic and informative. The author is well informed and experienced with the events that are described. He describes the book as an ethnographic study as a participant observer.

I also have had some personal experience having a very limited personal relationship with a young man who over a number of years left his home in Haiti to go to Chile to find a better life. Finding life in Chile, also not much improved. He traveled all the way to the Texas border and ultimately to New York City. I thought of him many times as I listened to this book in the Audible format.

[Alisan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is not an easy read, but it is an important one. The narrative is well done, though it does jump around a lot so occasionally can be difficult to follow. I learned a lot from this book and I think it is a great study in human empathy, complexity, and the cognitive dissonance it takes to exist in the world.

[Isa · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's been a minute since a book has made me sob so openly. It reminded me of home, it made me rage, it made me so angry about the world again and how terrible it all is.

[Isabelle reads a book a day because she has no friends · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.75 stars. I cried.

[Elisabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

“A masterpiece of narrative nonfiction" is right. Jason De León embeds within a group of mostly(?) Honduran smugglers/coyotes/guides on the migrant trail through Mexico over the course of 7 years. The relationships he's able to build and the stories he's able to tell through those relationships speak to his ethnographic skill and heart as well as the desires of Chino, Santos, Jesmyn, Alma, Flaco, and Kingston to tell their full stories in their own words, resisting the dehumanization, stereotypes and misplaced blame peddled by politicians and much of the media. Intimate, raw, heart-breaking, enraging, humbling.

“I want to be clear, though. Human smuggling is exploitative and violent. It also cannot be stopped. But it is not the problem. The monstrous injustices created by capitalism that drive migration are the problem: poverty, political corruption, the drug trade, transnational gang violence, climate change patterns created by the richest countries and disproportionately felt by the poorest. These are the things that make undocumented migration (along with its ugly symbiote, smuggling) a lifesaving necessity. These are things that help make the Chinos, Jesmyns, Almas, Flacos, and Kingstons of the world. Border walls, anti-smuggling task forces, and heightened security measures are expensive and ineffective tactics to deal with a world-wide crisis that has deep economic, political, and environmental roots. When we blindly ratchet up security, we only fuel the smuggling industry. If we want to eradicate undocumented migration, we have to address the push and pull factors that keep the global poor in perpetual motion. This perspective of course upsets those with the myopic and naive vision that migration is just a security dilemma to be resolved with concrete and steel. Those people can’t seem to fathom how horrible things must be at home to make loading your family into the back of a semitruck or trudging through the jungle holding a baby feel like your best available options. Those people are also more likely in denial about how much their daily life benefits from the fruits of undocumented labor. Perhaps the best way to start a conversation is to accept the fact that humans will forever seek places where they and their loved ones can thrive and feel safe. This means that wherever there are border walls separating the haves and the have-nots, you will always find desperate people and enterprising smugglers working their way over, under, and through those barricades at all costs.” (Pg. 329)

[Karen Alexander · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think all Americans should read this book. We need to have more empathy for the people literally escaping murder to leave their home countries and search for better lives.

[Todd Settimo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an immensely impactful and informative book. It should be required reading in high school American Studies classes across the country. Unfortunately, some would regard it as an attempt to make American children ashamed of themselves and would seek to have it banned instead.

This book taught me a lot about human smuggling, most importantly how different it is from ‘human trafficking’. The two are often conflated in the media but shouldn’t be. One deals with moving people against their will and the other deals with moving people because they wish to be moved. This book deals exclusively with the latter and it opened my eyes as to the actual nature of human smuggling itself as well as the horrific conditions that cause it to exist. One fact is made abundantly clear - it’s not a phenomenon that will be solved with any amount of fencing and razor wire.

[Devon Duffy · Rating 5 out of 5]

The devil is shooting at your feet to make you dance and when you stop you get a slugger in the chest.

Well written, heartbreaking, eye opening, unfathomable, painful.

I really appreciate how much León does not try to fit people into boxes of good and evil but instead constructs this world of justified paranoia and desperation and hope and dreams and shows us how young people have to move and make decisions every day in that world.

Felt like I was inhaling the whole time never got an exhale and thus my choice of the word unfathomable at how people can truly never know peace- it seems to be threatened or taken away at every turn by authorities but also by friends.

Think everyone should read this!

[Alice · Rating 5 out of 5]

excellent but heartbreaking book. The power of anthropological methods… wow #pride But seriously the book flowed super well for non fiction. Only thing I struggled with was following the timelines and stuff but it wasn’t crucial. Really interesting and smart but not too theoretical which was huge for reading outside of school