The Line Becomes a River

wife to her feet. Her face was streaked with dried tears, and when she turned toward me I saw that she was pregnant. How many months are you? I asked. The woman looked away and the man answered for her. Seis meses. He smiled. My wife speaks perfect English, he said, shouldering the backpack. He stopped in front of the altar, bowing his head and making the sign of the cross. I waited at the door as he mumbled a prayer. Gracias, he whispered. Gracias.

Outside I looked at their faces in the glare of my headlights. The woman seemed young. Where did you learn English? I asked. Iowa, she told me quietly. I grew up there, she said, I even got my GED. She kept her head down and avoided my gaze as she talked, glancing up only briefly at my uniformed body. Why did you leave? I asked her. She told me that she had returned to Morelos to care for her younger siblings after their mother died. In Morelos I made some money teaching English at the kindergarten, she said, I even tutored the adults in my village, people preparing for the journey north. For a few seconds she seemed proud, and then she shook her head. But the money there, it isn t enough. She glanced up at her husband. It was my idea to cross, she said. I wanted our child to have a life here, like I did.

The man took a moment to look at me in the light. Listen, he said, do you think you could bring us back to Mexico, como hermano? You could drive us down to the border, he pleaded, you could just leave us there, allí en la línea. Like a brother. I sighed and turned my head, squinting at the darkness beyond the church. I have to bring you in, I told him. It s my job. The man took a deep breath and nodded and then climbed into the back of the transport van, holding out his arms to help his pregnant wife.

I gestured at a case of water bottles on the floor. You should drink, I told them. I grabbed the metal door of th

understand Cantú's fixation with the border, readers of his book are brought into that suspension, prompted -- if not outright required -- to experience what it's like to exist in-between, knowing no amount of politics or prayer can give a hard question easy answers.   CNN

An intense and captivating memoir of dreams, divisions, and death at the border.   Christian Science Monitor

Read enough op-eds and takes and tweets about the border, and you can start to forget that it s a real place .Francisco Cantú has written an insistently humane book, or maybe just a human one .It s an exploration of how the border feels, and what happens to the people who get caught in its gears.   Bookforum

A poetic and empathetic work whose message the border is built on an imaginary line, but its impact on the people who cross it, or can't, is real   feels more urgent this year than ever.   Salon

Raw and timely confessional A striking picture of the unsparing borderlands.   Minneapolis Star-Tribune

Beautiful, eloquent and timely...[Cantú's] your correspondent if you want the real story. Cleveland Plain Dealer

Woven throughout his personal story is a deep body of research and critical analysis that seeks to explain how the status quo came to be. And while reasonable minds can disagree on whether he s succeeded, Cantú, in both his book and public comments, has clearly attempted to address the underlining conditions that made his experience what it was, along the way demonstrating a willingness to publicly challenge the mission of his former employer.   The Intercept

A powerful, harrowing view of the border a no man s land where no one returns the same. Run, don t walk, to your bookstore.   KQED 

A beautifully-crafted question; the answer has yet to be written. NPR

Sharply political and deeply personal.   New York Magazine

[Cantú's] compelling, tragic account may help to break down the wall for others, too.   The Economist
 
Spare, graceful, and full of the details that propel a good story [Cantú's]life on the line has made him the kind of expert we need to hear from. Boston Globe

Cantú s confessions mimic the desert landscape he patrols: haunting but elegant, with glimmers of humor for reprieve The achievement of this book is how deftly Cantú reels us in, cold and wet behind him.    Texas Observer

This work may determine for future generations what building a wall does to magnify the heartache of plight and flight, of people moving between nation and nationality without the agency to define it themselves.   LitHub

Every single person in this country near borderlands or not should read this book, and realize that immigration cannot be solved with a single policy. Chicago Review of Books
 
Full of insights into the migrant experience. Financial Times

This beautiful and horrifying memoir should be required reading.    NY Journal of Books

Cantú interrogates one of the thorniest subjects in contemporary America and finds his mother's warning to be true: We learn violence by watching others, by seeing it enshrined in institutions.  
The Week

"[Adds] new depths to one of the most controversial issues of our modern times: the Mexican border.   PopSugar

Beautiful and brutal. High Country News

"Fresh, urgent...A devastating narrative of the very real human effects of depersonalized policy."  Kirkus Reviews (starred)

Cantú s rich prose and deep empathy make this an indispensable look at one of America s most divisive issues.    Publisher's Weekly (starred)

A personal, unguarded look at border life from the perspective of a migrant and agent, recommended for those wishing to gain a deeper understanding of current events. Library Journal
 
There is a line dividing what we know and do not know.  Some see the world from one shore and some from the other.  Cantú brings the two together to a spiritual whole.  My gratitude for this work of the soul. Sandra Cisneros

A beautiful, fiercely honest, and nevertheless deeply empathetic look at those who police the border and the migrants who risk and lose -- their lives crossing it. In a time of often ill-informed or downright deceitful political rhetoric, this book is an invaluable corrective. Phil Klay, author of Redeployment

"Francisco Cantu s story is a lyrical journey that helps bridge the jagged line that divides us from them. His empathy reminds us of our humanity -- our immigrant history -- at a critical time.   Alfredo Corchado, journalist, author of Midnight in Mexico

"Cantú s story, and intelligent and humane perspective, should mortify anyone who ever thought building a wall might improve our lot. He advocates for clarity and compassion in place of xenophobia and uninformed rhetoric. His words are emotionally true and his literary sensibility uplifting. Barry Lopez, author of Arctic Dreams and Of Wolves and Men
 
"This book tells the hard poetry of the desert heart. If you think you know about immigration and the border, you will see there is much to learn. And you will be moved by its unexpected music." Luis Alberto Urrea, author of The Devil s Highway