Book, photography capture 'border' reality

September 1, 2009

“Five men stumbled out of the mountain pass so sunstruck they didn’t know their own names…They were drunk from having their brains baked in the pan, they were seeing God and devils, and they were dizzy from drinking their own urine, the poisons clogging their systems.”

These are the words of author Luis Alberto Urrea in “The Devil’s Highway.” The book is based on the true story of 26 men who attempt to cross the U.S.-Mexico border into Arizona through the dangerous desert region known as the Devil’s Highway. While a dozen men manage to survive, 14 others pay the ultimate price, succumbing to the unforgiving desert.

“The Devil’s Highway” is this year’s Common Reading Program selection.

To help kick off the program, Urrea joined President Bernie Machen in addressing the freshman class at the university’s first New Student Convocation on Aug. 21 at the O’Connell Center. Small-group discussions, led by faculty, followed the convocation.
Other campus events include a presentation by photographer David Taylor at 7 p.m. on Sept. 16 at the Harn Museum of Art. Taylor’s lecture, “Working the Line: Photographs of the U.S.-Mexico Border,” will discuss his photographic and video work that takes place on the border.

“The opportunity to share my work with the University of Florida community is very fortuitous as Luis Urrea is writing an essay for a forthcoming book of my photographs,” Taylor said.
“As Luis so profoundly illustrates in ‘Devil’s Highway,’ the space that separates our romantic vision of the desert southwest and the experience crossing that same territory as a migrant is complex and fraught,” Taylor said.

“The topic (immigration) itself is an interesting story,” said Emily Mangiaracina, a UF psychology freshman. “It’s dramatic and entertaining.”

Mangiaracina read the book this summer for a Latin American Studies class, which is focusing on immigration in Brazil.
The Common Reading Program, now in its third year, gives first-year students the book at Preview. Students are expected to read the book prior to fall semester.

For more information about the program and a list of book-related campus events, visit http://www.dso.ufl.edu/nsp/firstyearexperience/commonread/devils2009/additionalresources.php

David Taylor’s “Working the Line” photographs are available online at http://davidtaylorartwork.com/portfolio.cfm?nK=4418&nS=0&nL=1