Luis Alberto Urrea

Author Luis Alberto Urrea is a poet, novelist and journalist. He was born in Tijuana, Mexico to a Mexican father and American mother. This mixed cultural heritage can be seen in the 2014 Afterward to The Devil’s Highway, in which Urrea confesses that Tijuana and, more generally, the border “makes [him] happy” (233). According to Urrea, the border represents to him “Grandma’s house, music, good food, art, tortillas, church, soccer, family graves, the old house, and the family’s rancho. Cousins, Mexican movies, rocanrol, beaches with chilled coconuts and straws…” (234). He writes often about the border, and admits in the Afterward that The Devil’s Highway was originally given to him as an assignment.

Jesús Lopez Ramos

Jesús Lopez Ramos is the 19-year-old guide who led the Wellton 26 into the desert. He is represented in The Devil’s Highway as a youth led...