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In his gripping and provocative debut, anthropologist Jason De León sheds light on one of the most pressing political issues of our time - the human consequences of US immigration policy. The Land of Open Graves reveals the suffering and deaths that occur daily in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona as thousands of undocumented migrants attempt to cross the border from Mexico into the United States. In harrowing detail, De León chronicles the journeys of people who have made dozens of attempts to cross the border and uncovers the stories of the objects and bodies left behind in the desert.
List of contents
Introduction
PART ONE. THIS HARD LAND
1. Prevention Through Deterrence
2. Dangerous Ground
3. Necroviolence
PART TWO. EL CAMINO
4. Memo and Lucho
5. Deported
6. Technological Warfare
7. The Crossing
PART THREE. PERILOUS TERRAIN
8. Exposure
9. You Can’t Leave Them Behind
10. Maricela
11. We Will Wait until You Get Here
12. Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Appendix A. Border Patrol Apprehensions, Southern Border Sectors, 2000–2014
Appendix B. Border Patrol Apprehensions, Tucson Sector, by Distance from the Border, Fiscal Years 2010 and 2011
Notes
References
Index
About the author
Jason De León is Professor of Anthropology and Chicana/o and Central American Studies, UCLA; a 2017 MacArthur Fellow; Executive Director of the Undocumented Migration Project; and President of the Board of Directors for the Colibrí Center for Human Rights. In 2010, he hosted American Treasures, a reality-based television show on the Discovery Channel about anthropology and American history. He is currently organizing a global participatory exhibition called “Hostile Terrain 94” that will be installed in 150 locations simultaneously on six continents through the summer of 2021.
Summary
Sheds light on one of the most pressing political issues of our time-the human consequences of US immigration policy. This book reveals the suffering and deaths that occur daily in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona as thousands of undocumented migrants attempt to cross the border from Mexico into the United States.
Additional text
"A powerful book . . . The Land of Open Graves is very appropriately published in the California Series in Public Anthropology and represents just what public or engaged anthropology can and should be. . . . This is a book that all parties should read."
