Reading Description

I read a lot of books, essays and articles, some make me laugh and majority of the time I can not stop reading because it is interesting and I have to know what's going to happen next. Unlike anything I've read, "Inherit the Earth The Things They Carried" by Demetria Martinez made me cry! Demetria spoke about what it is like crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. She starts off  her essay describing the heat in Arizona by saying "The Arizona sun is melting like a pat of butter on the mountain that flanks Tucson's west side." As I kept reading I realized how important this information was. She continues to explain how every Thursday night people have gathered in El Tiradito to remember those who have suffered death trying to cross the border. Yolanda Gonzales was a mother who died; she gave up her last drops of water from her plastic jug into her daughter's bottle. This was such a heart warming thing to read because although I am not a mother, I understood the struggle the parents had to sacrifice through this journey. People who were crossing the border carried things with them to help them a long the way such an empty plastic jug to get water from water stations and used AeroMexico tickets. My assumption to the used AeroMexico was the same as Demetria Martinez which was that people had that on them so if they died along the way they were able to identify them. An installation put together by Maeve Hickey called "Lost and Found: Remnants of a Desert Passage" selected items that were collected by Human Birder volunteers on their trips to haul water to the water stations. One of the items were a "babys cowboy boots with silver tips." This made me sad thinking that there was a baby who was walking barefoot burning its foot from the sun. I learned the risks people took trying to cross the boarder like arranging for rides from people they probably they don't know. The chance of this person getting robbed and being dropped somewhere they don't know or even getting picked up by someone who could be an undercover police is so high and dangerous. I believed Demetria Martinez when she said "Unconsecrated ground. Reflecting on those words, I can't help but see our border, la frontera: a militarized zone, a killing field. I think of the fourteen men who died recently in triple-digit heat -- abandoned by their smuggler, abandoned by a gluttonous nation that craved cheap labor but detests the laborer." I developed a sense of what this is like because I pictured a picture in my mind with people crossing the board getting killed inches away from their dream. Demetria Martinez didn't use much simile or metaphor to describe places, she was original and was real precise with her details. I really enjoyed this reading especially since it made me feel a way I never felt as a reader. I chose this essay because it reminded me of the stories my father told me about his crossing over the border from Guatemala and it hit close to home and I can not help but respect her words.