Dying to Cross

The tragic heat-related deaths of 19 illegal immigrants in a sealed trailer bound for Houston in 2003 horrified the public in both the United States and Mexico. The worst tragedy of its kind ever, it showed the increasing dangers of illegal immigration in the wake of 9/11. Jorge Ramos became involved while covering the story for Florida-based Univision. The narration opens dramatically with Jonathan Davis reading the names of the dead before the acknowledgements. An opening chapter is repetitive, but once the survivors' accounts begin, the story becomes compelling. Davis's accents seem natural, even when used during descriptive passages to simulate Ramos's voice. J.A.S. (c) AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine

April 4, 2005
On the night of May 14, 2003, on a highway outside of Victoria, Texas, 19 people died of asphyxiation, dehydration and heat exposure inside of a locked, double-insulated trailer truck. The dead were among 73 Latin Americans who were trying to start a new life in the United States and who had paid a coyote to smuggle them into Houston. In this dramatic recounting of the headline-grabbing events, Emmy Award-winning Noticiero Univision anchorman Ramos weaves together interviews with the survivors and state officials, reports from police and government agencies, court records, medical research and his own speculations to tell the story from various points of view. Ramos prefaces his book by telling readers that the "facts presented here have not been modified for literary or any other kind of dramatic effect," which is to say readers should not expect the narrative unity of a true-crime novel. Nonetheless, he has crafted a page-turning history, ordering vignettes, testimonials and facts to create suspense at every turn. Scenes of dramatic desperation unfold: men drinking their own urine, supplicants calling out to Satan as well as to God, hands beating out the trailer's tail lights in an effort to circulate air. Unfortunately, these details create the bulk of the book's impact and overshadow Ramos's other prefatory promise: to make plain the culpability of U.S. and Mexican immigration policies in these deaths-an interesting argument that isn't fully developed in this book.