The Line Becomes a River

Our country has been set ablaze with hateful rhetoric villainizing both sides of the “border debate.” On one side, individuals contend that Americans must band together to protect American jobs, to protect Americans from the “rapists and murders" trying to cross our border from Mexico. In contrast, their opposers chalk up the Border Patrol and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency to be little more than a facist paramilitary organization whose members seek to murder and dehumanize migrants. The common ground these two groups share is that they both seek to separate individuals into groups of “us” and “them.” As a school district, we must do our best to expose students to a variety of viewpoints on salient cultural issues, which includes perhaps the most contentious issue -- the United States-Mexico Border.

The Line Becomes a River by Francisco Cantú was hotly debated when it came out. Not only did it paint the border patrol in a light that the typical American had never truly considered until then, but it was also written by a third generation white-passing man of both Mexican and European descent. Critics lamented that Cantú was wrong to have not let actual immigrants and those most affected by the border crisis be the sole authors of such books. What these critics fail to acknowledge, however, is that Cantú was intimately acquainted with the border, both through his work as a border patrol agent and through his culturally focused upbringing.

To put it bluntly, The Line Becomes a River is one of the most important pieces of literature I have read in my entire high school career, and it would male an excellent addition to Bacon's curriculum. . The high school curriculum in areas other than English is significantly lacking in culturally relevant literature. Students are not nearly as engaged in critical thought about the human condition than is necessary for progress. They are too embroiled in partisan bickering, and fail to recognize the importance of weeding out instances of "othering". While The Line Becomes a River is markedly partisan, it largely not due to Cantú's liberal leanings. Rather, Cantú describes the world as he has seen it, and does not sugarcoat anything to appease both sides of the debate. While the book may seem to be too critical of the immigration system in the United States, it is not unwarranted. Students need to be exposed to the hard facts of the United States' political blunders, no matter how uncomfortable they may be to own.