The Land of Open Graves: Living and Dying on the Migrant Trail

Shoes are essential agents for determining whether people will be able to pass through the desert or not. They are a consistent motif in De León’s book, a symbol of passing and a barometer of the weathering effects of the desert on migrant bodies. Impoverished border crossers often do not have state-of-the-art hiking boots and instead make do with the most amenable footwear they are able to afford or get their hands on. The stealing of shoes is a common crime in the Albergue Juan Bosco, where desperate migrants eager to make another crossing cannot resist taking shoes that are in a better condition than their own. Indeed, in the Albergue, a marker of an untrustworthy person is someone who steals another’s shoes and therefore sets back their next attempted crossing.

Shoes often get destroyed beyond the point of usefulness. The state of José’s shoes, which are “starting to fall apart,” and have “soles […] coming unglued” is symbolic of the wearer’s own physical exhaustion and lack of willpower to carry on with the difficult journey across the desert (272; 273). As De León writes, “those who can’t keep up with the group because of blisters or worn shoes are often left behind, which can be a death sentence” (181).