The Line Becomes a River: Dispatches from the Border

Cantú and his mother spend Thanksgiving in a West Texas national park where his mother once worked as a park ranger. Upon arriving at the park’s visitor center, they are greeted and embraced by his mother’s former coworker, who remembers the author playing in the desert as a young boy. Cantú’s mother tells her former coworker that they are visiting El Paso and Ciudad Juárez because Cantú is studying the US-Mexico border. The coworker warns them to be careful since Juárez is a dangerous place now.

The next day Cantú’s mother shows him around the park, pointing out the desert plants and terrain. Later that evening Cantú asks his mother why she decided to become a park ranger; she says she wanted to help foster a love for nature in others, but she also took the job “because the wildlands were a place where [she] could understand [herself]” (5).

Cantú and his mother drive to El Paso. A hotel clerk, upon learning about Cantú’s research trip, shares how he used to see “wetbacks” trying to sneak their way through the grass outside as they journeyed across the border, but he doesn’t see them as much anymore. Uncomfortable, Cantú and his mother nod along and go to their room.