Rinaldo Gianna U1A3
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Date
Nov 24, 2024
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Rinaldo 1
Gianna Rinaldo
Ms. Martinez
English 102
2 February 2023
La Frontera
In this synthesis, I will be comparing and contrasting
The Devil’s Highway,
a novel by
Luis Urrea,
No More Deaths,
a website dedicated to aiding immigrants run by The Unitarian
Universalist Church of Tucson, and
Border South, a movie
directed by Raúl Paz Pastrana. These
media are all centered around the Borderlands; the area where the United States meets Mexico.
This section of North America has a specific culture compared to that of the Southern States or
Mexico in its entirety. I will be analyzing the purpose these authors carry to write or create these
medias, the way they have created these medias, and the author’s appeals.
Luis Alberto Urrea, the author of
The Devil’s Highway
, was born in Tijuana (Urrea,
2022). Urrea considers himself a Border Writer and uses his work to tell the story of other
immigrants; he says “[he] uses his dual-culture life experiences to explore greater themes of
love, loss and triumph” (“
About”
).
No More Deaths
, a faith-based website doesn’t seem to have
the deep ties that Luis Urrea talks about in his website (:
About”
). They are simply a coalition of
people looking to provide shelter and help to immigrants crossing the border and those who have
made it to Arizona.
No More Deaths
is a website “dedicated to stepping up efforts to stop the
deaths of migrants in the desert and to achieving the enactment of a set of Faith-Based Principles
for Immigration Reform” (“
No More Deaths”
). The director of
Border South
, Raúl Paz Pastrana,
is a Mexican Immigrant himself. He uses his culture and experiences to educate and share with
the audience. Both Urrea and Pastrana have personal ties to the Borderlands, which makes their
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works more passionate for them and for the reader, while
No More Deaths
doesn’t have a
cultural tie; they have a long history of aiding immigrants in Tucson which shows us they are
passionate and dedicated. These media are all aiming to educate the audience and make them feel
for these people.
What makes these pieces of work so effective is the rhetorical conventions used. Urrea
used Diction and Syntax to express how hard the desert is on the travelers bodies and minds,
No
More Deaths
used a recurring symbol, and Pastrana used film shots to help us understand the
depth of the words that were spoken. In
The Devil’s Highway
Luis Urrea used his diction and
syntax to reiterate the harshness of the desert, in this quote we get an example of his word
choice. “In many ancient religious texts, fallen angels were bound in chains and buried beneath a
desert known only as Desolation. This could be the place.” (Urrea, 4-5). This quote shows us
how isolated and hellish the desert is to people, the desert can be so cruel that it is used as
punishment for fallen angels. Fallen Angels is a unique word choice to pair with the desert.
Fallen Angels are typically Heaven’s reject angels who are subjected to falling to earth or Hell to
suffer. Thus, Urrea is implying that the desert is like hell.
No More Deaths
used the picture of an
empty gallon jug over and over throughout their website. They used this symbol because this is
what the immigrants experience while trekking through the Sonoran Desert. The empty jug is to
remind us that these traveling immigrants are out of water somewhere in the desert, this also
connects with the fact that
No More Deaths
sets up water stations out in the desert for the
immigrants. There will never be enough water that can be carried to last someone through the
vast desert. In the film
Border South
director Raúl Pastrana used cinematic shots to help us
imagine what immigrants go through to get to the U.S.. In the first two minutes of the film, we
see a man named Gustavo on the train tracks. He explains to us how they sleep on the tracks to
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feel and hear the train coming so when the train comes, they can catch a ride. This shows us how
dangerous it is, not only are we imagining someone sleeping on the tracks but with Pastrana’s
use of location we see how they sleep on the tracks.
These three media sources use Ethos, Pathos and Logos to appeal to the audience. Luis
Urrea used pathos in The Devil’s Highway to get us to feel what the men were feeling as they
went through the desert, and to connect with them. Luis described, “The men had cactus spines
in their faces, their hands. There wasn't enough fluid left in them to bleed. They'd climbed peaks,
hoping to find a town, or a river, had seen more landscape, and tumbled down the far side to
keep walking. One of them said, ‘"Too many damned rocks.’" Pinches piedras, he said. Damned
heat. Damned sun.” (Urrea, 4-5). At some point in time everyone has had a splinter, most
Arizonians have had a cactus spine in them. By telling us the men had these spines everywhere
we can remember our pain with the splinter or cactus spine and try to imagine that pain all over.
This connection makes us feel for these men and relate to them on a small scale.
No More Deaths
establishes Ethos many times on their website. They show credibility by giving updates, and by
having interesting and relevant stories. They have a FAQ section that also helps us trust the
organization. In
Border South
, the best example of pathos is when we see Gustavo get his work
permit. The raw excitement from him and his family is astounding. It was easily my favorite part
of the movie. Watchers are excited with the man and happy for him. (00:33:28). Pathos is the
most successful rhetoric in the media. Once the author or director or organization has won
someone’s heart over, ethos and logos will follow suit.
All three sources did a great job educating the audience about the Borderlands and the
people of the Borderlands experiences’. Without the use of rhetorics they may have not been as
effective at getting their point across.
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Rinaldo 4
Works Cited
“About.”
Film
, 13 Oct. 2022,
https://raulpazfilms.com/about-2/
“About.” Luis Alberto Urrea, 1 Dec. 2022,
http://luisurrea.com/about/
Border South.
Directed by Raúl Paz Pastrana, Andar Films Production Company & Bullfrog
Films, 2020.
Docuseek2.
“No More Deaths • No Más Muertes.”
No More Deaths • No Más Muertes
, 30 June 2022,
https://nomoredeaths.org/en/
Urrea, Luis Alberto.
The Devil's Highway: A True Story.
Back Bay Books, 2014.