Dying to Cross

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.