I really enjoyed this week’s reading and felt as though it was a bit more lighthearted despite some of the darker descriptions (in comparison to some of the other ethnographies we have read). I thought that De Leon did a wonderful job of building a story arch and effectively providing details that allowed the reader to connect with the different characters, such as Memo and Lucho, and better understand how their minds work and what they were thinking during their conversations and experiences. I liked how De Leon opened chapter 7, describing the excitement and good vibes of Lucho and Memo’s phone call and subsequent arrival in Tucson. I could easily imagine the three of them spending the day on the couch, thrilled and relieved to see each other, watching sports, sipping on beers, and discussing their experiences during the journey. Another part of this chapter that I noted was the author’s description of the turmoil and trauma of the journey across the border. He noted that many migrants, despite going through the experience many years ago, are reluctant to talk about their time in the Sonoran desert because of the gruesome and traumatic memories that are brought up. We can see this more through the interviews, photographs, and data included in the ethnography. I really enjoyed the format of this ethnography and the way that De Leons effectively juxtaposed the interview conversations with photographs from the journey and archeological data. The interviews are structured as multiple conversations between the participants which was easy to follow and the reader can truly see the tone of the conversation — happy, excited, sad, melancholy, discovery, etc. The conversations were all backed up with archeological data, descriptions, and photographs to provide the necessary input and context for the reader, which I appreciated as well.