In the Fall, Jason de Leon visited campus and gave a truly impactful talk about his work in the Sonora desert that left many of us in the audience in tears. As such, I knew what to expect when beginning to read from De Leon’s book, but I really enjoyed the opportunity to read it in the context of what we have learned about ethnographic research, allowing me to taking in a lot more details about De Leon’s writing and research style than I would have initially. In the introduction, I love how honest De Leon is; he builds trust with the reader so easily because he explains in great detail his research methods and his true feelings on the subject matter. At moments, I was slightly shocked by the graphic and casual words he employed that we have not seen so much in other ethnographies; it not only made his writing stand out (beyond the content alone), but I think it reflected his care for his interlocutors. He was “trying to match the frankness, sarcasm and humor of my interlocutors” and “sneak across the border between accepted discourse and excluded discourse” (14). I believe he succeeded in doing so, but I also appreciated that he explained this all upfront; in that way, the readers would not be distracted by this unique writing style but instead focus on the content throughout the book.
As for Chapter 7, a question that kept repeating in my mind as I read was related to the pictures. While De Leon may have changed Lucho and Memo’s names (he said some were pseudonyms but some were not), how is showing pictures of their faces not putting them in danger of deportation? I think the pictures are incredibly impactful and really develop a clear understanding of the reality of border crossings, but at what cost? De Leon spends a lot of time discussing the morals of this research in his introduction, but I was confused how he could confidently publish these pictures all throughout his book while knowing the risk it poses for Memo and Lucho. He may discuss this in other chapters, and it seems like Memo and Lucho wanted to share their story in this way; however, I do not know why they would not have preferred to just include non-identifying pictures such as just of the mountains or of their backs/hands/etc. I thought that having Memo and Lucho carry the camera with them and take photographs from their own perspective was such a unique way of giving them agency over their story, but I think there is much to be discussed about these pictures and how they were used in De Leon’s research. Because as he mentions in the introduction, he is not the person being put at risk, but rather, Memo and Lucho carry the burden and fear of potential deportation.