Dr. De Leon does a phenomenal job at outlining the path migrants cross to enter into the United States. The author nicely infuses ethnography and archaeology to depict migrants’ journey. I love how the author allows the participants to take their own pictures. Although I recognize this is also for logistical purposes, this also serves as a form of autonomy for the participants to tell their own journey. The pictures help visualize for the reader the journey especially since these are hand chosen sites by the migrants themselves. Furthermore, Dr. De Leon categorization of the varying sites that migrants will encounter and utilize was fascinating.
On another note, I how the author built such a rapport with those he interviewed as exhibited at the beginning of chapter seven when Memo called him to update him that he made it across the boarder. The author giving Memo a thing of apple juice displays the trust and intimacy Dr. De Leon created. Even after such a formidable trip, the migrants, even years later, must hold onto these stories. So, the fact that Dr. De Leon created an environment where Memo and others were comfortable opening up to him is amazing and one of the few factors in ethnography that is hard to each but key to master. All in all, this one of the ethnographies that I will return to read after this course and aspire to create in a similar fashion.