The Land of Open Graves struck me from the very beginning because of De León’s writing style. At first, the less monotonous, more conversational language and style of De León’s ethnography was offsetting as I am used to a more neutral-toned narrative. Although many of the ethnographies we have read also blur the line between formal and informal, the language and descriptions littered throughout this one set themselves apart. As a strategic tool to match the tonality of his interviewees, the frank and humorous narration incorporated the bones of his research in the experiences of the people he studied with. De León’s use of photography in this ethnography intrigued me as well. Pictures can share vivid details about scenes and document visual histories, supplementing the descriptions and stories in an ethnographer’s work. Moreover, De León discussed how photography can be deleterious and unproductive, ensuring that its inclusion in his work circumnavigates those issues. Giving the interlocutors cameras to self-document their travel further minimizes the ethnographer’s impact on the community they work with; however, as De León posited, this impact is never fully negated. Also in the introduction, De León described his distinct method of ethnography, expanding on the problems that can arise when an outsider attempts to “‘witness’” a process fundamentally different from their own experiences (38). Through delineating the unnecessary risks his presence would cause in the field site, De León discussed the contradictions of participant observation and how it would impede his ability to capture the real experiences of the people he talks to. Specifically in the case of “documenting the undocumented,” De León is acutely aware that his presence would disrupt the habitus of the process, precipitating him to shift his methodological focus away from participant-observation toward emphasizing informal and formal interviews, visual histories of the experience, and archeological reconstructing of material stories (36). De León’s employment of anthropology in his research was fourfold, incorporating ethnography, archaeology, forensic science, and linguistics in his pursuit to enhance our understanding of the process of undocumented desert migration (41). These new modes of conducting and representing fieldwork that De León explored in The Land of Open Graves were illuminating for my understanding of what an ethnography can be. I am very interested in the holistic approach De León took with his research and want to recapture the genuity of his work in my own research project.