Description

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To discover what becomes of Mexicans who come illegally to the United States, Conover disguised himself as an illegal alien, traveling and working across America for more than a year. This is the chronicle of his journey.
 
“Ted Conover lived the bizarre life of the Mexican illegals. Theirs is a sub-terrestrial world of high-wire tensions, of brutal police, of sinister smugglers . . . A devastating document, this one must be read.”—Leon Uris

About the Author

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Ted Conover is the author of several books, including Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing (winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize), Rolling Nowhere: Riding the Rails with America’s Hoboes, and The Routes of Man: Travels in the Paved World. His writing has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, the Atlantic Monthly, the New Yorker, and National Geographic. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, he is distinguished writer-in-residence in the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University. He lives in New York City.

Praise For…

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"Ted Conover lived the bizarre life of the Mexican illegals. Theirs is a subterrestrial world of high-wire tensions, of brutal police, of sinister smugglers -- coyotes. A devastating document, this one must be read." -- Leon Uris

The acclaimed author of Rolling Nowhere has taken another adventure, this time on the underground railway that operates across America's southern border. To discover what becomes of Mexicans who desperately slip into the United States, Ted Conover disguised himself as an illegal alien, walked across deserts, hid in orange orchards, waded through the Rio Grande, and cut life-threatening deals with tough-guy traffickers in human sweat. This electrifying account is the harrowing vision of a way of life no outsider has ever seen before.