Blog Post #6
By: Kaylee Hickman
“The Beast” by Oscar Martinez is a great and interesting account of the perilous journey that migrants from Central America undertake through Mexico to reach the U.S. border. Martinez documents the dangers, from brutal assaults to the extremely dangerous train rides, and gives a face to the human struggle behind immigration. Immigration is extremely difficult and hard on people but no one really knows until they have gone through it, but with Martinez’s perspective and account, it shows everyone the difficulties and dangers of immigration.
Martinez’s position as a participant-observer allowed him to gather firsthand experiences and insights from the migrants themselves. He was able to report their stories with empathy and a deeper understanding of their challenges and struggles. I feel like with his ability to give personal stories gave better insight into what actually a person who is trying to migrate goes through. It is one thing just to read about people and migrants who have experienced this but I think Martinez is able to get more personal and direct to make the readers see what it is actually like. “A month of hiding in fear, with the uncertainty of not knowing if the next step will be the wrong step, of not knowing if the Migra will turn up, if an attacker will pop out” (Martinez, 2014). This quote is one of many that displays the emotional rollercoaster that these people go through.
Martinez sees his purpose in writing these stories as giving a voice to the voiceless. He aims to shed light on the harsh realities and injustices faced by migrants, hoping to raise awareness and inspire change. Without Martinez’s insight and voice, all of the migrants that he came across along his way would have no representation or acknowledgement for their lives and what they had gone through. Most of the people in the book would end up being just another statistic that fades into the studies along the border. They all are one of a kind people but they share similar experiences with others because of their circumstance. Not many migrants get the opportunity to share their story and because of Martinez a few of them got to.
The stories written by Martinez add a human dimension to our studies of the US-Mexico borderlands. They provide personal narratives and firsthand accounts that help us understand the experiences, challenges, and resilience of the individuals living in and crossing the border. They all experienced truly horrific things such as “Killing, dying, raping, or getting raped” (Martinez, 2014). It is easy to not be personable to migrants and everything they have been through because we are not there to experience it. This account can make it hard to understand that these are real people who have gone through horrible experiences and Martinez allows us to get more connected and humanize migrants. Overall, it gives the readers a chance to show empathy or compassion towards immigrants, while also being informed about what goes on along the border and what happens while trying to cross it.
Source:
Martínez, Óscar. The Beast: Riding the Rails and Dodging Narcos on the Migrant Trail. London: Verso, 2014.
