Audiobook10 hours
The Beast: Riding the Rails and Dodging Narcos on the Migrant Trail
Written by Oscar Martinez, Francisco Goldman, Daniela Maria Ugaz and John Washington
Narrated by Timothy Andrés Pabon
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
()
About this audiobook
One day a few years ago, 300 migrants were kidnapped between the remote desert towns of Altar, Mexico, and Sasabe, Arizona. A local priest got 120 released, many with broken ankles and other marks of abuse, but the rest vanished. Oscar Martinez, a young writer from El Salvador, was in Altar soon after the abduction, and his account of the migrant disappearances is only one of the harrowing stories he garnered from two years spent traveling up and down the migrant trail from Central America and across the US border. More than a quarter of a million Central Americans make this increasingly dangerous journey each year, and each year as many as 20,000 of them are kidnapped.
Martinez writes in powerful, unforgettable prose about clinging to the tops of freight trains; finding respite, work and hardship in shelters and brothels; and riding shotgun with the border patrol. The Beast is the first book to shed light on the harsh new reality of the migrant trail in the age of the narcotraficantes.
Martinez writes in powerful, unforgettable prose about clinging to the tops of freight trains; finding respite, work and hardship in shelters and brothels; and riding shotgun with the border patrol. The Beast is the first book to shed light on the harsh new reality of the migrant trail in the age of the narcotraficantes.
Related to The Beast
Related audiobooks
Unforgetting: A Memoir of Family, Migration, Gangs, and Revolution in the Americas Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Dope: The Real History of the Mexican Drug Trade Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Cuba on the Verge: 12 Writers on Continuity and Change in Havana and Across the Country Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Separated: Family and Community in the Aftermath of an Immigration Raid Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Shining Path: Love, Madness, and Revolution in the Andes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5MS-13: The Making of America's Most Notorious Gang Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing Pablo Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Compton Cowboys: The New Generation of Cowboys in America's Urban Heartland Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Death in the Rainforest: How a Language and a Way of Life Came to an End in Papua New Guinea Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Land of Open Graves: Living and Dying on the Migrant Trail Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Deep Down Dark: The Untold Stories of 33 Men Buried in a Chilean Mine, and the Miracle That Set Them Free Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bad Mexicans: Race, Empire, and Revolution in the Borderlands Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families: Stories from Rwanda Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies: Migrant Farmworkers in the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5They Should Stay There: The Story of Mexican Migration and Repatriation during the Great Depression Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Walking the Bowl: A True Story of Murder and Survival Among the Street Children of Lusaka Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This is Cuba: An American Journalist Under Castro's Shadow Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Mole People: Life in the Tunnels Beneath New York City Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tears of Salt: A Doctor's Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Red Card: How the U.S. Blew the Whistle on the World's Biggest Sports Scandal Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5When Heaven and Earth Changed Places Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ghosts of Gold Mountain: The Epic Story of the Chinese Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Skies Belong to Us: Love and Terror in the Golden Age of Hijacking Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Miss Ex-Yugoslavia: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Injustice Never Leaves You: Anti-Mexican Violence in Texas Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Things Are Never So Bad That They Can't Get Worse: Inside the Collapse of Venezuela Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Something Fierce: Memoirs of A Revolutionary Daughter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Desert and the Sea: 977 Days Captive on the Somali Pirate Coast Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5God's Middle Finger: Into the Lawless Heart of the Sierra Madre Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Social Science For You
The Fourth Turning Is Here: What the Seasons of History Tell Us about How and When This Crisis Will End Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Come As You Are: Revised and Updated: The Surprising New Science That Will Transform Your Sex Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Perfection Trap: Embracing the Power of Good Enough Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Kindred Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Land of Delusion: Out on the edge with the crackpots and conspiracy-mongers remaking our shared reality Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, 10th Anniversary Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lonely Dad Conversations Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Deepest Well: Healing the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Adversity Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Myths of Meritocracy: A Revisionist History Anthology Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Attention Span: A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness and Productivity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Body Is Not an Apology, Second Edition: The Power of Radical Self-Love Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Own It All: How to Stop Waiting for Change and Start Creating It. Because Your Life Belongs to You. Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Behold a Pale Horse Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Radiolab: Journey Through The Human Body Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Radiolab: Mixtape: How The Cassette Changed The World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Spoiler Alert: You're Gonna Die: Unveiling Death One Question at a Time Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Beast
Rating: 4.3 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
10 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I would give this five stars, but it is a somewhat outdated book regarding the migrant trails. If you are looking for something more contemporary about the post-covid era, this isn't it. However, it does give a good sketch of what goes on within Mexico for many migrants.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Border patrol is there for drug enforcement first. The Narcos control the sale of drugs, weapons and turf crossed by the migrants, who risk losing arms, legs and heads if they fall off of a train they are clinging to. Most of the women will be raped and robbing and kidnapping are also part of growing list of perils to come to the US. After having read this and listened to it along with Paul Theroux's recent book On The Plain of Snakes my feeling is the Latin American and US governments should erradicate the Narcos using the military. If they arent somehow involved or complicit why does the mayhem continue? I have the dim view that the US sends guns there and hopes everyone kills one another so the land can be appropriated. It doesnt seem much different than how the English treated the Irish or how the world powers fight proxy wars in the Middle East for resources. Peace brings prosperity for everyone, but when a few evil, selfish people manipulate the world is doomed.