Literature can be defined as writings that express ideas of interest dealing with a particular topic or subject. Literary texts are important because they connect individuals with larger truths and ideas in a society and create a way for people to record their thoughts and experiences in a way that is accessible to others. For a piece of literature to be considered valuable it should discuss a topic which is controversial to the public, give a different insight on issues, and spark a change in respect to that issue. A novel which does just that is Across the Wire by Luis Alberto Urrea. Across the Wire offers a compelling and unprecedented look at what life is like for refugees living on the Mexican side of the border. Urrea describes in great detail the struggles of immigrants who search for a better life across the Mexican- American border, encountering poverty, unhealthy sanitary conditions, illegal and political issues that surround the Mexican border, and many more. He gives a compassionate and candid …show more content…
I want you to know why they’re coming,” stating that his intention is to straighten out any misunderstandings on immigration. Reading this book has given me a different view on immigration and ‘illegals’, and I realized that we don’t fully understand all they are risking to have what they think will be a better life. According to reviews found in the book, I was not the only one who felt this way, Lowry Pei author of Family Resemblances states “Perhaps only Luis Alberto Urrea could have written this book. A more simplistic writer would anesthetize us to these lives by letting us imagine the poor dehumanized; Urrea shows us that full humanity persists in situations we would not know how to endure. He writes to change the way we see immigrants and all they sacrifice, something that you don’t realize until you have lived through