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Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling
by Jason De León
Book Reviewed by:An intense, intimate and first-of-its-kind look at the world of human smuggling in Latin America, by a MacArthur "genius" grant winner and anthropologist with unprecedented access
Political instability, poverty, climate change, and the insatiable appetite for cheap labor all fuel clandestine movement across borders. As those borders harden, the demand for smugglers who aid migrants across them increases every year. Yet the real lives and work of smugglers—or coyotes, or guides, as they are often known by the migrants who hire their services—are only ever reported on from a distance, using tired tropes and stereotypes, often depicted as boogie men and violent warlords. In an effort to better understand this essential yet extralegal billion dollar global industry, internationally recognized anthropologist and expert Jason De León embedded with a group of smugglers moving migrants across Mexico over the course of seven years.
The result of this unique and extraordinary access is Soldiers and Kings: the first ever in-depth, character-driven look at human smuggling. It is a heart-wrenching and intimate narrative that revolves around the life and death of one coyote who falls in love and tries to leave smuggling behind. In a powerful, original voice, De León expertly the lives of low-level foot soldiers breaking into the smuggling game, and morally conflicted gang leaders who oversee rag-tag crews of guides and informants along the migrant trail. Soldiers and Kings is not only a ground-breaking up-close glimpse of a difficult-to-access world, it is a masterpiece of narrative nonfiction.
National Book Awards
2024
While De León painstakingly illustrates the stories of smugglers who have accepted him into their clique, he cannot separate his own story from theirs. He understands their motivations and the unspeakable: PTSD, bad dreams, anxiety about surviving. While Soldiers and Kings offers little political commentary, it exposes the structural problems of troubled countries and the loose barriers in place that cannot prevent migrants from leaving their homelands. Despite De León's engaging and conversational prose, it isn't an easy story to read. The actors on all sides are complicated and sad; yes, some are monsters. Others are trying to make a dollar out of 15 cents...continued
Full Review
(1251 words)
(Reviewed by Valerie Morales).
For seven years, anthropologist Jason De León followed low-level smugglers to understand the motivation, culture, hopes, and dreams of those guiding migrants to the US-Mexico border and beyond. De León documents their stories, some of which ended in death, in Soldiers and Kings. While his work is centered on the smugglers, a fuller picture of today's Central American migrants and the danger they encounter when they flee their home country emerges.
Migrants are at the mercy of gangs whose presence dominates the trail to the US-Mexico border. One of the first stops for migrants entering Mexico from Guatemala is an enclosed structure called "the chicken coop." Doesn't matter if you are walking, or a passenger in a van or bus...
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This is a real one. A work of extraordinary reportage and compassion, Soldiers and Kings takes us deep inside the lives of smugglers guiding desperate migrants across Latin America. One breathtaking scene follows another, rendered in vibrant, unsparing prose documenting grinding poverty and violence, but also young love and redemption. It will shock you, move you, and leave you changed.
