Walking the Border: This article is super awesome. Yes, it's from Esquire, but no, it's not written by our friend Tom Chiarella. This is all about one man's journey to walk the Mexico/US border. Any MA angle in here? What do you think of the merits of this as an article? What did you learn from this?
If you read and post about this article, it will count as two posts.
2 comments:
I’d have to agree in saying that “Walking the Border” is an awesome article. Luke Dittrich is undoubtedly a reporter with rigor; his article shows what great lengths some people are willing to go to in order “to really understand something” (/make an article compelling.) As journalists for the Voice, Dittrich exemplifies the benefit of going the extra mile for an article’s sake.
The piece in itself was quite lengthy, but obviously the more substantial/background information needed to be included. With such an extensive story to tell, Dittrich does a good job in maintaining a “readable” piece. One way he does this is with cultural anecdotes and encounters. From his scrupulously described meal in Tecate, Mexico, his friend’s fear of being exposed as an off-duty cop, the Jacumba Hot Springs, the pouch lying on the highway’s shoulder, to the retired Border Patrol agent who loved his job (‘There is no hunting like the hunting of man’), Dittrich allows such asides to complement the mundane scenery that is the buffer zone between Mexico and the U.S. He, however, always finds a way to bring the article back to its significance, not straying too far into trivialities. Dittrich is able to incorporate statistics into the article without it seeming as if you are reading statistics: “The returns are as stark and clear as those pictures on the sign. By the simple act of carrying his own body across the line, a man immediately boosts his earning potential sixfold. And if he chooses to carry something else along with his body, well, a pound of cocaine costs twice as much in Tecatito than it does in Tecate.” Although Dittrich’s use of numbers is subtle, his message is not. This tactic, in my opinion, is an extremely effective method of using statistics, and definitely one of the article’s many merits.
If "Walking the Border" were to have included some general backstory on the crisis of American immigration reform, stories of the experiences of immigrants, and the fight against immigration policy, it could be published as a thick, experiential tome on the level of John Krakauer. Without this information backing it, it stays a lengthy, informative article, but I can't help feeling that it could do more good if it were a book.
Despite this, Luke Dittrich does an admirable job of tying his trek across America to the chaotic argument that is the crisis of American immigration reform. His insights into the topic are supplemented with his experiences, making this a truly original work.
The structure of Mr. Dittrich's article is almost stream-of-consciousness, moving paragraph-to-paragraph between a chronicle of his own journey, stories of immigrants and the places he visits, and backstory on the battle for immigration reform. In another, non-experiential article, this layout would be inappropriate, but it fits this article very well, and Mr. Dittrich proves himself a capable writer.
Most important among his insights are his look into the symbiotic relationships of border towns: Tijuana and San Diego, Tecate and Tecatito, Jacume and Jacumba. The natures of these towns were irrevocably changed when American immigration policy was reformed. Most staggering of his findings is that by crossing into America, an immigrant increases his earnings potential sixfold, more if he is involved in illegal activities. While Dittrich portrays the landscape as nearly idyllic, he portrays the people working among it as ambitious, violent and dangerous, but imbuing the descriptions with unflagging realism: this is no embellishment, this is how these people live, lives made difficult by the border wars.
Mr. Dittrich has done himself proud. Were he to delve a little deeper into certain aspects of his work, he could spin this story into a revolutionary book.
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