Chapters 13-16
Essential Meaning: America will willingly waste its money for no solution in order to maintain the idea of “America First.”
Quote: “Later, she calculated that the dead men’s flight alone had cost over sixty-eight thousand dollars. ‘What if,’ she asked, ‘somebody had simply invested that amount in their villages to begin with?”(Urrea 199).
Explanation: The U.S. will spend money to send dead immigrants home instead of spending that same money on improving those immigrants’ home conditions because the U.S. is blindsided by the concept of “America First,” even if “America First” costs more money and offers no solutions. Rita Vargas is disgusted when she arrives in Veracruz and sees how staged the dead men’s arrival is. The men are made out to be martyrs, and the governor of Veracruz praises them for seeking opportunity. Vargas thinks about how expensive sending the men home was, and she thinks about how poor Veracruz is to the point where men who simply sought economic benefit from the U.S. are deemed great heros. She can’t help but wonder what could be different if “somebody had simply invested that amount in their villages to begin with?” Perhaps if Veracruz had a bit more money, there wouldn’t be a need for men to travel to and die in the U.S. If the U.S. really wanted to stop its border “problem,” it would invest in villages (in some way) to prevent immigrants from coming over in the first place. So, why is it that the U.S. will spent thousands of dollars on each dead or injured man, but won’t give up any money to slow the flow of immigrants coming into the U.S.? The U.S. is enamored with the idea of itself; that is, America is not willing to give any money up to anyone else because it needs to “focus on issues at home first.” It makes no sense to throw money at a problem that could be helped by reallocating that money, but focusing on the idea of “America first” appeals to the American populus more than helping poor Mexican citizens does. Americans clutch onto the idea that their needs must be met immediately, regardless if it does nothing to actually solve issues on the border. The concept of “America first” is more wasteful and ineffective than Americans realize, but the thought of putting money toward real solutions is essentially sacrilege if it doesn’t directly benefit American citizens. If Mexican villages were to ever receive financial support from the U.S., it would have to be at the cost of America First.
The Tortilla Curtain and The Devil's Highway 