The Line Becomes a River

RIVERHEAD BOOKS

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Some of the material in this book originally appeared, in different form, in Edible Baja Arizona, Guernica, Orion, Ploughshares, J Journal: New Writing on Justice, and South Loop Review.

Grateful acknowledgment is made to Les Figues Press for permission to quote from Antígona González by Sara Uribe and to Cristina Rivera Garza and her translator, Jen Hofer, for providing preliminary excerpts from the forthcoming English translation of Dolerse.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Cantú, Francisco, author.

Title: The line becomes a river : dispatches from the border / Francisco Cantú.

Description: New York : Riverhead Books, 2018.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017014247 (print) | LCCN 2017042308 (ebook) | ISBN 9780735217720 (ebook) | ISBN 9780735217713 (hardback)

Subjects: LCSH: Cantú, Francisco (Essayist) | Mexican-American Border Region—Emigration and immigration. | “Illegal aliens”—Mexican-American Border Region. | Border security—Social aspects—Mexican-American Border Region. | U.S. Border Patrol—Officials and employees—Biography. | BISAC: BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Cultural Heritage. | BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Personal Memoirs.

Classification: LCC JV6565 (ebook) | LCC JV6565 .C37 2018 (print) | DDC 363.28/5092 [B]—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017014247

p. cm.

This book is a work of memoir; it is a true story based on the author’s best recollections of various events in his life. The names and identifying characteristics of certain people mentioned in the book have been changed in order to protect their privacy. In some instances, the author has combined minor characters and rearranged and/or compressed events and time periods in service to the narrative, and dialogue has been re-created to match the author’s best recollection of those exchanges.