If you are American and listen to the same antiauthoritarian music that I do, you know that train hopping is a common theme. The romance of a gutter punk jumping a train to get a free ride to a new place is sung from Woody Guthrie to Pat the Bunny (Patrick Schneeweis). After reading The Beast by Óscar Martínez (@CronistaOscar), American train hopping shifts from the romance of Christopher McCandless into the harsh light of day where the romantic veneer peels away to illuminate the horrors within immigrants traveling to El Norte on La Bestia[A].

Óscar Martínez is a phenomenal journalist. To document the trips that immigrants take to the US border through Mexico, he made the trip many times while interviewing migrants, coyotes, police, priests, and members of the Los Zeta cartel. His literary journalism covers the horrors of rape, mutilation, kidnapping, exploitation, solidarity and hope on the migrant's trail.

Photography of migrants on La Bestia: www.theguardian.com/us-news/gallery/2017/dec/13/mexico-central-american-migrants-la-bestia-pictures

[A]en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Bestia