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Francisco Cantú's Dispatches From The Border

Book Cover - The Line Becomes a River

At this moment of rhetoric and fury around the U.S. - Mexico border, writer and former U.S. Border Patrol agent Francisco Cantú has written the new book - "The Line Becomes a River." The book is Cantú’s personal exploration of the border - its politics, gatekeepers, and victims on both sides of the line.

Cantú is the Mexican-American grandson of border-crossers, raised in Arizona by his mother, a park ranger and the daughter of a Mexican immigrant. Haunted by the landscape of his youth, Cantú joined the Border Patrol. He and his partners learned to track other humans under blistering sun and through frigid nights.

Cantú never imagined the number of bodies he would have to collect of people who died trying to cross the desert in the middle of the scorching summer. And he hadn’t expected the relentless teeth-gnashing nightmares that would plague him for years, nightmares so terrifying that they forced him to quit the Patrol.

Joe talks to people on the radio for a living. In addition to countless impressive human "gets" - he has talked to a lot of Muppets. Joe grew up in Philadelphia, has been on the area airwaves for more than 25 years and currently lives in Washington County, NY with his wife, Kelly, and their dog, Brady. And yes, he reads every single book.