On The Plain Of Snakes: A Mexican Journey – A Humanizing Exploration of the US-Mexico Border, Immigration Debate, and the Layered World of a Region in Conflict

Paul Theroux drives the entire length of the US–Mexico border, then travels the back roads of Chiapas and Oaxaca to explore the complex realities behind headlines about the region. As immigration debates intensify globally, Theroux investigates Mexico to illuminate current discourse. In Sonora, just south of the Arizona border, he encounters a vital desert region marked by US Border Patrol presence and internal tensions. Theroux speaks with residents, visits Zapotec mill workers in the highlands, and attends a Zapatista party meeting. He converses with people of varied backgrounds who remain in Mexico while family members attempt to migrate north. Drawing on the same humanizing approach he used in Deep South, Theroux documents a region in conflict through direct encounters with its inhabitants.