The Line Becomes a River 	

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BBC Radio 4 FM

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Joseph Balderrama

Francisco Cantu

Richard Hamilton

The Line Becomes a River by Francisco Cantú: 4. It's Personal

The Line Becomes a River

4. It's Personal

The Line Becomes a River by Francisco Cantú

BBC Radio 4 - The Line Becomes a River by Francisco Cantú, 4. It's Personal

Francisco Cantu's experiences of policing the US-Mexican border become personal.

Francisco Cantu's experiences as a border patrol agent at the US-Mexican border become personal. Read by Joseph Balderrama.

Francisco Cantu's experiences of policing the US/Mexican border become personal when an immigrant friend attempts to make the perilous crossing. 

Francisco's memoir about working for the US Border Patrol also tells the personal stories of those who risk all for a better life in the US.

Born to the daughter of a Mexican immigrant, the border is in his blood. His decision to become a law enforcer came after four years of learning about it through policy and history while studying international relations, and the realisation that theory isn't enough. He needs to be on the ground to understand the border in all its beauty, ugliness and danger.

After four years the personal toll leads him to leave the Patrol but when an immigrant friend does not return from a trip to Mexico Cantu is returned to a world which he discovers is impossible to leave behind.

His evocative account is interwoven with reflections on the history, culture, nature and psychology of the border, and is more broadly about life on either side of a boundary, wherever it is.

Abridged by Richard Hamilton

Read by Joseph Balderrama.

Producer: Elizabeth Allard

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2018.

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Francisco Cantú recounts his experiences of policing the US-Mexican border.

Francisco Cantú recounts his experiences of policing the US-Mexican border. Read by Joseph Balderrama. Abridged by Richard Hamilton.

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