Luis Alberto Urrea Chapter Summaries

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“In 1923, the Nazi party encouraged a public uprising against the Weimar government. Hitler addressed a rally in Munich, and led a march through the streets”(Sheehan 9). That moment was when people first put their blind trust into a leader that would go on to kill 11 million people. How could people blindly trust this leader? Luis Alberto Urrea found himself in a similar situation. He went on a journey from Mexico to the United States of America through a very deadly desert. He put his blind trust in a leader, Mendez. He trusted that this leader would lead him to freedom and a much better life. He didn’t have a good life in Mexico. He was poor and believed that life would be so much better in America. However, on his journey, over half of the…show more content…
Power can be gained through the desperation of others due to death and the lack of a job and money. The Mexicans are wandering lost in the desert at this point in the book. “They wanted to quit, but to quit was to die”(Urrea 140). They were desperate for a leader to rise up and lead them to safety. Back in the colonial town in Jamestown, the people were in a similar situation. “They began to die in large numbers, and by September half the colonists w3ere dead”(Collier 47). Large amounts of people were dying. The ones that were still alive were willing to follow any leader, good or bad, that would lead them to life and prosperity. All the Mexicans had to follow was Mendez. He did not correctly guide them to safety, but the Mexicans were desperate to trust anyone. In Jamestown, the people trusted two leaders who did not help the cause. Finally, a leader rose up, and his name was John Smith. The people at this point were desperate enough to trust anybody. Luckily for them, John Smith proved to complete the job the previous two leaders were not able to. The people of Jamestown as well as the Mexicans were desperate to trust anybody who would rise up as a leader. Death is not the only thing that causes people to desperately look for a leader. It can also be caused by the lack of a job or money. One Mexican needed a leader to travel across the desert, because he desperately needed a better job and more money. His “kids were…show more content…
We have seen blind trust played out many times throughout history. In some cases it has worked out as it did in Jamestown with John Smith and during the American Revolution with George Washington. However it also led to the rise of one someone who nearly obliterated a whole race, Adolf Hitler. As well as Mendez, who led most of a large group to their death. Right after Hitler rose to power, “The Munchner Neueste Nachrichten, which has never been overly friendly to the Nazis, reported that modeshouses in Berlin Were blazing with color and that an entire people had lived to experience the fulfillment of a long-cherished dream after years of national indignities and supineness”(Eugene 7-8). These people were excited to follow Hitler. They didn’t do their research so they had no idea how much destruction he might cause. Blind trust doesn’t just happen in history, it happens today. Right now there are political and religious leaders that are being blindly followed. The consequences of blindly trusting today’s leaders could be very drastic. Now that we know the consequences of blindly following a leader, as well as how a leader gains blind trust, we must be very critical of who we follow and why we follow them. We can’t let a leader’s power and knowledge lead us to blindly trust

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