“All They Will Call You” Teaches Empathy to Border Patrol Agents

Date: Wednesday, September 27

Time: 6 p.m. CDT Reception, 7 p.m. CDT Presentation

Where: Blumberg Auditorium, University Library, 1900 Wiggins Way, University of Texas, El Paso

Professor Robert Magee is a former Border Patrol agent and now professor at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley who uses All They Will Call You by Tim Z. Hernandez, in his classes. Magee teaches undergraduate students whose dreams are to become future Border Patrol agents. Award-winning author and hall of fame journalist, Alfredo Corchado will be part of the panel discussion with Robert Magee and Tim Hernandez.

Hernandez helped design the curriculum using his book, and recommended, “Because a large number of agents are Latinx, have them start by interviewing their own families.” Hernandez later attended presentations and coordinated exhibits created by future Border Patrol agents who had interviewed their families in relation to the plane crash at Los Gatos, California. All They Will Call You is now a core text of their curriculum at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.

All They Will Call You is the harrowing account of “the worst airplane disaster in California’s history.” Outraged that media reports omitted only the names of the Mexican passengers, American folk icon Woody Guthrie penned a poem that went on to become one of the most important protest songs of the twentieth century, “Plane Wreck at Los Gatos (Deportee).”