Rubén Martínez (1) (1962–)

At a time when our relationship to Latin America has become a toxic element in our politics, this remains a must-read book. Martínez is a beautiful writer and gets into the details of how people have come back and forth across the border for centuries. He also uncovers the hypocrisy of depending on migrant labor while at the same time posturing about "the Wall." There will never be a Wall; and there seems to be no hope of a sane and humane immigration reform. The sad truth of our times is that desperate people are on the move all over the globe. Until we can do the hard, meticulous work of economic reform, investment in women and children and promoting peace, more and more families will have to risk their lives to survive.… (altro)

At 5:15 AM, April 6, 1996, Benjamin, Jamie and Salvador Chavez are hiding in the camper shell of a 1989 GMC truck as it races down Avenida Del Oro, a two lane California road trying to outrun the pursuing Border Patrol. At 70 miles per hour, with twenty five illegal immigrants stacked like cordwood , the truck goes off the road, airborne and lands on its roof. The Chavez brothers and five others are dead.
Cheron, about 200 miles west of Mexico City, is a town where everyone goes North. Some never return. Some come home after the harvest in the United States or to attend festivals or family events, such as the Chavez brother’s funeral. Many send money to family in Cheron. Some are building homes for their retirement. They live in two worlds and two cultures not entirely at home in either.
Ruben Martinez lives with them on both sides of the border, from Cheron Mexico to a safe house (actually a trailer) in Cobden Illinois, Warren Arkansas, Norwalk Wisconsin and St. Louis Missouri and tells their story. It is fascinating. I have studied immigration, legal and illegal, in a couple of classes, but this firsthand account gave me a new perspective. The fact that I knew several of the locations, from Carbondale Illinois, where I went to school, the nearby farm community of Murphysboro and my hometown St. Louis. Although the author has a clear bias, he is a second generation immigrant; the book is not a polemic. It made me rethink a number of my assumptions.… (altro)