Our October Author: Luis Alberto Urrea

This month we are reading Luis Alberto Urrea's novel Into the Beautiful North and it just so happens that the book was chosen as part of the National Endowment for the Arts Big Read for this year. That means that not only are we reading this cross-border adventure with lots of other folks around the country (see some of the great events others have planned here), but also that the NEA has supplied this nice audio introduction to the book as well.  You can also catch up with how the Big Read is going at the author's website which includes Luis account of Big Read happenings.

If Mr. Urrea's going to be speaking at an event near you, take advantage!  After spending some time with Luis via YouTube, I can say that he is both entertaining and inspiring. But be forewarned, he managed to convince me to read one of his other books (where do I apply for extra credit?), his nonfiction account of death on the border, The Devil's Highway: A True Story, which may be one of the best books I've read this year. So what are some of the videos I would recommend? Lots of laughs in the hometown presentation for San Diego's One City/One Book program at the top of this post --here's Part 2-- and for inspiration, you can't beat this Zocalo audio presentation 'Humanity & Legality' (also available via iTunes).

For those who prefer print, this Powell's interview has lots of great insights into the book's humor,

Somebody said to me about a week ago, "You've invented a genre which I call slapstick immigration." I thought that was hilarious, because I hadn't thought of it that way. But I like it.

Bookslut also has some great stuff,

Here's what I think: I, of course, write about the border because I'm from the border. Others who are not from the border, write these books about the border that are more like "my day at the zoo," books filled with little brown people running amuck. They write without sensitivity; they certainly don't write with any love of the place. That sort of thing bothers me. 

I've been accused of being a Polyanna by some of those very writers. Yes, everyone knows it's hell at the border, but it's not hell all the time; that's where my grandmother lives!

There's more to share about Luis Urrea, but I'll save it for other posts. Just a brief reminder here though-- be sure to check out Amnesty International's 'Immigrant Rights are Human Rights' page and this fresh Urgent Action concerning Mexican community activists to round out our consideration of this warm-hearted novel.

For October: Into the Beautiful North by Luis Alberto Urrea

Pasadena's Rights Readers have chosen Into the Beautiful North by Luis Alberto Urrea for October, 

Nineteen-year-old Nayeli works at a taco shop in her Mexican village and dreams about her father, who journeyed to the US to find work. Recently, it has dawned on her that he isn't the only man who has left town. In fact, there are almost no men in the village--they've all gone north. While watching The Magnificent Seven,Nayeli decides to go north herself and recruit seven men--her own "Siete Magníficos"--to repopulate her hometown and protect it from the bandidos who plan on taking it over.  

Filled with unforgettable characters and prose as radiant as the Sinaloan sun, INTO THE BEAUTIFUL NORTH is the story of an irresistible young woman's quest to find herself on both sides of the fence.

Luis Alberto Urrea, 2005 Pulitzer Prize finalist for nonfiction and member of the Latino Literature Hall of Fame, is a prolific and acclaimed writer who uses his dual-culture life experiences to explore greater themes of love, loss and triumph.

Our December Author: Roberto Bolaño

This month's author, Roberto Bolaño (Amulet), comes with a whole 'man vs. myth' controversy detailed by the NYT here and by his friend, Horacio Castellanos Moya in this article, Bolaño Inc. in Guernica. Excerpts from the late author's last interviews can be found at the NYT,

Monica Maristain: If you hadn’t been a writer, what would you have been?

Roberto Bolaño: I would like to have been a homicide detective, much more than being a writer. I am absolutely sure of that. A string of homicides. I’d have been someone who could come back to the scene of the crime alone, by night and not be afraid of ghosts. Perhaps then I might really have become crazy. But being a detective that could easily be resolved with a bullet to the mouth.

Bonus interview with the translator of Amulet, Chris Andrews.

John Banville's review in the Guardian offers some good backstory,

It seems the book is based on a real incident, when a person was trapped in UNAM during violent disturbances in Mexico in the autumn of 1968. In September that year, after months of agitation on campus and in the streets, the Mexican government sent troops into the university to quell student political protests; there were killings, and many staff members and students were arrested. The troubles culminated in the army massacre of hundreds – thousands, some claim – of students and protestors in the main square of the Tlatelolco district of the city on 2 October. This atrocity is Bolaño's true subject here, even though Auxilio talks of anything and everything else, circling the central tragedy to which she is a peculiarly well-placed witness.

The Mexican writer Carmen Boullosa describes the literary scene referenced in Amulet, Bolaño in Mexico and her conversation with the author can be found at BOMB.

Excellent background on the Tlatelolco massacre from NPR including a archival video and photo gallery.

For a primer on how Amulet relates to the rest of Bolaño's work check out this post at The Millions.

For December: Amulet by Roberto Bolano

For December, we have chosen Roberto Bolano's Amulet:

Amulet embodies in one woman's breathtaking voice the melancholy and violent recent history of Latin America. It begins: "This is going to be a horror story."

The speaker is Auxilio Lacouture, a Uruguayan woman in Mexico City in the 1960s, who becomes the "Mother of Mexican Poetry." Tall, thin, and blonde, she is famous as the sole person who resists the army's invasion of the university campus: she hides in a ladies' room for twelve days. As she waits out the occupiers, with nothing to eat, Auxilio recalls her adventures in exile, and talks about two elderly exiled lions of Spanish poetry, three remarkable women, and her favorite young poet, Arturo Belano (Bolaño's fictional stand-in throughout his books). Her stories refract light and Auxilio is soon in strange landscapes: in "the dark night of the soul of Mexico City," in ice-bound mountainsides, in a bathroom where moonlight shines, moving slowly from tile to tile, and in a terrifying chasm. Amulet keenly demonstrates, as The Los Angeles Times noted, that "Bolaño is by far the most exciting writer to have come from south of the Rio Grande in a long time."

Our July Author: Teresa Rodriguez

This month we read The Daughters of Juarez: A True Story of Serial Murder South of the Border by Univision correspondent Teresa Rodriguez. Here is her website and here is an audio interview about her reporting on the Juarez cases with NPR and another with WNYC. If you prefer a print there is this Q&A from LatinoBlogs,

That evening, as I lay down to sleep, I received a couple of phone calls on the hotel phone, but no one spoke, all I heard was heavy breathing. When I called the front desk to complain and to ask that they not transfer any more calls to my room, they explained they had not done so, in other words, the calls had originated from inside the hotel...

Here is a recent report from NPR on drug killings in Juarez.

For a visual take on Juarez, check out this photo essay by Tim Fadek and don't miss this previous post on the topic.

See Amnesty International's Mexico and Stop Violence Against Women pages for appropriate actions.

For July: Daughters of Juarez

For July we have selected The Daughters of Juarez: A True Story of Serial Murder South of the Border by Teresa Rodriguez,

For more than twelve years, the city of Juárez, Mexico -- just across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas -- has been the center of a horrific crime wave against women and girls. Consisting of kidnappings, rape, mutilation, and murder, most of the atrocities have involved young, slender, and poor victims -- fueling the premise that the murders are not random. As for who is behind the crimes themselves, the answer remains unknown -- though many have speculated that the killers are American citizens, and others have argued that the killings have become a sort of blood sport due to the lawlessness of the city itself. And despite numerous arrests over the last ten years, the murders continue to occur, with the killers growing bolder, dumping bodies in the city itself rather than on the outskirts of town, as was initially the case, indicating a possible growing and most alarming alliance of silence and cover-up by Mexican politicians.

For September: Enrique's Journey

For September, we have selected Enrique's Journey based on Sonia Nazario's Pulitzer-winning L.A. Times feature,


In this astonishing true story, award-winning journalist Sonia Nazario recounts the unforgettable odyssey of a Honduran boy who braves unimaginable hardship and peril to reach his mother in the United States.

When Enrique is five years old, his mother, Lourdes, too poor to feed her children, leaves Honduras to work in the United States. The move allows her to send money back home to Enrique so he can eat better and go to school past the third grade.

Lourdes promises Enrique she will return quickly. But she struggles in America. Years pass. He begs for his mother to come back. Without her, he becomes lonely and troubled. When she calls, Lourdes tells him to be patient. Enrique despairs of ever seeing her again. After eleven years apart, he decides he will go find her.

Enrique sets off alone from Tegucigalpa, with little more than a slip of paper bearing his mother’s North Carolina telephone number. Without money, he will make the dangerous and illegal trek up the length of Mexico the only way he can–clinging to the sides and tops of freight trains.

With gritty determination and a deep longing to be by his mother’s side, Enrique travels through hostile, unknown worlds. Each step of the way through Mexico, he and other migrants, many of them children, are hunted like animals. Gangsters control the tops of the trains. Bandits rob and kill migrants up and down the tracks. Corrupt cops all along the route are out to fleece and deport them. To evade Mexican police and immigration authorities, they must jump onto and off the moving boxcars they call El Tren de la Muerte–The Train of Death. Enrique pushes forward using his wit, courage, and hope–and the kindness of strangers. It is an epic journey, one thousands of immigrant children make each year to find their mothers in the United States.

Bordertown

Okay, we are keeping an eye on the up-coming Jennifer Lopez film, Bordertown, with a plot centered on the murders of hundreds of women in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. Here's what the Los Angeles Times has to say about the film,

"Bordertown" is being endorsed by Amnesty International, which reviewed draft versions of thescreenplay and provided feedback on the movie's factual accuracy, said Bonnie Abaunza, director of Artists for Amnesty, an L.A.-based program of Amnesty International USA that works with artists and entertainers to raise awareness of human rights issues.

In an interview, Abaunza said that although the movie is told in the style of a thriller, it is rooted in hard, disturbing facts. A prologue at the beginning of the film gives context to the story of the murders, and a number of scenes, including one shot inside a Mitsubishi television plant, lend authenticity to the story's socioeconomic setting, she said. Though she believes the movie will be "accessible to the public," Abaunza added, "this is not 'Star Wars,' this is not 'Lord of the Rings.'

"There are some very hard political statements made in this movie, about NAFTA, CAFTA, about corporations," she said, referring to the free trade agreement among Mexico, Canada, Central American countries and the United States.

No US release date yet, but we'll keep you posted!

Caltech Event: Maquiladora Workers & Activists

Our friends from Caltech's Social Activism Speaker Series are sponsoring a presentation this Friday. We'll have a table at the event - stop by and say hi!

Witness for Peace Southwest Mexico/Border Speaker Tour
Maquiladora Workers & Activists
Friday, October 20, 2006
7:30pm, Baxter Lecture Hall, Caltech
This event is free and open to the public.
More info at Social Activism Speaker Series (SASS) web page.