Crossing Over: A Mexican Family on the Migrant Trail

Rating:
Summary: A thought-provoking slice of the Mexican migrant experience
Review: Crossing Over, by Rubén Martínez is a book primarily about the Chávez family of Cherán in Mexico and their very different experiences and choices regarding the decision about whether to do migrant work in American or stay at home, and whether to come back to Mexico after their migrant experience. To a lesser extent there are stories of other Cherán residents and their choices too.

Martínez does a great job reporting the details of everyone's lives and choices. I have a really good sense of what the people he talks about are like and why they make the choices they make. It is important that I do develop this sense, as the people he writes about are, amongst other things, regularly making potentially life-or-death choices about whether or not to cross the US-Mexican border illegally, and it would be easy for a writer not to provide enough information to understand why these choices are regularly being made.

Martínez soundly addresses the scope he seems to set out to cover, but I am left with a few questions. I would like to have found out more about the realities of the legal migrant worker experience-for instance, some people talk about how difficult getting a H1-A visa is, but is that really the case? Also, more discussion of the abuses legal migrants face would have been useful-there is some, especially towards the end of the book, but I would have appreciated more. Also, some more discussion about the role of school in the lives of his subjects would be helpful-schooling, or lack thereof, both in Mexico and in the US. I would have liked to know which of his subjects thought school might help improve their lives and which did not and why. More information about the (apparent) lack of adult education opportunities in the US and in Mexico would have also been useful.

Anyone who wants to understand why people continue to want to migrate to this country should read this book. The book would be particularly useful for teachers to read to understand the experiences that their students and the students' parents may have faced before arriving in this county. The book also would be useful for starting political discussions, particularly about the existence of rigid borders in this day and age-if the EU can relax its borders, why can't we?

Rating:
Summary: The Migrant Trail
Review: The book, Crossing Over: A Mexican Family on the Migrant Trail by Ruben Martinez, focused on an intriguing and a relevant subject in today¡¯s society. The first part of the novel focuses on the Chavez who lose three brothers in a crash in the United States when they are going to the fields to work for the summer. When the brothers are killed, the family is deeply affected and so is the whole town. The author does a nice job of depicting of how the Americans responded to this accident and the people back home. As a book filled with images of the hardships the illegal and legal migrant face when facing their journeys to America, the author does a good job of focusing on this difficult topic.

As a reader who was excited about this book, I learned about the difficulties individuals face when trying to get across the border. There are so many loopholes that are created for the migrant workers, from the coyotes all the way to their final destination. At each step of the way, the individual faces a life or death situation. Many of these migrant workers end up being slaves and they are cut off from communication with their family. This creates pain for the family back home and the individuals who are waiting for them in the United States. By showing the reader the difficulties one has to face when looking for success in America, one understands why many of these individuals have social and psychological problems.

The aspects of this book that were powerful to me are how the author can paint such a vivid picture of the hardships the migrant workers face. The author shows the struggle the migrant faces back home and the struggles they face in America. Each and every single can mean that they will live or they will die. The migrant has to come up with finances to pay for their journey, not knowing whether they will make it or not. The individual also has to face the fact that family members will be home, while they are in America; this creates psychological problems for the individual. Crossing over and being safe is the ultimate goal, unfortunately one also has to realize the dangers they will face on this incredible and dangerous journey.

As an aspiring teacher, this book can shed light on the students who have migrant family situations and show the stress they have to deal with. One can realize how migrant families are moving back and forth, trying to figure out what they afford to do. The children are put into a situation where survival is the key for them and no wonder they can sometimes miss school for months and then come back. Educators often don¡¯t have the time to realize what these children are going through. This book does a nice job of showing how survival and education have a hard time blending.

Rating:
Summary: Simply a Bad Book.
Review: I decided to quit by page 100. I don't usually give-up on a book, but in this case I think I even went to far.
From the beggining Martínez shows his gruge towards Mexico and tries to paint a totally un-true and as-far-from-reality-as-you-can picture of life in Mexico City. Of course, no book can be 100% wrong but his ideas represent the worst from mexican-americans. I am originaly from Mexico and have lived in Texas for the past 10 years. I go back to Mexico between 6-8 times per year for business and family and love the people and the country.
Sure, they have their political, economic, social problems but doesn't every country including the U.S.?
Anyway, I'm greatful to the U.S. but if my son or daughter grow up to think like Rubén Martínez then coming to the U.S would have been the biggest mistake of my life instead of the other way around. If a person is not proud of where he comes from he can never be proud of where he is presently.
DON'T BUY THIS BOOK, spend your money wisely.

Rating:
Summary: The Migrant Trail
Review: The book, Crossing Over: A Mexican Family on the Migrant Trail by Ruben Martinez, focused on an intriguing and a relevant subject in today¡¯s society. The first part of the novel focuses on the Chavez who lose three brothers in a crash in the United States when they are going to the fields to work for the summer. When the brothers are killed, the family is deeply affected and so is the whole town. The author does a nice job of depicting of how the Americans responded to this accident and the people back home. As a book filled with images of the hardships the illegal and legal migrant face when facing their journeys to America, the author does a good job of focusing on this difficult topic.

As a reader who was excited about this book, I learned about the difficulties individuals face when trying to get across the border. There are so many loopholes that are created for the migrant workers, from the coyotes all the way to their final destination. At each step of the way, the individual faces a life or death situation. Many of these migrant workers end up being slaves and they are cut off from communication with their family. This creates pain for the family back home and the individuals who are waiting for them in the United States. By showing the reader the difficulties one has to face when looking for success in America, one understands why many of these individuals have social and psychological problems.

The aspects of this book that were powerful to me are how the author can paint such a vivid picture of the hardships the migrant workers face. The author shows the struggle the migrant faces back home and the struggles they face in America. Each and every single can mean that they will live or they will die. The migrant has to come up with finances to pay for their journey, not knowing whether they will make it or not. The individual also has to face the fact that family members will be home, while they are in America; this creates psychological problems for the individual. Crossing over and being safe is the ultimate goal, unfortunately one also has to realize the dangers they will face on this incredible and dangerous journey.

As an aspiring teacher, this book can shed light on the students who have migrant family situations and show the stress they have to deal with. One can realize how migrant families are moving back and forth, trying to figure out what they afford to do. The children are put into a situation where survival is the key for them and no wonder they can sometimes miss school for months and then come back. Educators often don¡¯t have the time to realize what these children are going through. This book does a nice job of showing how survival and education have a hard time blending.

Rating:
Summary: Crossing Over
Review: Ruben Martinez, in his book Crossing Over: A Mexican family on the migrant trail, paints a stirring picture of the life of a "typical" migrant family. The book begins by describing the tragedy that strikes a Mexican family when three young men, attempting to gain entrance into the US, are killed while being chased by the border patrol. The book goes on to trace the remaining members of the Chavez family, from the small Mexican town of Cheran to the strawberry fields of Watsonville, CA, to the tomato fields of St. Louis, MO. Along the way, the reader gets a glimpse of the common struggles and small triumphs of migrant families that are often ignored by mainstream America.

I felt the message of the book was captured well in this paragraph which ended a description of a Mexican immigrant who had 'made it' in the United States. "This is Reyna's life: she is physically present in Watsonville [United States] but conjuring up Cheran [Mexico] at her altars and in her meals and in the lessons of tradition she teaches her kids, even as the influences of their new home inexorably pull at them. It's a classic immigrant story: she has lost some precious things and gained some others. It would be hard right now for Reyna Guzman to easily answer the question of whether the bargain was worth it. But then again, who can? (p 318)." Through the weaving of stories on both sides of the border, Martinez aptly describes the conflict that many immigrants face: poverty, oppressive tradition and hope for a better life in Mexico or discrimination, limited opportunity and unfamiliar traditions in the United States.

I enjoyed this book immensely and feel that it should be required reading for teachers who inevitably come into contact with children from migrant families to help counter the assumptions and judgements that are too often made about these children. It would also be valuable reading for those in towns and cities where the Latino population has rapidly increased. But really, this book provides valuable insights that any citizen of the United States would benefit from, given the current political climate and increasingly negative sentiments towards immigrants. I highly recommend Crossing Over, especially to those interested in or affected by the migrant experience.

Rating:
Summary: Simply a Bad Book.
Review: I decided to quit by page 100. I don't usually give-up on a book, but in this case I think I even went to far.
From the beggining Martínez shows his gruge towards Mexico and tries to paint a totally un-true and as-far-from-reality-as-you-can picture of life in Mexico City. Of course, no book can be 100% wrong but his ideas represent the worst from mexican-americans. I am originaly from Mexico and have lived in Texas for the past 10 years. I go back to Mexico between 6-8 times per year for business and family and love the people and the country.
Sure, they have their political, economic, social problems but doesn't every country including the U.S.?
Anyway, I'm greatful to the U.S. but if my son or daughter grow up to think like Rubén Martínez then coming to the U.S would have been the biggest mistake of my life instead of the other way around. If a person is not proud of where he comes from he can never be proud of where he is presently.
DON'T BUY THIS BOOK, spend your money wisely.

Rating:
Summary: reality revealed
Review: As an activist and a watsonville, california native, i feel that Ruben Martinez has done a great service by shedding light on the life of migrant families. This book shows the diverse situations that can occur even out of one small town in Michoacan. There is definitely classism amongst migrant families that can be more intense then racism one may encounter when leaving their country of origin.
Martinez is descriptive of locations and living conditions. I know the neighborhoods well that che mentioned in watsonville, and i argue that he was a little geographically confused on street names etc. I can imagine Cheran, Michoacan and the people he describes-this may be because of my background- i don't know.
I think that it is important to continue writing books that display the diversity of Mexico, and the individual struggles of those who come north to the U.S.. People leave different conditions at different times by different means for different reasons. I am glad that this book only deals with people from one small town, rather than creating one more general explanation of why and how people cross the border to provide food for the United States and the world.

Rating:
Summary: Honest and insightful.
Review: I'm glad I read this book. Although I traveled through Mexico in the summer of 2003, I learned far more about the Mexican way of life from this book. It does three things well: it creates the flavor of Mexican poverty without becoming sentimental; it shows the brutal transition from a tradition of self-sufficient hopelessness to cheap American values; and it does both of these by looking intimately at a few Mexican families. I was impressed by the author's ability to strip off a culture's surface in order to reveal both its oppression and its integrity. - Michael Squires

Rating:
Summary: An important topic, but a poor book
Review: The subject of this book could hardly be more important or engaging: the fate of the many millions of Mexicans who seek to escape poverty by entering the United States. Martinez is sympathetic to them (as I am) and seeks to bring out their plight.

But Martinez's good intentions are let down by his prose. The narrative skips from one person to another, one theme to another. There is no thread, nothing to draw the reader on, just a confusing and ultimately uninteresting assortment of encounters, impressions and comments. I found the book almost unreadable.

I would recommend instead Ted Conover's Coyotes, an older book, published in 1987, but still revealing--and a far better piece of writing. Conover joins some illegal immigrants crossing into the States and shares their experiences. His account is gripping, sometimes amusing, and humane. It is a great book.

Rating:
Summary: Revealing, personal look at the impact ofMexican immigration
Review: I've read a handful of books about the influence of Mexican immigration on America (including Forging the Tortilla Curtain), and "Crossing Over" is hands-down the one I recommend most. The author literally rubs shoulders with successful and would-be Mexican migrants, from the sewers under Nogales, Arizona|Mexico through which Mexicans try to flee their homeland and in which many rob one another, to the dangerous meat-packing plants in Wisconsin, where hundreds of legals and illegals eke out a 'better life'. Martinez documents the views (from bitterness to resignation) of American employers and residents as they respond to the wave of immigration from Latin America. The migrants' stories are both inspiring and depressing. Thanks to this book, I now have a better understanding of the plight of Mexican immigrants, and a respect for their patience and perseverance as they put up with poor living and working conditions, and sometimes outright abuse, north of the border. Each Latin American working in the USA or Canada likely could tell an amazing (possibly even courageous) story of his or her flight from 'home'; Martinez brilliantly captures the queasy ambivalence most migrants feel about splitting their lives, their assets and their mindsets between the lands on either side of the Rio Grande.