Crossing Over: A Mexican Family on the Migrant Trail

Rating:
Summary: The Migrant Journey
Review: Guided by the fatal experience of Benjamin, Jaime and Salvador Chavez, Ruben Martinez navigates the complex and tragedy-ridden path of the Mexican migrant. Among his characters' displays of love for Cheran and loyalty to its Purepecha traditions, Martinez weaves the pushes and pulls that send families into the war zone of the border. In addition to detailing economic hardships born from la crisis in Mexico, he opens the reader's eyes to the luxuries of impoverished life in the United States. For example, although in an unconscious way I knew the bleak conditions of Mexican pueblos, I had not thought about the transition from this lifestyle to an American version of poverty. Martinez made me see how Cheranes delight to have such basic amenities as hot and cold running water, flushing toilets and stoves. Each chapter offers a broader understanding of why, despite family separation, agonizing physical strain and possible death, many Mexicans try their luck at the daunting border.

Once these migrant families have made it across the border, they encounter a new milieu of challenges. Martinez illustrates how the children of these families find themselves in a particularly difficult state of feeling neither Mexican nor American, but somewhere in between. In the midst of figuring out their new identity, they are thrown into American public schools to hit face first the blows of racism, language barriers and isolation. It is here that teachers play a vital role in the education, self-esteem and future success of these children. If teachers are familiar with the individual experiences of their migrant students and of migrant families in general, they can accommodate the students' needs in the classroom. Schools can either make a Mexican child feel welcome and valued or unwanted and out of place.

Through his tone, Martinez tells the reader how close he got with migrant families such as the Chavezes and of the passion he has for their dilemma. Somehow he makes the tiniest, seemingly insignificant details of each individual family come together in a coherent idea that the reader cannot forget. The reader is left with a new vision of this man-made line dividing two countries and sees clearly all the death, renewed life and cultural battles that it represents.

Rating:
Summary: Crossing Over
Review: What I found most powerful about Matinez¡¯s Crossing Over, was the description he used throughout the book to ¡°show¡± rather than ¡°tell¡± the story of migrant life from every angle. As a U.S. citizen, it is easy to group immigrants into one category, to think that they are simply trying to ¡°steal¡± what we have in our country. Martinez forces his reader to take a deeper look, and realize that there is ¡°no border, no line, just an idea!¡± He does this through his amazing descriptions of migrant homes both in Mexico and the U.S., the task of crossing over, working conditions, and the meshing of cultures on both sides.

In my opinion this book should be read by anyone who ever opposed immigration. The journey that Martinez takes his readers on, from Cheran and across the U.S., is one that we can all learn from. He has brought life to this marginalized group of people, and done his best to set the myths about migrants straight. As one of many future educators, I particularly found this book valuable because it allowed me to expand my thinking, and prepare myself for the migrant students I may one day encounter. I now know a little more about what they have gone through to get to where many students simply take for granted.

In all actuality both ¡°sides¡± are not so different. All of us want our families to be well fed, have the opportunity to further their education and live comfortably, it is just unfortunate that this can not be as easy for those across the imaginary ¡°line¡±.

Rating:
Summary: More complete picture of migrant labor.
Review: This book has broadened my understanding of the situation for migrant workers. Although it begins with the deaths of three migrant brothers, Crossing Over, introduces the reader to many other lives affected by migrant labor. Martinez introduces the reader not only to the migrant workers themselves, but also to their families that are often left at home. Migrant labor is finally shown from the perspective of those on the other side of the border. You learn how much a town like Cherán, is shaped by its connection to the migrant trail. Most importantly, you learn that not all of its influences are perceived as positive. Just as some Americans are wary of the cultural influences that migrant laborers bring with them, there are people in Cherán that are wary of the influences being brought back from the United States. The exchange is two-way. Some of the more enlightened take the best from both..
This book was not written just to present a sappy, idealist picture of migrants. Martinez doesn't shy from telling tales about machismo, envy, alcohol abuse, and abandonment. However, these do not detract from, but rather authenticates the accomplishments of migrants, making a better life for themselves and their families.
In the final part of the book, Martinez follows migrant workers in the United States. You learn of the hardships they face, including racism and poor working conditions. Martinez paints a more multifaceted portrait of how migrants fit into their necessitated role in the U.S. labor economy, and shows how difficult it is for them to organize to improve their working conditions.
This book will not leave you with an idealized picture of migrant workers. What it will leave you with is a more complex and sympathetic picture of migrants in place of any generalizations you had before.

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: Crossing Over: The Physical and Social Border
Review: From author Rubén Martínez, "Crossing Over" lends an honest human face and form to the elusive images of legal and illegal migrants that pepper the evening news broadcasts and the generally overlooked currents of mainstream United States society. The narrative begins with the immediate aftermath of the tragic death of three brothers of the Chávez family, who were killed attempting to cross the border illegally. The reader from the wealthy nation to the north is obliged to step back from his or her current perceptions of migrant immigrants and view "los Estados Unidos" through new eyes: across a hostile and unwelcoming border. As a journalist, Martínez offers a vista of the situation from both sides-an approach that is apparent through his compilation of anecdotes and personal experiences. Martínez's intimate style of reporting and writing crafts a touching, yet simultaneously powerful, account of the experiences of the migrants from the Mexican city of Cherán.

The man-made boundary that stretches along the barren line between the United States and Mexico is not merely a physical presence, but also a political, socioeconomic, and personal barrier. The "line" is a physical manifestation of the social rift dividing two neighboring, vastly diverse nations. "Crossing Over" reaches beyond the conception of the "haves" and the "have-nots" to encompass cultural, economic and political circumstances that fuel the migrant drive northward each harvest season, and the return across the border in the autumn. The division of the book into its two parts is representative of the dual existence led by thousands of migrant workers today: a juxtaposition of two cultures, sometimes sharply conflicting each other. Southward, the tradition and richness of their Mexican identity; to the north, the economic drawing-power, glitzy diversion and rough urban lifestyle of the United States. "Crossing Over" offers a powerful depiction of these cultures desperately attempting to maintain the delicate balance of their known existence: on one side, the Purépechas of Cherán, fighting to maintain traditional values in the face of a barrage of "gringo" entertainment, ideals, and perspectives; on the other, "la migra" and a society that too frequently views certain members as intruders that place an economy and social organization in peril.

This book is a valuable resource for anyone and everyone: not only does it offer a glimpse into two rapidly changing and modern inter-reliant cultures, but it also proffers an outlook untainted by the lens of ethnocentrism. Martínez delves into the prejudices and the injustices suffered by migrants at the hands of law enforcement officials and the "patrones" that hire migrant workers each season. He also assesses the situation from the perspective of Border Patrol agents and migrant employers-exposing the frequent misunderstandings that typify the relationship between the groups. This piece is extremely worthwhile for educators, especially those working with migrant children and their families. It is a candid and provocative presentation of the challenges faced by individuals from both sides of the border as they struggle to adapt to and understand their neighbors.

In crossing over the physical, social, political, and economic borders that divide these two nations, the migrant immigrants are not tumbling into a melting pot of culture, but rather uniquely molding the societies in which they live and move. "Crossing Over" is a brutally honest reflection of the interdependent relationship that binds Mexico and the United States to each other, and the ultimate interplay of culture and identity that will shape the futures of these two nations.

Rating:
Summary: Crossing over
Review: This book paints a vivid picture of migrant immigrants experience coming from the small Mexican town of Cheran. Ruben Martinez describes many of the common struggles and triumphs of migrant immigrant families who are usually overlooked or ignored by our society. I enjoyed this book greatly because it helped me open my eyes to many issues and concerns surrounding migrants coming here from this region.
In this book, Martinez describes the hopes and dreams of migrants and also the enormous risks they take in attempting to achieve their dreams. The depictions of these hopes and dreams opened my eyes to the many hardships these people go through which makes me rethink many of my previous notions of why they "cross over" to the United States. After reading this book, it helps me understand their way of life, the struggles they have endured, and their motivation to overcome hardships.
I recommend this book to all teachers who may come in contact with children from migrant families to help them understand the hardships and life of Mexican migrant families. Therefore, it would help the teacher give perspective on ways to educate these students and help other students understand their way of life also.

Rating:
Summary: The world behind the term "illegal immigrant"
Review: Crossing Over opened my eyes to the world behind the term "illegal immigrant." I certainly have more sympathy for what these Mexican immigrants have gone through to live in the US. So many people risk death and deportation just to come to a place where they hold some of the most undesirable jobs in the country and where they are often persecuted. It is almost unfathomable to me that anyone would want to come the the US if that would be their fate. The push factor of poverty in Mexico makes it clear why they would want to leave, though: to find work, to make a comfortable living, to build a future. But when they arrive in the US, although life may be better for them economically (although the hard work and family collaboration they have to go through is far beyond what the majority of Americans will ever know), they have serious social and cultural challenges. Both the pull and push factors affecting immigrants are well described in this book, as well as what life after immigrating is like.

Perhaps the author is trying to justify immigrants who cross the border illegally by describing their hardships. However, I think anyone with an open mind could profit from reading this book because in the least, it shows immigration from a different point of view: the immigrant's. Even though I do not believe it is right to justify their illegal activity, I do sympathize with their situation. By trying to sympathize with what they have gone through and are going through, I can perhaps help action to be taken to ameliorate the poverty they are trying to escape or to pass laws that would grant them legal status. Simply saying what they're doing is justifiable would be a lazy response to this book.

As a future teacher, I hope I can maintain my sympathy for those who have been through these and similar hardships during the immigration and adjustment processes. I think teachers would definitely benefit from reading this book because it shows these people to have a rich and vibrant culture. It also shows them to be people that we can all identify with in one way or another, especially on an emotional level. This kind of commonality, as well as respect and sympathy, between teacher and student is essential, I think, to establishing the type of relationship that best promotes learning.

Rating:
Summary: Courage under fire
Review: Ruben Martinez writes a powerful book filled with first hand experiences from Hispanics who are seeking a better life up "north". "Crossing Over A Mexican Family On The Migrant Trail" opened my eyes to areas of the mexican culture that I had not understood. I, like so many Americans, have preconceived ideas about many areas of the world and it's inhabitants, and this book cemented some of those ideas and shot others clear out of the water.

I enjoyed reading this book with everything it had to offer. I recommend it for anyone who is just a bit curious about what people are willing to do to make a better future for themselves and their loved ones. What stood out to me was reading about the stories of crossing the border into the states, many losing their lives. And if they do make it into the states the work they do can be almost as bad as the trip, but they are thankful for the jobs because the money they make is going to support themselves and their family. For most, that money is going to fulfill their dreams.

This book also confronts the prejudice that Hispanics receive from all sides, not just Americans. Without an understanding of their culture we cannot understand why they live fifteen to a household, or of their fiestas, or their religious rituals. This book opens a door into most aspects of the lives of the people from Cheran.

The population of legal and illegal immigrants is increasing in this country, and it is becoming increaingly difficult to cross the border. This book unearths the true struggles with powerful force. I think each person that reads this book will be moved by the contents within.

Rating:
Summary: Crossing Over
Review: Crossing Over: A Mexican Family on the Migrant Trail by R. Martinez is a powerful ethnography of the lives and struggles of Mexican migrant families. Martinez draws the reader into the hearts and minds of the people who experience and inhabit all the domains that define the migrant experience. He enmeshes himself in the lives and culture of migrants-in Mexico and across the U.S.-in addition to those of the people and family that stay behind, the people that hire them, and the border patrol "migra" that try to prevent them from entering.

Few people, myself included, can fully grasp the complexities of the experiences of the immigrants-both legal and illegal-who move back and forth between the border in search of a better livelihood for themselves and their families. This is not a monolithic group. Their struggles with border crossings, cultural identity, labor, family, love, and survival are as numerous as they are tragic and triumphant.

Martinez is a passionate storyteller, and this is a story that affects all of us. If you buy meat and produce in the grocery store you should read this. If you work for a public agency-including schools, hospitals, social services-you should read this. If you live anywhere in the U.S., you should read this. With a few exceptions, we are all immigrants or recently descended from immigrants. These stories, unique in time and detail, are not so different from those of SE Asian, African, or European immigrants. When they come to America, they become part of America.

Rating:
Summary: A Page Turner
Review: Ruben Martinez's "Crossing Over" took me pleasantly off guard. I expected to learn, and given the topic, I assumed the book would be moving. What I didn't expect was a comprehensive book presenting the entire migrant experience. He paints a poignant image of the political, economic, and social ramifications of "crossing the line." Martinez not only exposes their lives in the United States, but delves into history and culture, a part of people's experience that is too often overlooked. Martinez accomplishes this by dedicating a good portion of the book to Mexican culture and describing their lives in Cheran. I completed the book with a sense of understanding for why Mexicans take such risks and brave the migrant trail. In addition, I learned how immigration to the United States is changing Mexico. Without this foundation, my understanding of the migrant experience would be incomplete.

A reader comes away with a sense of how this supposed "problem" is actually perpetuated by America's split personality toward Mexican immigration. Due to our economy's dependence on cheap labor and continued ties between migrants and their homeland, the Mexican-American border is surprisingly porous. This is demonstrated through Rosa's experience. After many failed attempts to cross the border, being caught several times but never arrested, she eventually made it. This illustrates the U.S.'s contradictory stance on the issue; although efforts are made to stop these migrants, they can come to our country if they persist and risk their lives. This is solidified when Rosa's family is compensated for the death of her brothers. By doing so, the Border Patrol accepts responsibility for what happens at the border, but not nearly to the extent deserved. This message directly contradicts the notions most Americans entertain about illegal immigration and migrant workers.

Of the many nuances Martinez revealed about migrant immigration, the change Mexican women experience after coming to the United States was particularly interesting. Both Rosa and Reyna had experiences that never could have happened in Mexico. They grew more independent, explored further education, owned property, chose their spouses, and became leaders, paving the road for their children to have more opportunities. Whether their sacrifices were worth these accomplishments, Martinez can't say, but he provides real experiences and depth to the issue.

I recommend this book to any person who cares to be aware of, although through the limitations of a book, their fellow Americans. Actually, I think it should be a prerequisite for those who don't care to understand, because they need exposure to this issue the most. This country and the faces of "Americans" are changing rapidly; the only hope for cohesion is mutual understanding. Of the many intentions and motivations Martinez had for "Crossing Over," I imagine this is the strongest. He is on the right track.