Crossing Over: A Mexican Family on the Migrant Trail

Rating:
Summary: From Crossing Over to Improved Status
Review: This book began from a tragic story of the Chavez family. Three sons from this family: Benjamin, Jaime, and Salvador Chavez died on their way to U.S., on their way to the American dream. With Ruben Martinez¡¯s exploring, I entered into this miserable Mexican family, experiencing their pain, turmoil and dilemma after the accident.

Though it was impossible for the Chavez family to recover from the pain, they were still struggling for their future in U.S. Fernando and Florentino returned to work in the States; Wense and Rosa took the risk of crossing the border; and even their mother Maria Elena Chavez at last came over to the States to complete the journey for her son.

Their firm and persistent spirit impressed me much. Though their working condition was very bad: low pay, long hours, oppressive heat, uncertain job, lack of housing and lack of medical care; they were still working hard in the farms, for the sake of better future and their children¡¯s education. Wense and Rosa planned to send Yeni to a parochial school and attaining an American future---linguistically and economically. For that, they would sacrifice everything.

The Mexican women¡¯s change after they came to the States was also impressive. Rosa grew more independent and self-confident, and gained greater respect from the men. And she talked of ¡°taking English classes, computer courses, perhaps going to cosmetology school.¡± Reyna Guzman, another Mexican woman, who had been in the States for more than twenty years and was a single mother for four children, did successfully and bought a big house. The author commented: ¡°It would have been impossible for Rryna to divorce her first husband back home, much less to have married and divorce twice more. She wouldn¡¯t have had the chance to lease a strawberry field and act as a patron of her own work crew and become a labor leader. And she certainly would never have been able to buy a five-bedroom house.¡±

Coming to U.S. gave Mexican women other ways to view their value, to live their own life and to improve their status in the male-dominant society. Realizing that also gave us teachers a way to understand and help the Mexican immigrants' life in the U.S.

Rating:
Summary: A Cultural Lesson on the Mexican Migrant Family
Review: Before reading Ruben Martinez's Crossing Over: a Mexican Family on the Migrant Trail, my limited understanding of the topic of undocumented migrant workers gave me the conception that it was just another frustrating controversy - a never-ending story that I would never fully understand about a group of people who are dependant upon a system that simultaneously shuns and takes advantage of them. After reading Crossing Over, I cannot claim to fully understand the controversy, but now these people have a face. They are not simply "migrant workers" - they are fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters who have found a way of life that allows them to ensure the survival of their families and their rich and ever-changing culture.

Crossing Over offers a lesson on the permeability and mutability of culture. It demonstrates how two cultures can become so enmeshed that an old culture might become dependant upon a new culture for its own survival. Migrating to the US is not simply a means of livelihood for these people - it is now an integral part of their way of life. With all the grief, anxiety, and danger that migration brings to many Mexican families, it also brings the hope of allowing old ways to continue and flourish.

As an aspiring teacher, I found particular value in learning about the closely interdependent family structure of the migrant family. Many educators in our country have become critical of families and cultures that "do not appear to value education." This book may help us to understand that it is not a matter of them not valuing education but simply that their way of life is so foreign, it is not comprehensible to many American teachers. The glimpse into this culture that Crossing Over offers might help encourage sensitivity to the huge cultural differences that exist between mainstream America and Mexican migrant workers.

The most powerful part of Crossing Over is how Martinez captures the complexity of the Mexican migrant family culture and offers it to a foreign audience in a captivating an easy to absorb form. Having read this book as an assignment for a college course rather than of my own volition, I can honestly say that Martinez has an amazing way with words: his narrative will draw you in even if you have no interest in the topic and will make you feel as if you are actually absorbing the richness of the migrant culture with you own senses. I became a member of the Chavez family while I read this book - I was able to understand the motivations behind their way of life, feeling both their pain and the beauty of what it means to be a weaver of this multifaceted border culture. I suggest this book to any person whose life is touched by the work that migrants do in the United States - this means everyone who lives within our borders.

Rating:
Summary: Migrant Journey
Review: I found "Crossing Over: A Mexican Family on the Migrant Trail" to be a fascinating and engrossing book. The book chronicles the Chavez family of Cheran, a small village in Central Mexico, after they lose three brothers when the vehicle transporting them to the strawberry fields of Watsonville, California flips over. The accident, which barely registered in the newspapers of America, affected many in the brother's home village of Cheran and through numerous travels between Cheran and various American cities, Martinez is able to give us a very vivid portrayal of those affected by the brother's deaths.

Throughout his account, Martinez honestly portrays both the hopes of migrants and the enormous risks they take in attempting to achieve them. While his account is sympathetic to migrants, Martinez looks at all sides of "crossing over", from the migrants themselves and the coyotes who transport them to the border patrol agents who try to foil their attempts to "cross the line", Martinez gives an realistic portrayal of a migrants story. What affected me most about this book was how Martinez portrays the lives of these people as if we were the ones meeting them. They took Martinez into their lives and into their homes, shared their fears and hopes and dreams and this created a much more emotionally charged reading for me as a reader.

I would recommend this book to anyone who comes in contact with or wants to know more about the migrant experience. I believe this book will be helpful in alleviating stereotyping of Mexican migrants and useful in classrooms with its vivid descriptions of Mexican village customs and life.

Rating:
Summary: Escaping Invisibility
Review: Martinez creates an interior lens that reveals an uncovering of many tribulations immigrants face when crossing the "invisible" but apparent borderline separating Mexico and the United States. Every year hundreds of thousands of Mexicans risk their lives by crossing the border illegally to America mainly in search for better job opportunity and education for their children. Though the work offered is demeaning, laborious, and poorly paid Mexicans continue to risk the journey of illegal border-crossing all with the hopes of obtaining the "American dream." Though some return to Mexico with their earnings, others remain in America with hopes to build futures for themselves and their families.

The Mexican immigrants that chose to remain are faced with unwelcoming challenges. Though it is U.S. policy to permit no protection of rights as a U.S. citizen to Mexicans living and working without official certification, this country in turn is greatly dependent on their cheap labor. The U.S. government allows illegal entry only during the times in need for picking seasonal crops, such as fruit and vegetable picking season, and when cheap, unskilled labor is in high demand. Mexican migrants also encounter the social prejudice and detestation from Americans who believe they are creating competition for employment by accepting lower pay.

Many people's lives in Cheran were spun from a mix of hopelessness, culture and tradition, and religious faith. As change occurred, the influence of American pop culture caused mixed faith within the town of Cheran. Faith in survival is shown to be one of the main reasons why each immigrant chose to cross illegally into the United States. Survival to them is a taste of the "American dream." Though each migrant establishes a place within America, they all share the displacement of identity. No longer is it easy to affiliate themselves within a set identity when they are divided into between being neither Mexican nor American. Instead, they are pushed into their own "invisibility."

I recommend this book to current teachers as well as future teachers to encourage a greater understanding of the sacrifices and hardships Mexican immigrants stricken with poverty must endure in order to obtain a promising future. As a teacher, one has an opportunity to educate and lessen acts of prejudice and stereotyping against the Mexican population by widening the eyes of future generations to see the destructive outcomes that oppression has created and shaped into an inferiority of class and culture.

Rating:
Summary: The Mexican Journey
Review: Crossing Over: A Mexican Family on the Migrant Trail is a highly poetic, image-filled tribute to migrant Mexican workers - legal and illegal - that reads smoothly and passionately, creating distinct images of Martinez' experiences "on the migrant trail." Written after the tragic death of three brothers attempting to illegally cross the border to resume strawberry picking in the fields of California, Martinez traces the boys' roots back to their hometown of Cherán, Mexico, and then onward to Arkansas, Missouri, and California.

At first I was disappointed to learn that the first half of the book details the distinct culture of Mexico - from its famous role-play of representación of The Last Supper in the streets of Iztapalapa to the annual harvest of maize in Cherán. I wanted to learn about the migrant experience in America, and Martinez spends considerable time and energy illustrating Mexico's culture. As I delved deeper into the lives of the hard-working Mexicans and their trials of migrant life, though, I realized that had Martinez jumped right to the migrant trail and the Mexican experience in the United States, I never would have understood why Mexicans leave Mexico, their ambitions, or their willingness to risk their lives to work in poor, dirty fields for just at or over minimum wage. Martinez' brilliant juxtaposition of Mexican family and culture with the harsh reality of the Mexican migrant's life spurned in me compassion, anger, frustration, hope and contempt toward the United States current immigration policy. More than anything, his story helped me understand a side of American culture that has heretofore been successfully rendered invisible to me.

The second half of the book - which largely takes place in the United States - paints a picture of a serious, hard-working people trying to make it like any other group of people. Perhaps Martinez' greatest gift is his ability to humanize every player in the story - whether legal, illegal, a migra (border patrol), or patrón (boss). He tells the story in a human way that will leave readers questioning, as one of the people in the story does, "What are you going to do?" The migrant story is not an easy one, and it does not have an easy answer, but Martinez creates an inspirational tale of triumph and perseverance, honor and dignity that will keep the pages turning and leave the reader with a strong sense of the deeply human reality of the migrant experience.

Finally, this book would be an excellent resource for classroom teachers. Martinez' book not only provides contextual background information about Mexico, but it explains the migrant life - with all of its risks and follies - as well. This book should be a prerequisite for any teacher who interacts with or teaches the children of Mexican migrants or immigrants as it establishes a basic understanding of Mexican culture - both in Mexico and in America.

Rating:
Summary: Betta' Than Butta'
Review: Reading a 300-plus page opus about the U.S.-Mexican border may not initially sound appealing to those searching for a book to cuddle up with. But Crossing Over will surprise you... again and again.

Beginning with the untimely deaths of a truckload of undocumented Mexican migrants, Ruben Martinez takes his readers to the site of the tragic accident. The 1996 crash may have been merely a blip on the television news at the time, but in migrant communities in the States and "back home" in Cheran, Mexico, the tragedy was a shock wave affecting many. The deaths of three men in particular, Benjamin, Jaime, and Salvador Chavez served as the impetus for Martinez's journey into the political, economic, and social ramifications of "crossing the line."

Martinez introduces us to countless people who are affected by the border: the family of the slain brothers, the shifty coyotes who transport the hopeful and daring-for a hefty fee, the cholos who look to the U.S.'s gangs for inspiration, the brujos witch doctors, the U.S. and Mexican border patrols, Barrio Libre's homeless teens living in the sewage pipes beneath the border's illustrious tourist hot spots, the social service groups that struggle to meet the teens' needs, and the families that have successfully crossed the border and made the North their home. Martinez gracefully weaves readers in and out of these peoples' lives, as if we were traveling alongside him and happened upon each of them. They invite us into their homes, take us to bullfights and Fiesta, and buy us a beer. They share their stories. Tales of "dreams so great and pasts so painful" are shared with us in earnest. We meet them and learn of the never-ending push many of them feel to risk everything and cross the border, the reminders of loved ones left behind in poverty that pull them back, and the unimaginable difficulty in resolving this tension.

Crossing Over: A Mexican Family on the Migrant Trail paints a rich, complex portrait of the lives affected by the border, the U.S.'s immigration policies, and the forces of poverty and desire. Martinez has crafted a comprehensive and humanistic book that delves into these issues. Uncovering stones as only an Emmy Award-winning journalist can, Martinez still manages to maintain the dignity of his subjects. While Crossing Over would be a valuable resource for many professionals serving culturally and linguistically diverse populations, it is recommended for anyone hoping to reach beyond what they think they already know and see things from others' perspectives.

Rating:
Summary: Complex Issues, Beautiful Prose, Essential Reading
Review: This is a complex story written in driving and beautiful prose. It should be read by anyone interested in the everyday experiences of Mexican migrants and the Mexicanization of the US. Martinez's thoughtful, driving, and troubling analysis deserves braod attention--and his strong, steady voice will certainly assure that he will be heard.

Rating:
Summary: Crossing over without Jonathan Edwards
Review: Ruben Martinez's (also author of the recommended "Other Side: Notes from the New L. A., Mexico, and Beyond") "Crossing Over" places a human face on the contours of new immigration and the new global economy. Martinez's argument is two-fold: that the United States and Mexico are becoming more and more similar culturally, and more and more interdependent economically. This growing interrelationship between Mexico and the United States is often denied or viewed with horror by many Americans who tend to see Mexican immigrants as "them."

Although the book is presentist, in that it deals with the particular experience of a Mexican family and their travels from their small town in Cheran, Mexico to the United States, Martinez has a strong sense of history and how it weighs upon the present. Martinez understands that the Mexican border is currently, and always has been, incredibly porous since the 19th century due to the cultural ties between Mexican Americans and their Mexican counterparts to the south and due to American agribusiness' and manufacturing firms' constant quest for cheap labor.

Shifts in recent US immigration policy, therefore, have created the problem of "illegal immigration"-that is workers who cross the boarder with no rights, protections, or avenues for redress under US law because of their status. These workers, although essential to the US economy (not just in the SW, but throughout much of the North East and Mid West as well), are looked down upon by US workers, exploited by their employers, and culturally marginalized by the dominant society.

Perhaps the most telling episode regarding America's split personality on Mexican immigration is when Rosa attempts to cross the boarder. The Border Patrol, armed with the most high tech equipment to spot illegals, catches and fingerprints Rosa multiple times, but without arresting her. Eventually, she succeeds in crossing. The message is clear-we can't and really don't want to stop you from crossing, you just have to be prepared to risk you life and pay the price. The "price" is, of course, the fee for your coyote, your labor recruiter, and your boss who all "own" you because you are illegal. In the books most ironic moment, Rosa's family is actually compensated for the deaths of her brothers from a car accident involving the Border Patrol. In other words, the US accepts responsibility for what goes on at the border-but only up to $7,000.

The book is well written in a conversational tone which makes it a useful tool in a college level class that deals with recent US immigration, globalization, labor, or Mexican-American culture.

Rating:
Summary: A Chevy Silverado to die for
Review: You're in an Indian village in the mountains of Mexico where they still speak pre-Columbian Purepecha when they appear: "a fleet of four gleaming Chevy Silverado trucks cruising slowly, very slowly down the highway." The taligate of the last truck bears "a beautiful airbrushed rendition of Jesus crowned with thorns, soulful eyes looking up toward the Father." (p. 112) Need I quote more? You'll laugh, you'll cry [Y volver, volver, volver/a tus brazos otra vez], you'll never be bored on this road trip--whether you think someone other than Mexicans should be picking our crops or not. Concervatives take note: The book does elicit sympathy for the downtrodden, in the now almost 300-year-old journalistic tradition of "A Modest Proposal," Jonathan Swift's 1729 editorial suggesting that the English just be done with it and eat the suffering Irish... that pink, freckled sea of humanity...

Rating:
Summary: Race, Gender and Class in Trans-Border Journalism
Review: I am afraid I am not quite as impressed by this book as most of the other reviewers. Since they include a high-ranking academic in this field and a Top 100 Reviewer, I guess that means my review falls into the "low brow" category.

This is an engaging book, and an important one. Clearly the author is blessed with a very active mind, and as a result will probably live a long and productive life. But I found myself resisting this book from the second page. That was when he started to condescend to the "white" residents of the Californian border down, using the word "faux" twice to describe the local architecture. Since he put himself above those residents, I started to evaluate his writing using a correspondingly high standard. And I found it disappointing.

His writing is flowery and a bit cliched. It is reminiscent of a very very bright 7th grader--he uses a large vocabulary, but not always to best effect. The editing could have been better, for example where he suddenly lapses into using colons (incorrectly) three times in the same paragraph. His thinking is dense with connections and comparisons, but not all of them appropriate. He seems to raise questions but then fails to pursue an answer. This reader was too many times left wondering "what is your point?"

I was left with the feeling that this book is preaching to the choir. A journalist can't go wrong writing about the plight of poor brown people at the bottom of an international labor market; that kind of subject brings with it an immediate constituency. The result feels a bit facile, not intellectually rigorous. He sprinkles in sociological smart-talk about "negotiating cultural identity." He says that America and Mexico have been "interdependent" for a long time, and then suddenly says "but recently it has gotten much worse." What? Does the reader need to come to this work with the preconception that economic interdependence is a bad thing?

In summary this is a work worth reading, and an author whose other work should be read. But it does not deserve unqualified praise.