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: Crossing over
Review: Crossing Over by Ruben Martinez is a great book. It was so amazing what people went through to have a better life for themselves as well as for there families. Many cross the border risking everything that they have for a CHANCE of a better life. After they pass the border, it doesn't get any better because they have to deal with lots of racism and bad treatment here. IT's hard getting a job in america without speaking english.
Comming from immigrant parents i got a deeper repect for them as well as many other immigrants. A lot of times we all take for granted what is available to us being american citizens, not realizing many die to get what we have, our citizenship!!!
Rating:
Summary: Keenly Observed, Passionately Written, Highly Important
Review: Crossing Over is perhaps the most beautifully written and moving testaments to migrant experience i've ever read, and it fills a critical void in contemporary discourse on (Mexican) immigration. As a Mexicana living in the U.S., I have shared Martinez's book with family and friends on both sides of the border. As a college professor of Latino Studies, I have taught this book in several courses. I will continue to share this book with readers in the years to come.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: After skimming this book's description, I assumed it would begin with the fateful journey the three Chavez brothers who were killed trying to cross the border. I thought it would begin before their death's and end with the aftermath a la Truman Copote. Unfortunately we do not accompany them on their voyage. The story begins after their deaths and describes in piecemeal fashion the economic realities which neccessitate the continuing exodus of the Chavez family. Unlike The Onion Fields, another true story, this writer fails to draw the reader into his narrative. Like most journalists trying their hands at nonfiction, Martinez fails to develop characters with which we can Identify. It is the facts and just the facts with little emotion or tone. He writes 330 pages of boring details to illustrate his premise that the illegal Mexican immigrants will forever change the notion of institutions such as family on both sides of the border. Crawling around in the sewers with the Barrio Libre orphans could have been really interesting if he had developed one of the characters fully. However, he flits from character to character and incident to incident without a cogent story to pull the reader along. I am sure he is accurate about his descriptions like most journalists. If you would enjoy reading a 330 page newspaper or magazine article dealing with over 100 characters and numerous incidents, then you will like this book. I rarely stop reading a book before the end. However, after trudging thru 267 pages I couldn't read anymore. I think he was paid by the word. He makes a strong argument for a return to guest worker status for domestics and farm workers with which I agree. Employable American citizens do not want these jobs Hence people are forced to hire illegals with little or no background information. Agencies in Mexico should be able to pair up qualified workers for these jobs with U.S. families and farms checking health histories, employment histories and criminal backgrounds. Once they achieve guest worker status for a continuous five year period, they should be allowed to apply for permanent residency. This would eliminate the tragedies of illegal border crossings, allow U.S. officials to make sure none of the workers had criminal histories or terrorist ties, allow the U.S. to collect income taxes from all the guest workers and provide the subservient labor unavailable in the states. Currently, working mothers must hire people with unknown traits to look after their minor children, clean the house, and prepare meals. The hardship on working mothers who must return home to a full day of physical labor is ignored by those in power. After all they are men, and there is not an equal division of labor among working spouses with children. Most of it falls on the woman. Professional women especially are at a disadvantage. They work long hours which often exceed child day care hours. This is an inequitable situation for both the potential employers and the emigrees. However, you don't need this book to tell you that. Skip it. It is boring.
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
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