Book Review: Lives on the Line

As someone who believes that the human element of the immigration debate in the U.S. is central to the way decisions should be made, as opposed to profits and segregations of people based on the piece of earth they were born, this book Lives on the Line: Dispatches from the U.S.-Mexico Border was a breath of fresh air. Author Miriam Davidson takes her readers to Ambos Nogales – the sister cities that straddle la frontera just to the south of Latino Político headquarters, bearing the same name.

Those of us who live in the border region in its bi-cultural society understand that the human condition is lived very differently due to the current configuration of the international border. This book explores the economic impact of the maquilas – factories – that have risen on the other side of the line in response to so-called free trade agreements as well as several intimate stories of those who live in Ambos Nogales.

Environmental impact, human rights abuses of workers, the lives of Tunnel Children, and the effects of the growing militarization of our region is wonderfully woven throughout the chapters. Its power is in the storytelling. Readers are shown the work of community activists who work tirelessly for answers to their cancer-stricken neighborhoods and the political games that continue through this current era, transported to the work and passion that fuels humanitarian work in the shelters and soup kitchens of Nogales, Sonora, and get an idea of what its like to be an abandoned child that seeks refuge in the underground tunnels that perforate the line.

On a deeper level, the people of Ambos Nogales are leading the way to a new relationship between the United States and Mexico. Forever linked by geography, the two countries are becoming increasingly intertwined economically, socially, and culturally. In Ambos Nogales, people have lived this way for generations. They know how to celebrate and find strength in difference. They know that when Americans fight for the rights of Mexicans to a decent standard of living, we fight for the our own as well. People in Nogales have much to teach us about tolerating paradox and contradiction.

If you’ve been reading here for any amount of time, you can see how that exerpt would be music to my ears. I enthusiastically recommend this quick-read book offered by the University of Arizona Press to get an idea of what it’s like to call la frontera home. It is more than just a collection of stories, it’s a call to action to bring about a more just world.

 

Movie Review: Bordertown

An all-star cast of stars united in 2007 for this powerfully-told tale of the ongoing disappearance and murder of women in El Paso’s sister city of Ciudad Juárez in Chihuahua, Mexico. The film reunited director Gregory Nava with leading-actress Jennifer Lopez ten years after their collaboration on Selena.

Lopez’ character, Lauren Adrian, is an accomplished U.S. journalist who has been put on assignment in Juárez to investigate the alarming number of murders of female maquiladora workers. The story line takes the audience into the very real settings of the NAFTA-spawned slave industry, as well as the improvised living conditions of the factory workers that have flocked to the border region from all parts of Mexico. While the film boasts acclaimed Hollywood actors such as Lopez, Martin Sheen, and Antonio Banderas; a powerful performance by one of Mexico’s leading ladies, Maya Zapata, draws viewers into the horror that thousands of families have experienced as the numbers of desaparecidas (dissapeared) grow without the clamor of outrage it deserves.

Bordertown uses its dialog and imagery to indict the economic powers of both the United States and Mexico for the suffering of the working class. It exposes the effects of free trade agreements that don’t make assurances for the safety and livelihood of global workers, the censorship and convenient spin that has emerged with a corporate-owned media industry in the U.S., and the internal shame that is often experienced by those of Mexican ancestry who are forced in to the assimilation of American™ culture and exceptionalism.

While some of the male characters in the film are overly caricatured, I’m reminded that the point of the film is to raise the awareness and alarm of the exploitation, rape and murder of maquiladoras along la frontera. I commend the cast for using their trade to tell this story, and to do so without sanitizing the barbarism that is involved.

Finally, I was pleasantly surprised to see a link to ‘Take Action’ in the main menu of the DVD version of the film that shows how Amnesty International is working with the film’s creators to stop the atrocities. Unfortunately, we are still seeing corporate resistance to the exposure of the human rights crisis that exists along the line. By recommending this film to anyone and everyone who will take the time to watch its powerful narrative, I hope and pray that we will finally work together towards a future that sees the humanity of workers no matter where they were born, what language they speak, or what color their skin may be.

Más información:

• Bordertown on IMDB.com
• Bordertown on Wikipedia
• Amnesty International – Bordertown
• Women of Juarez
• Mujeres de Juarez
• Female homicides in Ciudad Juárez on Wikipedia
• The Juarez Project
• Desert Blood: The Juárez Murders

 

So, I have this book…

For a time I was afraid that I had lost it forever. I moved soon after I got it to review a year or so ago, and even after unpacking didn’t find it again until recently. I’ll have to think about why that happened. Still, I have the book now, even if a little late.

Almost everything about it says “This is a Serious Book“.

One glance at the cover – stark white hardcover, with bold, all caps black writing – and you know that someone feels they have something important to say, that they want to be noticed. Well, and then there is the thickness of the book – it’s fairly heavy, in weight… over 700 pages, some of them fold outs. Many of them photos, though, which could detract from the impression of seriousness, but no. Not these photos.

I say “almost” everything about it because, besides the pictures, when you look at the closed book from the side there is a rainbow effect, each section of the book having its own color – mostly pastels. Oh, and a bright red ribbon for keeping your place in the book as you read, should you decide to start from the beginning, go on to the end and then stop, as the saying goes. I’ve not yet been able to do that, but maybe soon.

“The Face of Human Rights” is indeed a serious book, absolutely harrowing in sections, in more ways than one would expect. There are, of course, pictures of people who are starving, extreme poverty, those killed by their governments or other things, and more. Sad to say, I think we are used to those, and fully expect a book about human rights to contain them, either in picture or word form (or, as in this case, both).

That’s only half the story, though, isn’t it? Or maybe a quarter of it. For every action there is a reaction, and all that. Plenty of room in this book for the rest of the story, or at least a fair portion of it, and the authors/editors (Walter Kälin, Lars Müller and Judith Whyttenbach) do their best to provide that.

I steeled myself to just open the book at random and write about the first picture I saw… which just happened to be a HUGE platter (not plate, platter) containing a slab of ham in the middle that covers fully half of the platter, a pile of hashbrowns so big part of it is hanging off the edge, with three fried eggs barely contained at the other edge of the platter. This is a single serving, in a Los Angeles diner.

Just as a guess, I think this chapter might have something to do with food security. There are a few more related pictures of people who definitely have that – in abundance. Including one of a woman preparing to dig into a massive ice cream float. The woman is, of course, fat, but the people in the other photos full of Westerners gorging on food are not.

With my next random page try, a couple of hundred pages away, I landed on a swirl of colors – a Tibetan monk captured in the process of sweeping away a mandala in a ceremony. Quite a juxtaposition, that.

There is probably much to say about temporal things – which both food and mandalas are – ceremonies and contrasts, but not just yet. I find it far to easy to just traipse off after stray philosophical thoughts and ignore more substantive things so, even though this is not actually the review yet, I’ll save those thoughts for another time.

There is far too much in this book to cover even in one long post, so I will be taking it a piece at a time and will try to give as much of the full flavor of the book, including its various contrasts between… well, what seem like extremes when put in context, but which (as a Westerner) would in other circumstances feel like “normal, everyday life”. Much to think about. I will also scan in some pictures.

Here is how the chapters are broken up in the book:

Foreword and intro – What are human rights?

1. Human existence – The Right to Life
2. Identity of the human person – Prohibition of Discrimination
3. Adequate standards of living – The Right to Food, The Right to Health, The Right to Housing
4. Private sphere – The Protection of Private Life
5. Intellectual and spiritual life – The Freedom of Thought and Belief, The Right to Education
6. Economic life – The Right to Work, The Protection of Property
7. In the hands of the state – Fair Trial and Prohibition of Torture
8. Political participation – Political Rights and Freedom of Expression
9. Displacement, flight and exile – The Rights of Refugees and Displaced Persons

I’ll take them in some sort of order, but probably not as listed.

(xposted from Stalking Sunlight)