Monday, June 21, 2010

Summer Reading at the Arid Zone


My name is indexed between the words "cocaine and "coyote", and if you read the book where this comes from you will find the words immigration, borders, kidnappings, hope, fear and DREAMMy name is there because I live in the Arid Zone and because of "Illegal".
Terry Greene Sterling is an award winning journalist and now book author thanks to "Illegal, Life and Death in Arizona's Immigration War Zone" published by Globe-Pequot Press. I will start this comment fully disclosing my relationship with Terry: We became friends when she looked for me as a source of information for her book. However do not read Illegal to find me there. Read the book because it has vivid narrative and stories of immigration and the people affected by the broken system in Maricopa County, Arizona, ground zero of the immigration debate with interesting dispatches from the border towns. You would want to read the book to find the story of "Viri" the dreamer who I have the honor to befriend. Or you really want to know what Joe Arpaio is like when he talks to a group of core supporters and lowers his guard, or the people that crosses mental and political borders. The cheap politics of immigration who victimize us all. The good, bad and the people that are doing their best to survive.
Terry describes the effects of the anti-immigrants laws in the micro economy of the "tienditas -dollar stores- that cater to immigrants so you formulate your own conclusion on the effects on the macro- economy of the State. Reading the stories you will find Terry, intrepid journalist with insatiable curiosity and a special ability to build a comfortable environment for the people she interviews to reveal their most intimate secrets and thoughts. You will find that she loves and respects her profession.
Terry invites you to join her to a journey into the immigration underground and meet the people who are hunkering down expecting a better tomorrow. You will no be disappointed of the ride.
Order the book at my favorite bookstore Changing Hands.

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