American Visa

by Juan De Recacoechea, Adrian Althoff (Translator)

Armed with fake papers, a handful of gold nuggets, and a snazzy custom-made suit, an unemployed schoolteacher with a singular passion for detective fiction sets out from small-town Bolivia on a desperate quest for an American visa, his best hope for escaping his painful past and reuniting with his grown son in Miami.

Mario Alvarez's dream of emigration takes a tragicomic twist on the rough streets of La Paz, Bolivia's seat of government. Alvarez embarks on a series of Kafkaesque adventures, crossing paths with a colorful cast of hustlers, social outcasts, and crooked politicians—and initiating a romance with a straight-shooting prostitute named Blanca. Spurred on by his detective fantasies and his own tribulations, he hatches a plan to rob a wealthy gold dealer, a decision that draws him into a web of high-society corruption but also brings him closer than ever to obtaining his ticket to paradise.

Juan de Recacoechea was born in La Paz, Bolivia, and worked as a journalist in Europe for almost twenty years. After returning to his native country, he helped found Bolivia's first state-run television network, served as its general manager, and dedicated himself to fiction writing. Recacoechea is the author of seven novels. American Visa is his first novel to be translated into English.

Genres: Bolivia, Fiction, Crime, Mystery, Novels, 20th Century

244 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Juan de Recacoechea Saenz (11 de agosto de 1935 en La Paz), es un novelista boliviano.

Juan de Recacoechea Sáenz nació en el barrio de Sopocachi de la ciudad de La Paz. Cursó estudios de bachillerato en Bolivia, España y Perú, graduándose del colegio Markham de Lima. Posteriormente fijó su residencia en París donde estudió periodismo y televisión.

Durante su estadía en Europa, obtiene una beca para trabajar en televisión francesa. Ahí se desempeñó como asistente de dirección y participa en numerosas películas. Vivió en: Holanda, Inglaterra, Austria, España y Suecia, entre 1958 y 1968.

A su retorno a Bolivia, funda Televisión Boliviana en la cual trabaja varios años como jefe de producción y gerente general. Es en este periodo en que empieza a escribir novelas, siendo la primera Fin de Semana (1977), editada por Los Amigos del Libro. Es seguida por: La Mala Sombra (1980), Toda una noche la sangre (1984), American Visa (1994), Altiplano Express (2000), París no era una fiesta (2002), Kerstin (2004), Abeja reina (2009) y La biblia copta(2011).

La novela American Visa lo hizo merecedor del Premio Guttentag de Novela en 1994. Actualmente, ha sido traducida a seis idiomas (inglés, hebreo, ruso, francés, griego, esloveno) y es considerada la mejor novela policial de la literatura boliviana, además de la más vendida del país. El año 2005, fue llevada al cine por el director Juan Carlos Valdivia, película que fue galardonada en diversos festivales internacionales.

La novela Altiplano Express, fue traducida al inglés por la misma editorial estadounidense que publicó American Visa: Akashic Books. Actualmente forma parte de un proyecto cinematográfico a cargo de la productora argentina Pampa Films.

Reviews

[Elizabeth (Alaska) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think I did not remember this is noir, but it was obvious from the opening lines. The first 30 pages or so are very reminiscent of Raymond Chandler. At one point, our first person narrator, Mario Alvarez, ducks into a bookstore, and we see the author clearly acknowledge this influence.

I lost myself amidst gigantic shelves holding hundreds of books, ranging from children’s stories to thick volumes on medicine, and a gamut of novels and short stories in between. I was never a fan of literature that talks about literature. I always liked noir novels about detectives and hoods that have clear beginnings and endings. Guys like Raymond Chandler and Chester Himes can change my life for a few hours, freeing me to see the world through the eyes of Philip Marlowe or Grave Digger Jones. Just then I stumbled across one of Himes’s books, The Heat’s On.

The author does lose this voice and finds his own, but the story, setting, pacing, etc. are noir all over. There was no reason to think of this novel in any realistic sense. I see some reviewers take exception to the way women are treated as characters, or some of the perhaps less believable incidents. I don't think noir is supposed to be believable. It is, almost by its very definition, contrivance.

This author is apparently one of the few Bolivian authors to have been translated into English and I'm glad I read it for this season's Reading Globally challenge. I think he has only one other that has been translated. Should I find myself wanting another South American title, I would go to him, rather than another where I'm more likely to encounter magical realism. Still, this is not the type of novel that in my heart deserves 5-stars. It is good, certainly not 5-stars good, and maybe just crosses the 4-star threshold.

[Makis Dionis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ένας flâneur στη Λα Παζ, αρχές των 90'ς. Με αφορμή την μη έκδοση βίζας για τις ΗΠΑ, περιφέρει το παρελθόν του, κ παρακολουθεί την άγρια εικόνα μιας φτωχής κατά βάση κοινωνίας που κρύβει τη βρωμιά της στα πλούσια τζάκια. Πότες, τζανκια, παλαίμαχοι μποξέρ, πολιτικοί, εφήμεροι απατεώνες, πουτανες και μεροκαματιαρες πόρνες, αφηγούνται με τον τρόπο τους κ με το πισκο να ρέει άφθονο, τη δομή μιας κοινωνίας της πιο φτωχής χώρας της Λατινικής Αμερικής που το μόνο που την ξεχωρίζει στον κόσμο είναι το υψόμετρο της πρωτεύουσας όπου οι πλούσιοι μένουν στα χαμηλά κ οι φτωχοί στα ψηλά λόγω ελλείψεως οξυγόνου.

Εραστής του απίθανου, ονειροπολος που ποτέ δεν μπορεί να διαλέξει το όνειρο του, έχει βάλει την καλύτερη φορεσιά του και μας βολταρει ανάμεσα στους πραγματικούς ανθρώπους !!
Απλά υπέροχος!!!

[Sleepless Dreamer]

Well, I've never tried to get an American Visa but I get the feeling this book is not particularly accurate. Review to come!

Work Adventures
- I work with a team that is mostly South American so I am always constantly the most stressed out person. I realize this is a stereotype but my god, it feels accurate, I'm a proper Ashkenazi Jew, panic is what we do. 

- Hearing loads of different languages makes me feel like I'm traveling and man do I miss that. 

- Apparently, Germans say ant shit instead of cheese when taking pictures and yet there are people out there who think that German isn't a fantastic language. 

- I just spent like 20 minutes learning about a very specific region in Argentina and it was awesome. Apparently they don't have much tourism and well, I absolutely intend to one day go there.

- Dude: So I have to pay if I practice languages?
Me: Nope! You spend half of the evening helping others learn and the other half you can learn languages for free.
Dude: Okay.
*after three seconds*
Dude: So when do I have to pay?
Me: *explains patiently again*
Dude: But when do I pay?
Me, with the fakest customer smile ever, "You don't!"
Dude: Alright but when do I pay?

 - Yes, a Chinese dude spent a solid 15 minutes explaining to me the various challenges of Hebrew-Chinese students and it was weirdly fascinating. 

- People from all languages and cultures are great but man, Arabic speakers. Every Arabic speaker I've ever met was a lovely person and that is truly some motivation to study more.

[Stephen Kelly · Rating 1 out of 5]

Every female character is assessed according to her screwability, ironically by an unscrewable, pathetic narrator (alcoholic, unemployed, advanced in years, not very funny or interesting, prone to robbing bookstores, with a "French mustache" and a pair of shoes he's been wearing for almost twenty years) who--for no discernible reason--is well-liked by every man and woman he crosses paths with. He beds a beautiful, peasant prostitute with a heart of Andean gold and--being the self-professed stud that he is--manages to make her experience intimacy, love, and orgasm for the first time in her life. Either that or she's just a good actress. Meanwhile, his heart is truly taken by Isabel, the aimless aristocrat he thinks of while having pity sex with the prostitute. There's no reason he should be more in love with her except that she has money and a solid reputation. There's certainly nothing more interesting or virtuous about her. Meanwhile Mario wanders around spouting a bunch of purple similes and talking rather emotionlessly about Bolivian politics and history, occasionally advising drag queens on sexually transmitted diseases and praising American cinema. Sexist, heartless, heavy-handed, and unnatural.

[Milan/zzz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Since I live in the country whose citizens until recently needed visas to go in majority of countries (mostly the ones that, as Recacoechea called them “First World Countries”) I’m very familiar both with the value of having visa in your passport and all hell you have to survive to get one. Especially if you’re asking visa for the first time because once refused, you’re marked not only for getting visa for that specific country but for many others as well. So it was painfully familiar and so alive the fear of the main protagonist when talking about possible rejection in the embassy and its consequences.

I was reminded on my own experience when I was about to get my first Schengen visa. It was in Spanish embassy and it supposed to be pro forme, nothing complicated: I had all my papers (all in perfect order), I was fellowship holder by Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, had letter of recommendation from the Institute Cervantes (as their student), had invitation letter from the University in Santander-Spain, had letter that confirms that all mu costs (accommodation, food, classes) are covered with the scholarship, had round trip plane ticket Belgrade-Barcelona… so the only missing paper was personal letter from the King Juan Carlos himself! Anyway that wasn’t enough. They were asking me papers that didn’t exist. And huge amount of them. To cut the story they finally gave me visa one hour before my flight! I was in the embassy with all my stuff no knowing will I spend the night in my bed in Belgrade or in Barcelona. That was one of the most humiliating experiences in my life. I told to myself that I’ll not let this to happened again and luckily all following experiences with visa were not nearly like that one.

The other thing Recacoechea is mentioning in his novel is that even if you manage to have visa in your passport that doesn’t mean that the clerk/policeman at the airport will let you in the country. They have all right to tell you “No. Go back!” I did have not one but two visas in my passport, the first one was flawed so they gave me second one and cancelled the one with mistake. OF COURSE I was suspicious… I was trying to explain her (the officer at the airport) the obvious but that was never-ending fight until I said that I’m Fellowship holder of Institute Cervantes. Then she slowly raised her eyes with facial expression I doubted she could even have, she stamped my passport, all of a sudden my Spanish is beautiful, she expressed hope that I’ll enjoy my visit, advised me what should I see before continue my journey to Santander, and she hoped that will not be my last visit to her country. She made me mute (I must have looked like retarded) and I was IN!

Anyway “American Visa” is genre I don’t usually read. It’s sort of detective story (although without detectives lol) influenced by Chendler, main characters’ favourite author but nevertheless it was very interesting and hard-to put-down story (not the same with writing this post since I finished with this book several months ago). This was first Bolivian novel I’ve ever read and I was quite surprised how urban and modern it is. I guess I expected some sort of South American exotic story but what I got was even better; bunch of all sorts of souls on high altitude: prostitutes, thieves, murderers, transvestites, corrupted politicians, high class and the ones at the very bottom. And then there’s the main character, a teacher who’s trying to reach USA and join his son and is capable to do whatever it takes to reach that goal. And it does taking a lot if you live in the country that economy is based on cocaine. You must wonder yourself whether you should feel sympathy toward him or just morally disqualifying him. I guess the environment can transform people into something they never thought they can be. And I’m sure, nor would they want to be.

It’s an interesting story, quite intense about one personal story but also about one country hidden high in the clouds and forgotten by the rest of the world.

[Tali Spencer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am an American who married into a Bolivian family and lived for a while in La Paz, where I was immersed in the local language and culture. In fact, I was there during the time this book was written. So for me the story of Mario Alvarez rang incredibly true, though not always in positive ways. I think my familiarity with the country also helped me understand some of the nuances of region that played out in the story.

The book's portrayal of life in La Paz at the time is brutal and accurate. The author captures the atmosphere of the hilly city with its high mountain air, narrow, crowded streets, minibuses, alcoholism, poverty, and class and ethnic divisions. If you're looking for a book that captures the essence of this city and culture during the 90s, look no further. It's not a pretty picture and de Recacoechea shows it through the eyes of someone living a desperate, trapped life instead of through the eyes of a tourist. I helped several nephews, nieces, and other cousins in trying to get those American visas and have seen firsthand the envy, resentment, fatalism, and hope involved in those decisions.

The writing doesn't always feel smooth. Often it's jarring in its overuse of Americanisms, something the author sets up by making his main character a teacher of English. I just don't see an average Bolivian of that type using words like Bunyanesque, though. The movie references, on the other hand, and that the protagonist loves American thrillers, feel very true. I think some of the roughness of the writing may be a result of the translation and have ordered a copy in Spanish so I can compare.

One uncomfortable aspect of the book is how female characters are portrayed. Yes, the protagonist, Mario, is a pig. He's forever noticing the sexual attributes of every female, with a particular fondness for rumps. This raises my hackles and causes me to dislike him. That's my culture seeping in. Sadly, this attitude toward women is real for the culture the author portrays. I don't like saying that, but I lived it. The author set out to portray a particular type of character, and he succeeded. It's a shame, because Bolivian women (and men) are so much more than the whores and users running through this book. But this book isn't about those women, it's about this man. I can't take a star away for doing a good job.

I found the inclusion of a transvestite character welcome and interesting, because this element of Bolivian culture is rarely acknowledged. The men of my Bolivian family flat out told me there were no "gays" in Bolivia. This is laughable, but they believed it (or wanted to believe it). The character of Gardenia is one of the sweetest and most resonant in the book.

American Visa is a fascinating read. It deliberately sets out to "un-prettify" its setting and characters. The author focuses a little too much on how terrible everything smells and revels in prostitutes, but in the end the book takes the reader on an eye-opening journey into corruption, hope, and what a man will do to survive. I recommends this book to readers who like to look deeply into another (or their own) culture, enjoy male characters who wallow in their failures and somehow find themselves anyway, and enjoy books about people trying to survive when the odds are stacked against them.

[Sally Sugarman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mario Alvarez is in La Pas, Bolivia to obtain a visa to the United States to visit his son. His wife has left him years ago and he is ready to leave Bolivia where he has lived all his life. He is a teacher whose subject was English Literature, although he is most influenced by writers like Chandler and Hammett. This is another first person narrative. As with many of the books set in South America, the influence of the popular culture of the United States is evident as is the political impact that the United States has had on these countries. The immigration office is intimidating and Mario feels that his carefully doctored documents will be investigated to his detriment. He hears about some who can facilitate the process. This starts him on a long journey downward as he tries to raise the money to bribe the officials for his visa. During this time the streets of the city come alive with its cheap bars and bad liquor. The social inequities are evident in the women who sell their bodies cheaply each night to the drunken men, both rich and poor, who patronize them. In his quest. Mario encounters people of all classes, the most endearing of whom are those who live in the cheap hotel where he is staying; an old man, a former athlete, a salesman and a transvestite offer him friendship and good stories and advice. There is crime and corruption all around Mario and he becomes involved in it all, only to discover his dream of obtaining an American visa turns into a nightmare. Looking at migrating to the United States from the South American perspective seems appropriately relevant at this time. Although not a conventional mystery, it offers the social insights and stimulates the questions that the mystery genre usually does.

[Madhulika Liddle · Rating 1 out of 5]

When a crime novel of 264 pages (of which the last five pages are devoted to an afterword) has its most interesting bit of action begin around page 190, it’s not going into my ‘must read again’ pile.

To be honest, I’d never heard of (let alone read) Juan de Recachoechea before. But, having taken on a self-imposed challenge of trying to read as many books as I could from across the world, I was looking for authors from Bolivia who’d had their works translated into English, and chanced upon Juan de Recachoechea’s supposedly Chandler-ish noir novel, American Visa. I usually find crime fiction interesting, and Chandler is classic enough, so I was willing to give this a try.

The story is straightforward enough: Mario Alvarez, a teacher from a provincial town, arrives in the capital, La Paz, so that he can visit the American Consulate and get himself a visa to visit his son in Florida. Alvarez has very little money, so he stays in a seedy little hotel (where he quickly makes friends with other occupants, including a whore named Blanca, whom he is instantly attracted to). In between visiting La Paz’s red light area, stealing books, getting acquainted with (and being attracted to) a high-society lady, being left in mid-orgasm by another high-society lady, and just generally painting the town red, Alvarez realizes that the papers he’s had forged to help support his documents will almost certainly be caught by the Americans. His visa will be turned down, and he will be barred from trying again.

So Alvarez sidles away from the American Consulate without even trying, and ends up discovering the existence of a travel agency that can help process American visas—for $800. No hassles at all. Except, Alvarez has nowhere close to that amount.

This is the set-up, and how Alvarez gets the money and what happens thereafter is what comprises the last seventy pages of American Visa.

My main problem with this book was its rambling, going-all-over-the-place nature. Alvarez (whom we get to know fairly well, since the book is written in first person, from his perspective) takes his time getting to the Consulate, then figuring out what to do, and meanwhile spending his time gallivanting around, getting stoned and getting laid. We are treated to far too much about characters and locales that eventually don’t even really matter in the book. True, they do contribute something to American Visa, since they help create an image of a seedy, corrupt, crazy city (the highest capital in the world), but other than that, they don’t help the story much. There are too many digressions—the stuff about the men symbolically crucifying themselves, for instance, or the very long section devoted to the transvestite Gardenia and his friends—that dilute the main story.

If all you want is the ‘noir’ feel, there’s noir enough here; American Visa has all the sleaze, and then some, of classic noir. But the core story is hidden so deep and is so short that it ends up being deeply dissatisfying.

[thearcher89 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mario Alverez enters La Paz on the first page of the novel and leaves it on the last. In between, his efforts to obtain an American visa were challenged and thwarted by his own all-too-human failings. I read this book when I was in Bolivia. It was great to see how the seedy district Alverez habited in the novel has changed into a backpacker area, and how it remained unchanged beneath.

While the ending wasn't weak, I was expecting a bit more -- I was expecting all the threads to come together, all of Alverez's actions and indiscretions to come back and haunt him. Hell, I would have given the book all the stars if it revealed that Alverez could have gotten his visa the normal way, had he not be too big of a coward to face the consular officials.

Also, Recacoechea peppers the book with metaphors and allusions, many of which are politically incorrect (an Englishman being chased by Hindus to be burnt) and out of place.

[Leslie (updates on SG) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Spent a snow day starting and finishing this read for my AtW challenge (Bolivia). I liked it. The prose is snappy and the secondary characters are memorable.

[G. Munckel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mario Alvarez es un profesor venido a menos que trabaja como contrabandista de poca monta. La única esperanza que tiene de mejorar su calidad de vida es migrar a Estados Unidos, donde lo espera su hijo. Aunque allá lo más probable es que solo consiga trabajo haciendo panqueques, le parece mejor que quedarse en Bolivia. El problema es que para hacer ese viaje necesita franquear un obstáculo: conseguir una visa. Pero eso que parece tan sencillo resulta una traba importante en un país tercermundista que se caracteriza por exportar mano de obra barata.

Ante el miedo a las dificultades burocráticas, Alvarez decide recurrir a vías no del todo legales para obtener la visa. Pero eso implica pagar una fuerte suma de dinero que, por supuesto, no tiene. La única forma que se le ocurre de conseguirlo es planear un robo, que no va a salir como espera.

Escrita con una prosa llena de humor (que tal vez no envejeció muy bien), esta novela ofrece más que una aventura criminal; es un retrato de Bolivia en los 90, cuando gran parte de la población estaba dispuesta a hacer de todo con tal de irse a Estados Unidos, y también hace un buen recorrido por la ciudad de La Paz, abarcando desde las calles pobres hasta las zonas residenciales.

[Layal souss · Rating 3 out of 5]

فيزا أمريكية
خوان دي ريكاكوخيا
ترجمة: خالد الجبيلي
دار نينوى


بطل الرواية الرجل الأربعيني / ماريو ألفاريز وهو أستاذ لغة أنجيليزية الذي يحضر إلى المدينة ليحصل على تأشيرة الفيزا الأمريكية بهدف زيارة ابنه الوحيد والبداية بحياةٍ جديدة.
إنها رحلة الحصول على هذه الفيزا بكل الطرق, حتى آل به الحال إلى الإنعطاف نحو الجريمة.
رواية تمازجت فيها المشاعر, من الحب ,الجريمة, السرقة والإنهزام الأخير.
لندرك كيف ان للإنسان اليد في اغلاق دفتر حياةٍ/مدينة في سبيل حياةٍ/مدينة أخرى.
أسلوب السرد تميز بالسلاسة والترجمة اعتمدت البساطة المدهشة.
تميزت الرواية بتسليطها على مشاعر البشر و الكرب الذي يصيبهم كلعنةٍ في كل فصلٍ من الحياة.

[D'Ailleurs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ένας Βολιβιανός καθηγητής προσπαθεί να βγάλει βίζα προκειμένου να επισκευτεί (μόνιμα) τον γιό του που μένει στην Αμερική, μπλέκεται όμως σε μια σειρά από διάφορες περιπέτειες ενώ στο βιβλίο παρελαύνουν ένα σωρό στερεότυπα της νεο-νουάρ λογοτεχνίας: διεφθαρμένοι πολιτικοί, ρομαντικοί αλκοολικοί, πόρνες με χρυσή καρδιά και λοιπά.

Όμορφο βιβλιαράκι που φλερτάρει με το νουάρ χωρίς όμως να έχει την πολυπλοκότητα ενός αστυνομικού μυθιστορήματος αλλά με περίσσια ευαισθησία (λίγο προκάτ όπως γίνεται σε αυτά τα βιβλία). Αρκετά καλή πρόζα, σαρκασμός όπου πρέπει και σωστή χρήση των στερεοτυπικών κλισέ του είδους κάνουν το βιβλίο ένα ευχάριστο ανάγνωσμα που δυστυχώς ξεχνιέται εύκολα.

[Carlos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Una novela que sabe entretejer la realidad de Bolivia en los 1990 con los vaivenes de un hombre cincuentón en busca de un escape. Recacoechea narra con destreza la realidad objetiva de la ciudad de La Paz y la experiencia subjetiva de una media docena de personajes interesantes. Igualmente, el alterna la exploración intima de ciudad y personajes con una trama algo amena de suspenso. Aunque Recacoechea no llega siempre a balancear la tensión entre una narración más pausada y una trama que demanda más rapidez, la obra si pudo llegar a una resolución interesante y satisfactoria.

[Moya Marshall · Rating 1 out of 5]

Maybe it’s just the translation but honestly one of the worst books i’ve ever read

1 star is because i wanted to learn more about Bolivian history and there was a lot of interesting stuff there #dweeb

[Nadia Villanueva · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

[Maud (reading the world challenge) · Rating 4 out of 5]

[#102 Bolivia] This is a roman noir about a loser living in a creepy hotel surrounded by prostitutes in La Paz and trying to get a visa for the US. As we follow him, we learn more about La Paz in the 90's: the political setting and the social environment. The writing style is very easy to get into. Overall, it was an interesting and entertaining book if you're fond of this genre.

[Vitor Neiva · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mi primer review en español.

En realidad es un buen libro. Se necesita un tiempo para tener alguna acción, lo que causa un poco de molestia, sin embargo crea expectativas de que algo sucederá en cualquier momento. Pero cuando comienza alguna acción, cambia mucho. Existe controversia sobre cómo se retrata a las mujeres, pero creo que mucho se trata de transmitir el comportamiento habitual de la gente, aunqué hay exageraciones en la forma en que las cuenta, podría ser más indiferente o no concentrar tanto en este tema. Incluso hay una narrativa de que no hay prejuicios entre la población local, incluyendo tener pasajes ​​con homosexuales y prostitutas, lo que quizás "alivia" la carga.

Me sorprendió, porque nunca imaginé que terminaría siendo un romance. Me gusta como los detalles me trasladaron a La Paz, creando una atmósfera necesaria para la historia. Queda bien mostrado el tema de la visa americana, que tanto obsesiona a los latinos, con sus dificultades y lo que hace que la gente haga locuras por ello. La visa era lo menos importante, una obsesión que dejó ciega a una persona sencilla, que tuvo un sueño infundado.

[Lora Grigorova · Rating 2 out of 5]

American Visa: http://readwithstyle.wordpress.com/20...

The book, as the title foreshadows, follows the path of an average Bolivian man, who is desperately trying to get an American visa and thus visit his son in the States. Mario Alvarez is the definition of a loser – a retired and broke teacher, whose wife has left him years ago, a drunkard and a failure, utterly depressed and frankly utterly clueless. Following his dream to escape from the misery and poverty in his home country of Bolivia, Mario travels to the capital of La Paz. Soon his journey takes a tragicomic twist, involving numerous peculiar characters that roam the streets of the Bolivian capital – whores, transvestites, half-breeds, dealers. Given the inherent suspicion of the Americans against the Bolivians (cocaine, duh?) and given most of Mario’s papers are fabricated, his visit to the American embassy is unsuccessful and the teacher starts to look for alternative ways to obtain the ever so desired American dream. As the story unfolds, it becomes more of a detective crime story, which unfortunately doesn’t add value to the novel itself.

The topic might be considered interesting – in the growing globalization there are still countries, whose citizens are deprived from the opportunity to immigrate and start a new life. Juan de Recacoechea explores with striking realism the terrible living conditions in his home country, where to be rich and prosperous means to be a criminal. The rest are left wandering the streets, stealing, whoring, killing. Mario Alvarez, one of those unfortunate souls, is getting ever closer to his dream, but whether Bolivia will ever let him go, remains unclear up until the last pages.

Read more: http://readwithstyle.wordpress.com/20...

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel has attracted a mass of marmite reviews - some love it, whilst others loathe it - and it's hard to disagree with any of them. It's just that sort of book. Described as a crime mystery, the crime element isn't that good and indeed the plot is a bit random in places but strangely that doesn't really detract much from its overall impact. It is just such a visual feast. As another reviewer has said, imagine a 1950's noir genre black and white film but set in the immensely seedy, colourful, atmospheric city of La Paz, Bolivia in 1993. The back story is of the desperation of an almost penniless teacher, Mario Alvarez to gain by fair means or foul a tourist visa to visit his son in Florida, a visit that could lead to his permanent illegal immigration to the US, a place still viewed as the land of milk and honey compared to his failed life in his native Bolivia. Mario is the narrator and he is a particularly unlovable character. He exhibits continual casual racism towards native Indian Bolivians - the phrase half-breed is in constant use, though as a linguist, I'd love to know what word was used in the original Spanish. He is also a rampant sexist - women just seem to be there for his sexual satisfaction. And yet, strangely, somehow you want him to succeed. I have never been to La Paz or even Bolivia, but the story reads like it has been written by a true local. It is political both about the fate of the poor in South America and more subtly the impact that US foreign policy has on countries on that continent, which then drives immigration to the US. But it is the description of the setting and the atmospherics that are the stars of the show and the elements that made it into a really enjoyable read.

[Craig Sisterson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was quite different to the crime/thriller novels I usually read, but I found myself hooked, and really enjoying it.

It is reminiscent of that classic mid-20th century American noir, with its dishevelled hero, mean and gritty streets, and situations that unfold into all sorts of unplanned bad places and outcomes.

Recacoechea's writing probably shines most in his evocation of La Paz, the highest capital city in the world - a bustling city full of change and history, and the sense of disconnect and desperation felt by the 'hero'.

AMERICAN VISA is quite a different book, and won't necessarily be enjoyed by all crime and thriller fans, but there is plenty of merit, interest, and thought-provoking themes to be found within its pages.

[Jared Millet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading Around South America:

In my quest to sample the literature of each country I visit in my year-long trip around South America, it was particularly difficult to locate a Bolivian author who had been translated into English. (In this book's postscript, critic Ilan Stavans admits as much.) But thankfully, there’s Juan de Recacoechea’s American Visa, a wonderful crime thriller that also offers an insightful cross section of Bolivian culture in the early 1990s.

The novel follows a week in the life of Mario Alvarez, a down-on-his-luck teacher and small-time middleman smuggler. His wife has left him, he sees no future for himself, and he desperately wants to get out of the country. His son has made a successful life in the United States, so Alvarez’s last hope is to follow him and escape to the Promised Land of America. The problem is getting a visa from the American bureaucracy, which seems specifically designed to keep as many Bolivians out as possible. There is an intense screening process whereby Bolivians applying for entry, even as tourists, must show sufficient assets, income, and property, and then survive a humiliating interrogation by a U.S. consulate official.

Alvarez makes it to the consulate with a brand new suit, a snappy haircut, and a sheaf of forged papers, but he chickens out after discovering that the Americans hire detectives to investigate whether each person’s papers are legitimate. After that, Alvarez scrounges to find some other way to get a visa as only an amateur criminal who’s read too many Raymond Chandler novels can.

Doing so, he moves through La Paz like ghost, intermingling with the lowest drunkards and prostitutes as well as the wealthy political elite. He’s willing to do anything for the visa, if only he can dredge up the courage to cross one moral line after another. (Mostly he does so by getting drunk.) In his quest he impacts many lives, with his own brass ring remaining stubbornly out of reach.

One thing this book teaches is that you should never let a novelist write a travel guide. Travel writers will highlight the fun, bright spots of a destination, but a fiction writer will go straight for the dark underbelly. Ilan Stavans describes Recacoechea’s style as a reaction against the “magical realism” that had overwhelmed South American literature. Recacoechea replaced it with gritty realism and a decidedly pulp sensibility that makes American Visa perfectly accessible and deeply human at the same time.

[Tony · Rating 4 out of 5]

The immigrant dream in the era of globalization comes alive in this story of a bumbling Bolivian schoolteacher desperate to get to America. Mario is a divorced middle-aged teacher from the countryside who has to come La Paz to apply for a visa to visit his son in Miami. Of course, his ultimate goal is to create a new life for himself in America, starting with the job his son has lined up for him at an IHOP. The only thing standing in his way is his lack of the titular visa.

Taking a room at a seedy Hotel California (ha ha), he meets several colorful long-term residents, including a hooker with a heart of gold, a former diplomat, a transvestite, and a former professional soccer goalie. Armed with little more than a fancy suit, fake documents (which are meant to convince the American Embassy that he has plenty of property in Bolivia that he would never abandon), a fistful of dollars, and a few small gold nuggets, his initial foray to the embassy leaves him shaken. His papers are pretty flimsy and he realizes that he'll need to obtain his visa through illicit means. And so begins a roller coaster ride through the seedy and sedate streets of La Paz, in an attempt to finagle a visa.

Fortunately (or rather, unfortunately), the teacher is also an avid reader of American crime fiction, and thus plans a dubious heist in order to raise the money he needs to bribe a shady travel agent to "fast-track" his visa. Those who have read the same American crime fiction as the protagonist will have a pretty good idea how this will all turn out. Meanwhile, he also befriends a stunning member of the aristocracy who gives him a glimpse of the high life, while his hooker friend tries to convince him to stay in Bolivia and move to the countryside with her savings. In any event, Mario's trials and tribulations abound with booze, sex, and plenty of outsize characters. Whether or not he elicits much empathy from the reader probably depends on one's perspective (I found him too foolish and selfish to care about), the story is an undeniably rich journey through the streets of La Paz.

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF so cannot rate fully. Came across this book ahead of travelling to La Paz, as it’s one of the few Bolivian fiction writers translated into English. Noir is not a genre I’ve read much of so a lot of the conventions of the style will have been lost on me, which may have been why I struggled so much to suspend disbelief. All the characters speak with exactly the same turn of phrase and the dialogue is clunky and implausible. But most of all, the writer drools over every female character that walks onto the page, incapable of omitting descriptions of their buttocks and breasts, except for older women, described as ‘hags’.

I wondered if part of what I was missing was culturally specific, but when I actually got to La Paz and was chatting to some Bolivian guys in a bar, they were aghast that this was the only translated Bolivian book available to westerners; they decried the book as trash.
Looking at the reviews for this book, I think many English language readers are in the same position as me, trying to find some Bolivian media before travelling there, theres alternatives that are a much better use of your time. Recommendations from locals that I loved; Marching Powder, very entertaining non fiction about a famous La Paz prison, and the film Cemetery of the Elephants.

[Rhoda · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

This was my read the world selection for Bolivia.

Mario leaves his small town in Bolivia headed for La Paz where he has all his fake papers ready to apply for a visa so he can visit his son who lives in Miami.

However once he gets to the immigration office he hears people talking about how it takes a few days for a visa to be approved while they investigate each person’s papers. Mario panics and leaves, with the intention of finding another way to get his American visa.

What follows is Mario’s efforts to secure his visa, meeting a quirky and eclectic cast of characters on the way.

Overall this book was quite a ride and for the most part, I quite enjoyed it. There were some relatively long and boring sections though, which did nothing to enhance the story in my opinion. How Mario appeared to make so many friends and meet women who adored him was a complete mystery to me though, as he seemed like a real loser! ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 from me!

[Osman Rojas Mariaca · Rating 4 out of 5]

American Visa de Juan de Recacoechea.
De las pocas novelas negras bolivianas (si conocen más por favor háganme saber). Sus 260 páginas se leen de forma suelta, la pluma del paceño hace de esta obra muy ligera y a la vez bien construida.
Cuenta la historia de un Orureño y su sueño americano, ¿que estarían dispuestos a hacer por la vida americana? Quizá el sueño sea peor que la realidad, quizá Blanca tenga la respuesta.
A decir verdad su adaptación cinematográfica protagonizada por Demian Bichir y Kate del Castillo no le hace justicia (en un 99% la película no supera al libro) a la obra y aún así no deja de ser una propuesta interesante como también un aire fresco para nuestro cine.
La denuncia al sistema, a la burguesía decadente y como los lumpen la siguen en el abismo, a ese Estado incapaz de brindar oportunidades a todos, hacen de esta novela un gran paso para nuestra literatura y el género.

[Livia Terra · Rating 1 out of 5]

I can't tell I like this book. The main character, a loser that needs to get a visa to join his son in US, is the typical latino man, and despite the author's attempt to portraying him as a good and likable person, the sexism is everywhere. It seems to me that the author was trying to make him an anti-hero, but he ended up just a macho, as many leading characters in literature. The women in this book exist only as sex opportunities, as shallow as you can expect. Maybe I've become too picky regarding women representation in literature, but I do think that this book didn't even try to make them human. I struggled to finish it (I am not a quitter), but I took me a long time, a huge effort and I don't feel it was worth.

#19 #Bolivia #traveling-the-world-through-books

[Laura Oliva · Rating 3 out of 5]

Una lectura entretenida...

American Visa nos cuenta la historia de Mario, un hombre que tiene el sueño de obtener una visa americana para poder viajar a los Estados Unidos y reunirse con su hijo, lo que sucede a continuación es una locura, la historia transcurre en unos cuantos días y en esos días pasa de todo.

Es una novela negra entretenida, lo que me gustó es poder encontrarme con una narrativa costumbrista, quienes sean de la ciudad de La Paz, entenderán muchas cosas, y lo curioso es que a pesar de haber sido publicada en 1994, no hemos cambiado mucho. No es la gran historia ya que al final es una historia triste que muestra lo empobrecida que es nuestra mentalidad, pero lo vuelvo a escribir, es entretenida.

[Katie Tolentino · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author did a great job of displaying the never ending necessity of having to jump through yet another hoop when living in a corrupt country. This book was so focused on one man’s attempt to try for the American dream that it left only the worst parts of Bolivia in view. While all countries have their issues, a book focused solely on the drunks, corrupted, prostitutes, and “half-breeds” hardly fills one’s mind with a beautiful landscape of people. The main character did interact with several interesting side characters, but no one quite seemed to be enough in comparison to his American dream.

[Maria Ayna · Rating 5 out of 5]

American Visa reproduce en Mario la historia de millones de latinoamericanos cuyo sueño es escapar de su realidad. Un maestro de escuela quiere emigrar a los ESTADOS UNIDOS para reunirse con su hijo que estudio en Miami y cuando le niegan la VISA, planea un atraco para hacerse con una en el mercado negro. Sin embargo, la aparición de Blanca, una bailarina exótica, cambia su destino. Está obra nos acerca más a la realidad porque no cuántos hiciéramos lo mismo que Mario por ver a uno de nuestros seres queridos y unos que otros emigran por el trabajo. Se los recomiendo porque es una obra Bolivia y lo nuestro deben conocerlo.