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Roll Down Your Window: Stories from a Forgotten America
New York Daily News reporter Juan Gonzalez takes as his beat the streets and projects of America’s inner cities and the barrios across its southern borders. In these vivid dispatches he reports from the frontline of a social crisis—inside New York and Los Angeles, across the Rio Grande to Mexico’s maquiladoras , through to Haiti, Honduras and Cuba.
- GenresNonfiction
230 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1995
82 people want to read
About the author
Juan González
146 books56 followersJuan Gonzalez, a New York Daily News columnist, has lived in the United States for fifty of his fifty-one years. His numerous honors include the 1998 George Polk Award for excellence in journalism and the Hispanic Academy of Media Arts and Sciences Lifetime Achievement Award. Born in Puerto Rico, he grew up in a barrio housing project and was a cofounder of the 1960s Young Lords. He lives in New York City.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
January 17, 2024
Oh wow, this one was a pain in the ass to read in more way than one, but... stay with me, it pays off. Sort of. Annoyingly, this copy that I .. ahem.. acquired. Don't worry, the author would totally approve. Anyway, this one was missing several pages in the back. It was a publisher's defect, maybe seven pages in the back were simply blank. Perhaps they were printed in Cuba and they ran out of ink the day they printed those pages. Power to the people! (Also power to the stuffs that run on electricity, youknowwhatimean?)
So not only did I have to track down a copy from a far-away biblioteca and wait more than a week to have it sent via inter-library loan but then I needlessly troubled myself to photocopy the missing leaves and scotch tape it into the defective guy so that if it gets returned to the place where it defintiely had been purchased after a fashion the next person won't be inconvenienced. It's like a secret good deed. Take what you want, and give back stuff no one needs and which costs you basically nothing. It's human goodness, man.
Seriously, what can you expect from the author who's obviously an avowed Leftist and apologist for totalitarian dictators? Yeah, Bush did some bad stuff, but he left office eventually, unlike Fidel. Gonzalez even laments our own form of government, apparently not understanding the premise of the Senate (as opposed to the House of Reps.). Nevertheless, all of this is no surprise. The author doesn't hide his point of view and I respect that. He obscures some of his true sentiments with euphemistic terminology but he's not fooling anyone (that's not already fooling themselves).
Indeed, outside of ideological comradeship (if it exists), the only remaining redeeming quality of these dated commentaries on a world relegated to history and the memories of those of us who lived through it, is being able to look at what-could-have-been through the lens of what-actually-happened.
The NY tug boat strike back in the late 80's, Wars, coups, and juntas in Honduras, Mexican factories and NAFTA. It's been over 30 years since many of these and we can examine where the author is prescient and where he errs (early and often). He does, I dare say just about predict the Trump era that would descend on this nation in 2016. No spoilers here but check out the last three sections on Haiti, Cuba, and the New York Post Script.
So not only did I have to track down a copy from a far-away biblioteca and wait more than a week to have it sent via inter-library loan but then I needlessly troubled myself to photocopy the missing leaves and scotch tape it into the defective guy so that if it gets returned to the place where it defintiely had been purchased after a fashion the next person won't be inconvenienced. It's like a secret good deed. Take what you want, and give back stuff no one needs and which costs you basically nothing. It's human goodness, man.
Seriously, what can you expect from the author who's obviously an avowed Leftist and apologist for totalitarian dictators? Yeah, Bush did some bad stuff, but he left office eventually, unlike Fidel. Gonzalez even laments our own form of government, apparently not understanding the premise of the Senate (as opposed to the House of Reps.). Nevertheless, all of this is no surprise. The author doesn't hide his point of view and I respect that. He obscures some of his true sentiments with euphemistic terminology but he's not fooling anyone (that's not already fooling themselves).
Indeed, outside of ideological comradeship (if it exists), the only remaining redeeming quality of these dated commentaries on a world relegated to history and the memories of those of us who lived through it, is being able to look at what-could-have-been through the lens of what-actually-happened.
The NY tug boat strike back in the late 80's, Wars, coups, and juntas in Honduras, Mexican factories and NAFTA. It's been over 30 years since many of these and we can examine where the author is prescient and where he errs (early and often). He does, I dare say just about predict the Trump era that would descend on this nation in 2016. No spoilers here but check out the last three sections on Haiti, Cuba, and the New York Post Script.
Displaying 1 of 1 review