Border

by David J. Danelo

Thoughtful investigative report about a central issue of the 2008 presidential race that examines the border in human terms through a cast of colorful charactersAsks and answers the core questions: Should we close the border? Is a fence or wall the answer? Is the U.S. government capable of fully securing the border?Reviews the political, economic, social, and cultural aspects and discusses NAFTA, immigration policy, border security, and other local, regional, national, and international issuesMore than 250 million people cross the U.S.- Mexican border legally each year, and as many as 10 million do so illegally, making the border--la frontera to Mexicans--the most traversed national boundary on the planet. In an age of terrorism and economic uncertainty, that border is already one of the most hotly debated issues in American politics and is certain to play a prominent role in the 2008 campaign for president.In 2007, David Danelo spent three months traveling the 1,952 miles that separate the United States and Mexico, beginning at Boca Chica, Texas, and traveling to the westernmost limit at Border Field State Park in California--a journey that took him across four states and two countries through a world of rivers and canals, mountains and deserts, highways and dirt roads, fences and border towns. Here the border isn't just an abstraction thrown around in political debates in Washington; it's a physical reality, infinitely more complex than most politicians believe. Danelo's reporting digs beneath the debate and attempts to explain the border and related issues--from legal and illegal immigration to NAFTA and border fences--as they are experienced by the people who live and work there: businessmen, smugglers, Minutemen, migrants, humanitarians, border patrol agents, government officials, and everyday people in the U.S. and Mexico.The divide is great, as Danelo makes clear, but so is the opportunity. Refreshing in the new perspectives it offers and captivating in its depiction of this vibrant, if troubled, region, The Border is an essential starting point for understanding this vital topic.

Genres: Nonfiction

256 pages, Hardcover

First published August 10, 2008

Reviews

[Weavre]

Interesting & important info, talented storyteller, lousy editor.

This is a very interesting perspective on a very complex issue. The author, a former Marine who still thinks very much in military terms, offers a weighty voice of reason when he concludes that there's no fence strong enough and no amount of firepower sufficient to secure the U.S.-Mexico border alone. During the course of his journey along the entire border from Gulf Coast to Pacific Ocean, he discovers the complex human interactions that comprise the region. He discovers cooperative communities straddling both sides of the line in the East, strong-willed economic clashes further west, and even a seeming lack of concern and pretense that nothing significant exists south of the fence in California. Even within these generalizations, countless counterexamples prove that no broad sweeping description can be entirely accurate in only a few words.

At one point, Danelo even decides to find out for himself how difficult it is to sneak into the U.S. from Mexico while bypassing legal channels ... and proved that an undocumented person can accomplish this so easily that he didn't even need the friend he'd planned would pick him up after the crossing.

Unfortunately, I didn't get my hands on the library book in time to read it before the author's presentation and my local Barnes & Noble. Now that I've read it, I'd love to hear what he has to say in person!

Also on a side note ... this good author really needed a better editor. Some slacker left in far too many awkward phrasings, grammer mistakes, and mechanical errors, and these distracted me far too often from just enjoying being absorbed in the flow of the story.

OST NEW NON-FIC 1ST FLOOR 917.2 DAN

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started off explaining the border conditions. Wound up into an extensive history lesson on all the different areas between Mexico & USA...zzzzzzzz

[Harry Brake · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly experiencing the journalistic tone of stereotypical stories of the border, David J. Danelo manages to balance interviews, perspectives as well as stories of individuals known as the militiamen along the border, to federal agencies that seem out of reach, to remote law officers in the desolation of the Mexican, United states border, to the individuals themselves that cross, smuggle, and are caught between the discrepancies of immigration, legal and not. You begin to sense the depth of this contradictions between what is moral, immoral, protected and unprotected with such controversial issue. I find it brings me closer to a realistic story of what the border stands for, and much more than a line separating two countries, as you realize the divide does not fall on a physical barrier, but one hundred, shared, and sometimes embraced between two cultures.

[Chris Hudson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Does a great job explaining the complications of both border security and relationships between the Mexican and American citizens that live on both sides of it. This isn't a book to pull bumper sticker style quotes out of to support your opinions, rather a thoughtful look at how different parts of the border and attitudes there can be vastly different and there seem to be no "one sized fits all" or easy answers.

[Caleb · Rating 2 out of 5]

A just okay book about the US-Mexico border. He handles Texas well, but really peters out west of there. He covers California in less time than a single town in Texas! He has some good insights, but he injects himself a little too much into the story when his voice and his self-awareness is somewhat inconsistent and poorly explained.

[John Crippen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Current update on border towns and problems. See full review at http://relaxandhavefun.com/?p=46