Description
Book SynopsisThis compelling chronicle of a journey along the entire U.S.-Mexico border shifts the conversation away from danger and fear to the shared histories and aspirations that bind Mexicans and Americans despite the border walls.
Trade ReviewA potent cri de coeur for a more compassionate, sane and humane border policy. * Kirkus Reviews *
Thompson uses his travels to share his passion for the welfare of hard-working, good people, and to persuade his readers that such people have been trapped and exploited by a flawed immigration system. -- D.G. Martin * Winston-Salem Journal *
[Thompson] sought a firsthand look at how modern U.S. border policy has affected the people in the region, from migrant workers to indigenous people to border patrol agents to residents of economically stagnant towns just north of the boundary. The result is a travel memoir with a conscience, an extension of Thompson’s ongoing work to humanize the hotly debated region. -- Corbie Hill * The News & Observer *
Does
Border Odyssey bring us any closer to dissolving entrenched divisions and ingrained attitudes about the border? In presenting the struggles and strife of this place and its people with honesty and hope, Thompson shows the possibility and potential of such a beautiful dream. -- Yvette Benavides * The Texas Observer *
Table of Contents1. Evidence of Things Not Seen
2. The Border Etched in Bones
3. Traveling the Valley of the Shadow
4. Two Kinds of Flight
5. Of Roads, Fences, and Neighbors
6. Boca Chica Sunset
7. The Ghosts of Palmito Ranch
8. El Ranchero
9. Border Guards
10. Brownsville Raids
11. Rio Grande Guardians
12. Progress?
13. World’s Most Honest Man
14. Cowboy Priests
15. The Hand-Drawn Ferry
16. Prohibition Bar
17. Border Walker
18. The Road to Eagle Pass
19. Border Ambassador
20. The Last Stay at Del Rio
21. Seminole Canyon
22. Braceros in Murder City
23. Fort Davis and the Buffalo Soldiers
24. National Park on the Line
25. Pancho Villa and the Pink Store
26. Smoke on the Apacheria
27. A Grandmother Mourns at the Wall
28. Fences and Neighbors
29. Ground Zero of the Border Crisis
30. Altar and Sacrifice
31. Phoenix Rising
32. Tohono Sacred Peak and Desert Deaths
33. Campesinos Sin Fronteras
34. The Wall of Shame and Entrepreneurship
35. Graves of Unknown Farmworkers
36. Desert View Tower and the X-Men
37. Walking Alone through Friendship Park
38. As If It Were Not There
Acknowledgments
Bibliography
Index
