by Ruben Martinez
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Product Description
The U.S.-Mexican border is one of the most permeable boundaries in the world, breached daily by Mexicans in search of work. Thousands die crossing the line and those who reach "the other side" are branded illegals, undocumented and unprotected. Crossing Over puts a human face on the phenomenon, following the exodus of the Chávez clan, an extended Mexican family who lost three sons in a tragic border accident. Martínez follows the migrants' progress from their small southern Mexican town of Cherán to California, Wisconsin, and Missouri where far from joining the melting pot, Martínez argues, the seven million migrants in the U.S. are creating a new culture that will alter both Mexico and the United States as the two countries come increasingly to resemble each other.
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Not since Ted Conover's Coyotes has a book revealed the underground culture of illegal immigration from Mexico as well as Crossing Over by Rubén Martínez. This up-and-coming author writes of what he calls "a Mexican Manifest Destiny" that continually pierces the southern borderline of the United States--a "line [that] is still more an idea than a reality." Martínez begins with the awful story of the three Chávez brothers, all killed when a truck carrying them and some two dozen other illegal aliens tried to outrace border patrol agents and flipped. Martínez learns of their fate and travels to their peasant hometown in southern Mexico to distil the motives of migrants. Then he follows the rest of the family north as they fan into the United States. Crossing Over is written in the first person and is highly anecdotal, but Martínez constantly makes observations that break free from these narrow confines. "Mexicans have always had an uncanny instinct for finding the soft spots of the American labor economy," he notes at one point, explaining how it is that millions of poor people who barely speak English can thrive, in their way, north of the border. Crossing Over is an outstanding book, and required reading for anyone interested in Hispanics and the new America. --John Miller
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Crossing Over, 2008-03-17
A very sad story of just one of so many Mexican families struggling to survive between Mexico and America. This book will keep you reading until you finish. An incredible story of incredible people. Much of the book I read to my two teenage sons, for a better appreciation of their life as American born young men.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
 The border is closer than you think..., 2008-01-21
In fact, Ruben Martinez argues that it's more of a legal fiction than a division that clearly separates one culture from another. The boundary between the U.S. and Mexico is better thought of as a permeable membrane which allows cross-over from both directions. North American culture passes south of the border to influence the values and lifestyles of Mexicans--even remote Indian ones such as the folks in the small southern town of Cheran whom Martinez tracks. Similarly, Mexican culture passes north of the border to influence the values and lifestyles of gringos. It's this reciprocal migration that's the real story of Crossing Over.
One of the best features of this book is that Martinez takes us deep into Mexico to live in the village of Cheran so that we can get to know the families who will later cross the border in their own element. He helps us see them as people rather than stereotypes, complete with all their warts and blemishes but also with quite lovable traits: Wense, the young family man who seems to live in a state of constant indecision; Rosa, his wife, who shows surprising strength and independence; Anita, who has a vision of the Virgin of Guadalupe in Watsonville, California; the Chavez family, who cope with a migration tragedy that sets Martinez on the trip that ended in this book; and an assortment of tough-guy cholos who dress in oversized polyester and mystical brujas who combine paganism and Catholicism in colorful and unself-conscious ways.
But even in their own element south of the border, the Mexicans Martinez comes to know have ingested gringo aspirations that are frequently in conflict with indigenous traditions, Likewise, once they migrate north, white bread commuities in West Virginia, Wisconsin, Missouri, and elsewhere find themselves acclimating and being influenced by the new brown presence. Borders are permeable. Borders are fictional. Especially in a global economy, cultures inevitably intermingle. At one point in the book, Martinez stands on the fictional line separating the U.S. and Mexico and gleefully hops back and forth across it. This is a nice encapsulation of Crossing Over's larger message.
0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
We moved to Mexico ..., 2007-08-09
We got sick to death of Bush et all and left. Moved to Mexico and are having a house built here. Will never live back in the US again.
So we were wondering why people of Mexico would want to risk death getting there - it's for the money.
The earlier book "Coyote" is also very good.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Brilliant, 2006-12-20
As the U.S. Congress pushes forward with their plans to create a three layered fence across the entire length of the U.S.-Mexican Border, thousands of illegal migrants cross over each day through the porous border. Ruben Martinez's work, "Crossing Over", begins with a devastating account of the last moments of life for the Chavez brothers and other hopeful migrants. As he travels to the hometown of those migrants, Cheran, Michoacan, Martinez imagines his own family's immigration to the United States. With the skill of a master composer, Martinez weaves together a picture of life in Cheran after the tragic accident by living among the people and sharing their stories. He recounts time spent with the Chavez family and the local people of Cheran. Martinez uses this personal touch to bring the reader along on his journey that leaves him in St. Louis with the reuniting of a Cheran family.
Martinez picks up the second half of the book at the border, where he spends an evening with the Border Patrol. He continues this journey through Texas to Warren, Arkansas to visit another family from Cheran, who have "hurtled into the middle class." From here his trail leads to Norwalk, Wisconsin, the site of a slaughterhouse where migrant laborers often put in 70 hours a week, day in and day out without seeing the sun. Then back to St. Louis where the stark difference between life in Mexico versus life stateside becomes as clear as day. Finally, Martinez ends up in Watsonville, California, where the Chavez brothers were traveling when tragedy struck, and the location of the two remaining Chavez brothers. Here in Watsonville the seeds of a new Chavez family are planted.
"Crossing Over" shows us the real face of immigration: not criminals illegally crossing the border to steal American's jobs, but mothers, fathers, sons, and daughters crossing over to secure a better future for themselves and their families. As America's fear of immigration grows ever larger each year, this book reminds us that America was founded on immigration; and Mexico and America's future will depend on immigration and the migrant worker's story for many years to come.
I read this book for a Latin American History class and I found it to be extremely relevant, even five years after it was published. Martinez's writing style is clear and descriptive; he makes you feel as if you are with him on his journey. After reading this book it is easy to see why, and how, many migrants risk their lives crossing the border each year. It would make an excellent source for studying the social, political, and economic aspects of migration, a certain hot topic among today's ongoing events. I would recommend this book to anyone who has sympathized with recent immigrants, but especially so for those who have not. This book should be required reading for policy makers along border states as well as for the U.S. Congress. "Crossing Over" will open your eyes and with clarity show you both sides of the battleground that is the U.S.-Mexican Border.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
A must read, 2006-07-28
For anyone curious about the Mexican immigrant mentality, this is definately a book to read. I live near where the 3 brothers were killed, and have been to this spot on several occasions. For those who wonder why so many people are coming to this country to work, this book will answer many of those questions. It brings an understanding and a respect for those who risk their lives for a chance at the American dream, a dream that many of us take for granted.
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