Reviewed in LITERAL: Our Lost Border: Essays on Life Amid the Narco-Violence edited by Sarah Cortez and Sergio Troncoso

Lurid television, newspaper stories, and cliché-ridden movies about Mexico abound in English; rare is any writing that plumbs to meaningful depths or attempts to explore its complexities. And so, out of a concatenation of ignorance, presumption and prejudice, those North Americans who read only English have been deprived of the stories that would help them see the Spanish-speaking peoples and cultures right next door, and even within the United States itself, and the tragedies daily unfolding because of or, at the very least kindled by, the voracious North American appetite for drugs. For this reason, Our Lost Border: Essays on Life Amid the Narco-Violence, a treasure trove of one dozen personal essays, deserves to be celebrated, read, and discussed in every community in North America. >> CONTINUE READING IN LITERAL

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Recommended Reading on Mexico

New over at my home page, www.cmmayo.com-- in answer to the frequently asked question, what books can I recommend on Mexico? --  an embryonic and to-be-frequently updated list for English language readers, for both dyed-in-the-serape Mexicophiles and those encountering Mexico for the first time.

I'll be adding more commentary and more links as well.

P.S. Stay tuned for the Marfa Mondays podcasts, resuming shortly.