Puro Border. Dispatches, Snapshots, & Graffiti from La Frontera (review)

308 Arizona fournal of Hispanic Cultural Studies Rodriguez in both his films and particularly in El Mariachi succeeds in "calling into question dominant notions of masculinity, heroism, the U.S.Mexico border, and finally, cinema" (239). Thus die answer to the author's question, which is only reinforced by his long interview of the Chicano filmmaker (Chapter Nine), is resoundingly and most encouragingly affirmative. Ramirez Berg is not nearly so optimistic when he surveys current trends in Hollywood stereotyping . Although the existence of a notable group of Latin American and American Latino filmmakers is cause for hope, other recent studies present a much less pessimistic picture. I highly recommend Latino Images in Film. It is a thoughtful, original, and very well-researched scholarly study of some important aspects of the stereotyping of Latinos. Chuck Tatum The University of Arizona Puro Border. Dispatches, Snapshots, & Graffiti from La Frontera Cinco Punto Press, 2003 Edited by Luis Humberto Crosthwaite, John William Byrd and Bobby Byrd Much non-scholarly writing about the U.S.-Mexican border falls into the trap of trying to capture rhe essence of a geographic area that is by its very nature has been affected by a highly complex combination of social, historical, cultural, economic, and political factors. To add to the futility of attempts to reduce the border to a lowest common denominator is the fact that each discrete area (e.g., the lower Rio Grande Valley, LaredoNuevo Laredo, El Paso-Juárez, the two Nogales, Tijuana-Chula Vista/San Diego) has a different history, a different set of cultural and linguistic characteristics, etc. What, then, is an editor or anthologist to do when faced with the daunting task of putting togedier a book for the general reader on this vexed and highly contested border? One alternative is to strive for a variety of tones, perspectives, and "takes" from individuals with diverse artistic tastes and disparate intellectual, professional, and national backgrounds. This, apparendy, is what the editors oÃ- Puro Border decided was a prudent approach in compiling what in the book's subtitle are identified as dispatches, snapshots, and graffiti. The editors have taken care to achieve a desirable balance between U.S. (both Latino, Native American, and Anglo) and Mexican contributors . Crosthwaite, one of the editors, is himself a well-known and respected Mexican writer who lives in Tijuana. Journalists, fiction and non-fiction creative writers as well photographers and cartoonists are represented creating a kind of collage of bittersweet memories of growing up on the border (e.g., Urrea) as well as contemporary realities of unspeakable suffering (particularly on the Mexican side) caused by illegal immigration (e.g., Vásquez Mendoza, Silko, Cardona, and Romo), the militarization of the border (e.g., Draper), the distorted economic fallout of globalization and NAFTA (e.g., Narhan), shear inexplicable crime (e.g., the assassination of over 300 girls and women in and around Juárez as recounted by Valdez), and wars among the drug cartels resulting in the loss of innocent life (e.g., Poppa). Adding to this largely narrative collage in almost contrapuntal fashion are short poems, a corrido, photos, and statistical summaries. It is an overall depressing and heart-wrenching impression that the readers will carry away from Puro Border making it very difficult to agree wirh Bobby Byrd's "admittedly romantic vision" of the border as a place "that human beings will develop some type of compassionate understanding that can cope with this new century." Perhaps individual readers—much like the book's individual contributors—are capable of compassion, bur soulless nations, governments, and global market forces interacting with human greed and cruelty will conspire to make the U.S.Mexican border a most uncompassionate region. One can quibble with what the book does not do. For example, it does not bring together what the editors describe as their original impulse to include "die best writing by people who live on either side of the U.S./Mexico border" (197). Although the writing included in the anthology is generally very good, there is ample better jour- Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies 309 nalistic as well fiction and non-fiction writing to be found. Perhaps reflecting the...