El Pasoanidad

On August 3, 2019, El Paso, Texas was affected by a tragic shooting where multiple people were killed and injured. While this horrible day is one that will always leave an impression on El Paso, it does not define the identity of the city. Barely Missing Everything is set in El Paso, Texas, where the author, Matt Mendez is from. The book includes many references that resonate with El Pasoans, as many of the locations mentioned in the book are real, such as Scenic Drive, L & J Café, Gussies Tamales, Concordia Cemetery, and other familiar locations within the city. The author also includes the non-fictional gang known as “The Fatherless” who play a central role to the story. El Paso plays a big part in the overarching themes of Barely Missing Everything. Much like comic book fans compare Gotham City to a character within the Batman comic series, Mendez noticeably includes El Paso as a character within this book too.

Within Latinx identity and representation research there are various terms such as Latinidad and Mexicanidad. These two terms describe attributes that make one identify as Latinx and Mexican. I suggest the term El Pasoanidad for grappling with Barely Missing Everything’s complex questions of identity. The term would describe how one identifies as an El Pasoan. This El Pasoanidad is central to the main characters of the story. Readers slowly begin to meet each of the main characters as Mendez weaves between multiple stories of Juan, J. D., and Fabi, as each chapter builds the larger narrative of Barely Missing Everything. This fragmented style of writing occurs throughout most of the book, but slowly the narrative threads begin to connect with one another. While the book focuses on these three characters, Fabi and Juan’s mother and son relationship (or lack thereof) becomes front and center within the narrative.

The title of the book Barely Missing Everything relates to the main characters, each missing a part of themselves and living with a sense of incompleteness. Through Mendez’s writing, he is able to capture various emotions for these characters such as feeling empty, feeling lost, and wanting to become better versions of themselves. Additionally, the author illustrates what life can be in El Paso for some. Each of the characters are searching for life improvement at their respective age. Juan and J. D. are both high school teenagers preparing to graduate and move to the next phase of their lives, but the story evolves as both young men begin to walk different paths while they prepare for adulthood. Throughout the story, J. D. searches for methods of how he can become a successful filmmaker like Robert Rodriguez or Guillermo Del Toro, including documenting everything around him. Unfortunately, due to a variety of circumstances including family separation, J. D. slowly loses confidence in himself and begins searching for alternative methods to follow his dream. Juan is a star athlete on his high school basketball team but then faces a downward spiral of problems as the story progresses. During his downward spiral, he is searching for confidence and structure outside of the basketball court. This structure does not come from home as his mother, Fabi, is unstructured and going through various of dilemmas of her own. Fabi is struggling professionally and as a mother, daughter, romantic partner, and sister. Fabi also finds out early in the story that she is pregnant but is not ready to bring a child into this world due to all the problems she is having in her life. Throughout the book, Fabi’s past comes into light and highlights her rebellious youth and lack of structure. This lack of structure leads to many of the present-day problems that she is experiencing, and many of these problems that she and Juan are facing are all because of her own doing. Furthermore, Fabi’s difficult circumstances begin to add up as the book progresses and permeate into Juan and J. D.’s lives.

Within the chapters about Juan and J. D., the...