- Paperback: 208 pages
- Publisher: Anchor (Sep 1 1996)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0385484194
- ISBN-13: 978-0385484190
- Product Dimensions: 13.2 x 1.3 x 20.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 181 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#62,397 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #16 in Books > Nonfiction > Social Sciences > Sociology > History
- #21 in Books > Nonfiction > Social Sciences > Special Groups > Minority Studies
- #29 in Books > Nonfiction > Social Sciences > Sociology > Social Situations
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon.com
This novelistic portrait of Tijuana garbage pickers and dump dwellers is variously funny, sad and startling. Americans who think that they have encountered real poverty in the south Bronx will be in for a shock when they read this book. And yet this is not a story of desperation. Urrea (born of a Mexican father and an American mother) does not ask pity for his subjects. Neither does he repeat childish political slogans about inequality (except to make them sound silly). Rather, he reveals the fascinating lives of resourceful Mexicans living along the border.
From Publishers Weekly
Urrea has an almost evangelical zeal to communicate the sad lot of Mexico's "untouchable class," a border population abandoned by their country, at times by their own kin. This collection of repportage, like his Across the Wire, originates in Urrea's years helping California missionaries deliver food and medicine to orphanages and inhabitants of a moldering garbage dump near Tijuana. Here, people's lives are wholly delimited by this universe of decomposing waste. They mine their livelihood in hidden treasures?a can of food, cast-off clothing, scrap wood for a house. Passions fester and erupt; nobility and sacrifice coexist with greed, cruelty and rage. A dual government of armed toughs and community respect prevails. In 10 stark, intimate, riveting essays, Urrea passes no judgment, but attempts to show why his subjects risk all for the chance of something better across the border. Their privation provokes incomprehensible acts, incomprehensible unless one has been in their situation. Urrea has shared their lives and he emerges with strong opinions on those responsible for such misery, and fears of what it forebodes for the course of America's future. Well worth reading in our age of escalating xenophobia.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
Tiajuana's own saivor,
By Agent in Training (Panguitch, UT United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: By the Lake of Sleeping Children (Paperback)
I gave this book two stars because I feel the author is creative and tells a good story. I didn't give it more becuase the book stinks of whining about a problem and gives no solutions. The author at least admits that the extreme poverty found on the border is Mexico's fault. I was disappointed how the author portrays Border Patrol agents in the book. In actuality a large portion of the agents are chicanos, not anglo-terminators with nuclear shotguns and a bloodlust for poor Mexicans crossing the border! If this book was suppose to be actual accounts (non-fiction) about people he encountered during is exploits into northern Mexico, how could he read the thoughts of those people and put them down as fact? I think the author was being very creative.In future books I hope he replaces "gringo" with American(o) and border guard with Border Patrol Agent. Just as I have referred to Mexicans as Mexicans not the derogatory "wetbacks"
5.0 out of 5 stars
Shcocking and true,
By A Customer
This review is from: By the Lake of Sleeping Children (Paperback)
I was scared and upset when I finally realized what the title of the book meant. I am a mexican-american, born on the U.S. side of the border. This book reminded me just how far away America is from Mexico, even though we are neigbors, we are worlds away. This book is blunt. Although it was a harsh reality check for me, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Chilling look at the other side.,
By A Customer
This review is from: By the Lake of Sleeping Children (Paperback)
We, as United States citizens take for granted all that we have and this book is a solemn reminder of all that we do have to be thankful for. Urrea gives character sketches of sorts on the impoverished families and orphaned children that live unseen by the world in their own world of the Mexican garbage dumps. A very sad tale about the suffering in Mexico that goes unnoticed. Thank you Urrea for opening my eyes and my heart to these children.
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