Line in the Sand: A History of the Western U.S.-Mexican Border by Rachel C. St. John

This book gives a concise, yet informative history of the border between the U.S. and Mexico, especially between El Paso and the Pacific Ocean. In so doing, it shows how different people and governments use the border--not just to control immigration, but also to, at times, challenge state sovereignty, collect revenue, avoid customs duties, gain a military advantage, and police morality. Indeed, the idea of fencing the border came late. In the conclusion, St. John lays out her cards: she believes that the border fence is not the best solution to the challenges of illegal immigration, and that the U.S. and Mexico should work together, along with the transnational community, to come up with a more flexible method of policing the border. I also learned more than I ever knew about the Mexican Revolution. A well-written and thought-provoking book.

Amexica: War Along the Borderline by Ed Vulliamy

This book looks at the violence currently raging in the cities along Mexico's border with the United States. Vulliamy doesn't shy away from portraying the corruption, violence, and shattered lives present in these cities, but he doesn't blame only the narcocartels, either. Instead, he insists that the reader understand that the money which fuels the destructive cycles comes from the United States's seemingly insatiable appetite for drugs, and from its willingness to sell guns south. The book is clear and well-researched, and I appreciated Vulliamy's obvious respect for the borderlands and most of the people trying to make their lives there.

Los Días Enmascarados by Carlos Fuentes

This collection of short stories is small but dense. I found the Spanish in the six stories difficult, but the stories intriguing. They strike me as Borgesian: statues come to life, gardens in old houses are actually in different places, and so forth. Things aren't as they initially seem. I'm not sure if an English translation is available.

The Conquest of America: The Question of the Other by Tzvetan Todorov

This book uses the Spanish conquest of the New World, and particularly Cortés in Mexico, to investigate the ways that humans understand the other. I found the book particularly interesting in its history. I thought that the example of the conquest worked well for Todorov's points about the other (and found the chapter about signs and types of communication particularly helpful)--but I don't think this book would be a good way to understand the conquest on its own. I also really liked the last chapter about two different Europeans writing about native cultures.

No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy

While this book seems at first focused on the fate of a briefcase of money that Llewellyn Moss discovers at the scene of a massive heroin deal gone bad, by the end, I came to the consider the really moving story that of Sheriff Ed Tom Bell, who matches himself against Anton Chigurh, in an attempt to save Moss and to redeem himself from the errors he made as a young soldier. I found the book really moving and surprisingly (to me at least) exciting. It did a great job balancing action and moral consequence. McCarthy handles both his characters and the Southwest landscape really well.

People of Paper by Salvador Plascencia

This book tells the story of a group of characters, led by Fernando de la Fe whose wife's desertion leads him to decide to go to war against the author, known to the characters as Saturn, who is himself in the throes of grief after being deserted by a woman. The book uses post-modern and post-colonial methods to question everything from religion to immigration to the authority of authors. With all sorts of techniques and innovations that put me in mind of Tristram Shandy (black spaces, words excised from the text, multiple columns), the book tells its story by words and by form. I will certainly return to this playful and beautiful text.

The Borderlands of Culture: Américo Paredes and the Transnational Imaginary by Ramón Saldívar

This book uses the works of Américo Paredes as a test case to illustrate a transnational imaginary which creates a Greater Mexico on the North American continent. The first two chapters establish the theory of transculturation on which the book relies and give a history of Paredes in his own words. The following chapters, with more and less success, read Paredes's works in the larger cultural context to show this transnational imaginary at work. There were definitely points where I found myself wanting more attentive close readings, but I think this book is constructed in a very smart manner.

The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico by Miguel León-Portilla

This book anthologizes Nahautl writings about the conquest of Mexico in order to create a smooth narrative telling the events from an indigenous point of view. It's important to remember that this book has been produced through multiple layers of mediation: most of the accounts in this book were written in Nahautl and then translated into Spanish and from there into English. Furthermore, the book's translator freely admits to wanting a smooth read, so much so that paragraphs have been dropped and words changed. Furthermore, the book is anthologized, so rather than following one account, many accounts are excerpted. I would have particularly liked to get more of the poetry (not to mention some explanation of how Nahautl poetry works: is it rhymed? does it use alliteration? what about meter?).

While most of the book is clearly a native account (both through the clarity of the names that Spaniards seemed to have trouble getting right in their own accounts and in the perspective), there are moments when Spanish intervention is clear (for example, most of these accounts are written in alphabetical Nahautl, taught to the natives by Spanish priests, and at times there are references to Spanish places and the Catholic faith in ways that strike me as unusual for natives). The Aztecs don't hestitate in admitting that they first saw the Spaniards as Gods (specifically Cortés was supposed to be Queztalcoatl), but they also quickly see how the Spaniards are debased by their obession with finding gold.

I was also interested in moments of translation within the texts: most of the time, the texts just record discussions, but sometimes they explicitly show the presence of La Malinche (Doña Marina) who translated between Nahautl and Mayan, and a Spaniard who translated between Mayan and Spanish. Often these accounts portray La Malinche as siding with the Spaniards, although they don't necessarily hold this allegiance against her.

Borderlands / La Frontera: The New Mestiza by Gloria Anzaldúa

This book is a hodge-podge of forms and ideas. In its mixtures of form (essays, poetry, history, memoir, and myth are forms that come most immediately to mind) and of languages (English, Spanish, and Nahautl) it both demonstrates the problems of living in the borderlands and starts to demonstrate ways that we--by code-switching, by listening, by acceptance--can live best. I particularly liked the sections on the borderlands and on language. Anzaldúa doesn't hold any punches, and a working knowledge of Spanish will help the reader.

The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver

This book resembles a found auto-biography: it purports to be a collection of writings by and about the fictional Harrison William Shepherd. He's practically an orphan from a very young age, but he develops a striking friendship with Frida Kahlo and Lev Trotsky, and, after Trotsky's assassination, makes a new life for himself in Asheville, North Carolina--at least until he's caught up in the Communist witch hunts following WWII. This book is both a delightful bildungsroman and a beautiful, if imaginary, glimpse into the lives of some remarkable historical figures. I would highly recommend this book.