Across the Wire : Life and Hard Times on the Mexican Border

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Summary: Across the Wire
Review: As an ESOL counselor who works with these children on a daily basis, I found the book to be a wonderful resource. I especially liked the beginning of the book where he describes the actual conditions at the border. I have read this to several educators in presentations and it really lets them know what our kids have been through.

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Summary: No sugar coated Mexican cliches here, just the sad truth.
Review: Brilliant read, by a heroically courageous soul. If you are aspiring to learn more about Mexican reality, read this book. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: No sugar coated Mexican cliches here, just the sad truth.
Review: Brilliant read, by a heroically courageous soul. If you are aspiring to learn more about Mexican reality, read this book. Highly recommended.

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Summary: Very Unbelivable
Review: I am 15 years old and i enjoy books that shock me and are true. It makes me feel lucky to have a place to sleep. This book is great it makes you appreciate others in a way you never had before.

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Summary: Former Border Patrol Agent writes...
Review: I am a former United States Border Patrol Agent and I read this book while working the fixed positions we often manned along the Arizona-Mexico border. I was so moved by this story, I cried. I cried as I read this book, right there in my Border Patrol vehicle on the very line separating two very different worlds! This book is an easy read and can be taken a little at a time. Its impact is incredible and your heart will be broken. It is a must read! I am not compromising my stance on immigration laws here, I am just expressing my heart-felt pain for some of what the beautiful people of Mexico must face in their lives. God bless!

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Summary: Former Border Patrol Agent writes...
Review: I am a former United States Border Patrol Agent and I read this book while working the fixed positions we often manned along the Arizona-Mexico border. I was so moved by this story, I cried. I cried as I read this book, right there in my Border Patrol vehicle on the very line separating two very different worlds! This book is an easy read and can be taken a little at a time. Its impact is incredible and your heart will be broken. It is a must read! I am not compromising my stance on immigration laws here, I am just expressing my heart-felt pain for some of what the beautiful people of Mexico must face in their lives. God bless!

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Summary: I was touched but not moved.
Review: I had to read a novel for my Latin Literature unit in my world lit class. At random I chose to read Across the Wire. My intrest was sparked beacuse the setting of the novel was just down the road from me. I was aware of the tragedies and the poverty that the people faced in Mexico and in TJ. However, I do believe that this book was not written to inform others of the bad fortunes of its charachters. I believe it was written only to gain sympathy for those that are suffering. The book's agenda was simply to make us feel guilty for all the blessing that we have in America and take for granted. However if enjoy books that play with your emotions and make you feel bad for working hard for what you have than this book is for you.

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Summary: This book told important stories.
Review: I totally disagree with the reader from San Diego. This book was not just to manipulate emotions. I believe that he was trying to tell the story of people who would have otherwise never been known to exist. It is important to know that they do exist. Time and chance is all that stands between them and us.

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Summary: A Moving account of life on the borderlands
Review: I was impressed by how hard the times were on the mexicn border. This was a really mooving account of a desperate people's struggle for freedom.

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Summary: comments can be deceptive...
Review: I'm basically writing this review because I feel that the comments posted here do not reflect how beautiful this book actually is. It was assigned reading during a Chicano Studies course I took last quarter, and quite literally changed the way I look at the Mexican-US border. Too often we on this side of the border are shown a VERY diluted picture of life on the border, and NEVER a complete picture. I felt that this book helped to fill in the gaps in my own bias. There is nothing cruel, nothing romantic, nothing emotional about this book. It presents a sring of events told objectivly by the author, for our own emotional responses to perceive however we choose. A fairly short book made of extraordinarily powerful yet short anecdotes, you'll find it VERY hard to not finish this in one sitting. HIGHLY recommended; one of my favourite books of all time, that has not been given the mainstream acclaim it deserves.