Some have called it the tortilla curtain. Others have viewed it as a Third World entity where primitive conditions and poverty exist alongside the latest marvels of the computerized Information Age. But the border region between Mexico and the United States is more dynamic than ever since its transition into a sort of Mexamerica--a world fueled by corporate colonialism, the North American Free Trade Agreement (or NAFTA) and contraband of every stripe, from illegal drugs to illegal aliens. "Forging the Tortilla Curtain" reveals how the borderlands got to be that way. Thomas Torrans's...
Some have called it the tortilla curtain. Others have viewed it as a Third World entity where primitive conditions and poverty exist alongside the lat...
Borderlands--especially the United States-Mexico borderland--have long served as backgrounds for depicting social instability, according to Thomas Torrans. And borders--or magic curtains--have readily been fashioned into exotic backdrops for films, novels, ballads, and tales in which characters shift easily from one culture to another. The protagonists are equally at home in both societies, or, at worst, at home in neither. True border novels form a literature that deserves a category all its own. There is an uneven quality--a coarseness sometimes mixed with polish, running the gamut of...
Borderlands--especially the United States-Mexico borderland--have long served as backgrounds for depicting social instability, according to Thomas Tor...
A fearsome Russian soldier, tragic European contact, and a naive college student reveal a hidden history of the U.S.-Mexico border region, the fictional frontier wherein sex, crime, and cultural change play out. Based on Mr. Torrans' personal scholarship, these three short novels, each set in its own historical time period spanning from the age of exploration to the modern era, are cultural histories, told through fiction. Because, sometimes fiction is the only means of getting at the truth of things.
A fearsome Russian soldier, tragic European contact, and a naive college student reveal a hidden history of the U.S.-Mexico border region, the fiction...
A young airman is unprepared for the life he finds overseas, but must leave. She is more realistic about their situation and knows how quickly promises fade.
A young airman is unprepared for the life he finds overseas, but must leave. She is more realistic about their situation and knows how quickly promise...
A history of the U.S.-Mexico border, in song and politics during the brief rule of the National Action Party (PAN), when the cartels won the war on drugs.
A history of the U.S.-Mexico border, in song and politics during the brief rule of the National Action Party (PAN), when the cartels won the war on dr...
