Telling the Border Story

Review of Across The Wire: Life and Hard Times on the Mexican Border by Luis Alberto Urrea (Doubleday, 1993)

It was interesting to read Urrea’s Across The Wire so long after the stories were first experienced by the author. It made me wonder what had changed, or what was the same. In a general way, I know what is the same and what is different, because border politics has only grown in prominence in the political discourse since the scenes Urrea encountered in the 70s and 80s. But in terms of specifics, I have only been to the border once as a child and my work trip to San Diego a few years back never left the rich university landscape of La Jolla. So really, I know very little of what Urrea writes about. That is why I found it riveting.

The structure of the book brought up lots of questions for me about writing. I wondered, how did the author take notes over such a long time? Which scenes were simply memories recalled long-after the fact and which did he go home and immediately record? The only reference to the author self-consciously writing in the book is the scene in Tecate where the bull-fight is interrupted by a fire and Urrea can hardly look up from his pen and paper.

Then there is a question about recording dialogue. At times it is very specific, like with Andres the glue-huffer on page 68. And other times it is quite vague.

I am looking forward to our discussions about this writing process in class in the coming week. It is a unique chance to get to really ask questions about how a book got made. I hope all my classmates come prepared with questions. I know I will.