One Hundred Years of Solitude, Struggle, and Violence along the US/Mexico Border: An Oral History
This book features oral histories, mainly of members of the ranching families who have lived in the Mexican State of Sonora and the corresponding territory in the US that stretches from Tijuana on the California border to Agua Prieta on the Arizona border. The elders in those families recall the tales that their grandparents told, providing a century of perspectives on the revolution in economics, culture, and drug trade that the area has witnessed. The book uses the voices of those who have lived through the vicissitudes of border life to paint this cultural upheaval in gripping, personal terms.
John Thomas is a freelance writer and a Professor at the Quinnipiac University Schools of Law and Medicine, USA. He holds a BA and JD from the University of Arizona and an LLM and MPH from Yale University. His publications address topics from international law to gun violence, health policy, autism, juvenile justice, and music, and have appeared in law reviews, medical journals, major newspapers, music magazines, and the Oxford Dictionary of Music. His book Kalamazoo Gals: A Story of the Extraordinary Women and Gibson’s ‘Banner’ Guitars of WWII (2013) centers on the oral histories of twelve women who appeared in a 1944 photograph and secretly built musical instruments during WWII. He also served as Field Editor for Encyclopedia of Autism Spectrum Disorders, 2nd edition (2017).
“North or South? American or Mexican? English or Spanish? Walls above or tunnels below? Friend or foe? Peace or war? These are just a few of the border tensions for which answers are more often ‘both’ than ‘either/or’. Solitude, Struggle and Violence is a volume at once deeply personal and experiential, as well as scholarly and meticulously researched. Returning to his hometown in Arizona’s Cochise County, John Thomas sheds light on restive borderlands that reverberate well beyond the Río Grande. Saddle up then; get dusty and feel the heat: read on. You are in for a great ride, and can’t do better than using this native son’s book as your guide.”
Andrés Martin
Riva Ariella Ritvo Professor, Yale School of Medicine
“Collectively offering a unique and impressively informative eye-witness history of an American subculture that underscores the current national immigration dialogue, One Hundred Years of Solitude, Struggle, and Violence Along the US/Mexico Border: An Oral History is an extraordinary and unreservedly recommended addition to community, college, and university library American History, Hispanic History, and Contemporary Social Issues collections, as well as the personal reading lists of immigration and DEA policy makers and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject.”
Micah Andrew
MBR Bookwatch, March 2018
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