You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.58 AVERAGE
4.58 AVERAGE
This is not exactly a pleasant read but it is a fact based story of a resilient woman's life dealing with life on a border town. Well researched with insights into one of the most important topics of the day in the United States. Well worth one's time.
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
This is a well written book that sheds light on and humanizes the southwestern border, immigrants, and asylum seekers. It also brings into sharp relief our current racist, xenophobic immigration policy, it’s particular and terrible cost to women and children, and the prison industrial complex that continues to grow around it. This is an important book that should be read widely.
This book purposefully defies categories, or at least tries to. It will most easily fall into "immigration", but the author makes it clear that you will miss way too much if that is all you look at. There is the violence against women, there is the loss of industrial base, there is cross-border community, there is national vs local politics, there is geopolitics and the chain of consequences it unfolds. This is a hard and important book to read, a lot like "Evicted" in the work that it asks you to do be showing the circumstances of someone else as something that you have been part of making. And there is no neat and tidy bow or inspiration at the end, just the knowledge that this is condition of human making, not a natural law, and it can be made a different way.
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Heartbreaking and humanizing glimpse into life on the US/Mexico border. Well written and thoroughly researched.
As I rate my books on a completely personal scale, I can't give this the five stars it deserves. As a reading experience for me, it was a bit tediously detailed at times and lot depressing, hence the compromise. But a tremendous amount of effort has gone into this, and it's a story about a world that probably most people have little clue about. Quite eye opening in that regard. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it as informative, rather than pleasurable.
I can’t even begin to imagine the time, research, energy, courage, and emotional toll that creating this book took on all of the participants. I personally think it is amazing piece of work: a true story of one woman’s immigration struggle in the US, entwined with the stories of others close to her, all enshrouded by the history of US immigration laws, and why they function the way they work today, and who they actually work for.
As an immigrant who spent years in a tough situation, walking a tightrope that would become strained with the weight of everything many a time, it drives me mad when people make general assumptions and complete generalizations about immigrants and the immigration process here. It often appears to me that people don’t really want to understand how complicated it actually is, or why people would want/have to come here in the first place. The Death and Life of Aida Hernandez: A Border Story is the type of book that needs to be read in order to get some kind of understanding into the complexities of immigration and border policies here in the US. And also on immigrants in general: we don’t fit into a specific sized box with a list of boundaries marked on the side. We are all human beings, prone to the same qualities and faults and mistakes and accomplishments that US citizens are. Except our mistakes are often used against us, and we have to live with that constant fear every day.
The Death and Life of Aida Hernandez: A Border Story is the story of Aida Hernandez, of her family, of her history and her family’s history, of Douglas, AZ, and Agua Prieta in Mexico. It is the story of prosperity and poverty due to industrialization, of immigration policies, and natural migration patterns, of family separation, immigration incarceration, and increasingly militarized borders. It is also the story of domestic violence, trauma, abuse, and PTSD, and the story of courage and strength to fight in order to see a better day.
Aaron Bobrow-Strain does an amazing job of telling Aida’s story but also providing the much, much larger picture, using important facts to illustrate how immigration policies came to what they are today. He also provides detailed accounts on how difficult the processes are to navigate, and exactly who profits from them right now. This book is not an easy read but it is a brilliant read, and Aaron Bobrow-Strain balances the story perfectly with background information and important fact. Don’t expect to read this in one setting, but do expect to take tons of notes, learn a lot, and open your eyes. I have personally spent a lot of time navigating impossible immigration processes, but I also learnt loads from this book. In my opinion it would greatly benefit the average US citizen to read this as it will help provide a better image of US immigration today than the everyday news and current administration does.
As an immigrant who spent years in a tough situation, walking a tightrope that would become strained with the weight of everything many a time, it drives me mad when people make general assumptions and complete generalizations about immigrants and the immigration process here. It often appears to me that people don’t really want to understand how complicated it actually is, or why people would want/have to come here in the first place. The Death and Life of Aida Hernandez: A Border Story is the type of book that needs to be read in order to get some kind of understanding into the complexities of immigration and border policies here in the US. And also on immigrants in general: we don’t fit into a specific sized box with a list of boundaries marked on the side. We are all human beings, prone to the same qualities and faults and mistakes and accomplishments that US citizens are. Except our mistakes are often used against us, and we have to live with that constant fear every day.
The Death and Life of Aida Hernandez: A Border Story is the story of Aida Hernandez, of her family, of her history and her family’s history, of Douglas, AZ, and Agua Prieta in Mexico. It is the story of prosperity and poverty due to industrialization, of immigration policies, and natural migration patterns, of family separation, immigration incarceration, and increasingly militarized borders. It is also the story of domestic violence, trauma, abuse, and PTSD, and the story of courage and strength to fight in order to see a better day.
Aaron Bobrow-Strain does an amazing job of telling Aida’s story but also providing the much, much larger picture, using important facts to illustrate how immigration policies came to what they are today. He also provides detailed accounts on how difficult the processes are to navigate, and exactly who profits from them right now. This book is not an easy read but it is a brilliant read, and Aaron Bobrow-Strain balances the story perfectly with background information and important fact. Don’t expect to read this in one setting, but do expect to take tons of notes, learn a lot, and open your eyes. I have personally spent a lot of time navigating impossible immigration processes, but I also learnt loads from this book. In my opinion it would greatly benefit the average US citizen to read this as it will help provide a better image of US immigration today than the everyday news and current administration does.
challenging
emotional
informative
medium-paced
One of the best books I’ve ever read. Couldn’t put it down at times. A true, harrowing, beautiful story. Recommend to any and everyone.