Customer Reviews

Here: A Biography of the New American Continent

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This book is a supberb portrayal of the issues and obstacles that seperate the United States from Mexico and Canada. Drawing on personal experience as a husband, father, and NY Times bureau chief living in both Mexico and Canada successively, Anthony DePalma hits nail after nail on the head. With the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) scheduled for ratification by up to 34 nations within the next four years this book is both important and timely. For a person wanting to understand what all the fuss is about with respect to issues of free trade, globalization, protection of the environment, and human rights, this is the starting point. And if you as a reader appreciate careful and meaningful description punctuated by use of the perfect metaphor you will find it here. A simply supberb read!

I found the book very easy to read and to understand. Once I began to read it, it was very difficult to put down. The author weaves the history of these three great countries, Mexico, the United States and Canada with his own life, and his assignments for The New York Times in Mexico and Canada in an fascinating way.

I have shared with the author by coincidence several experiences and places described in his book, the creation of the new Canadian Territory of Nunavut and the historic Nisga'a Treaty. The descriptions of Canada's north and the communities of nothern British Columbia where very accurate and allowed me to relive those wonderful experiences through accurate word pictures provided. It was also easy for me to imagine being in the other places and events described of which I had not experienced.

It is a book I would highly recommend to anyone that has an intrest in these three great countries and the relationship they have and will need to have for the future or to anyone who is simply looking for a good book read.

Tom Molloy Chief Negotiator for the Government of Canada Nunavut Land Claims Settlement and the Nisga'a Final Agreement.

Think back to a few years ago, when prior to the 1992 election, Ross Perot in attacking the then proposed North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), described it as "a giant sucking sound" of American jobs being lost to Mexico. Well the exodus of jobs never happened and Perot's one-sided criticism was probably just politics anyway. What then accounts for Mr DePalma's equally skewed analysis "HERE"; although the arguments in this book are the exact opposite of Perot's; for Mr DePalma, NAFTA is a very good thing. Perhaps the explanation for his ringing endorsement of the gradual economic integration of the US, Canadian, and Mexican economies, comes from the fact that Mr DePalma has lived and worked for a number of years in both Mexico and Canada. Looking at NAFTA from that vantage point shows that it's influence on not only economic, but also the social and cultural aspects of peoples lives, in the 7 years since the agreement came into effect, has been largely positive.

Mr DePalma sees the signing of the agreement itself as a significant achievement; the three nations, he says overcame decades of prejudice and have struck out on "our shared destiny" based on mutual respect and a committment to free trade. He gives sketches of the political and cultural histories of Canada and Mexico throughout his book and writes best when he mixes these in with stories of his experiences in each country.

Mr DePalma is correct in saying that "we know North America exists, but we do not know North America" and we can thank him for helping us learn a lot that's new about Canada and Mexico. There are however some limits to all this talk of continental unity. In his epilogue entitled "symmetry regained" he argues that NAFTA is removing the borders between the three countries and returning us to how it was before the Spanish, French and British came. He says as we go forward as a continent we will talk about "here" and not about "there".

That may be all well and good economically and politically for everyone, and culturally also for Mexico as we become more Latino. The difficulty with this vision and ultimately then, with the book, is that the perspective from the US is startling absent throughout HERE. Mr DePalma doesn't seem to see the threat to unity when he says that in the US people "rarely are conscious that they share this continent with anyone." What happens then, when political awareness comes with liberals highlighting some of the negative economic side-effects of NAFTA and conservatives drawing attention to the potential social and cultural dangers.

HERE is very one-sided and offers only the positives of free trade and globalization. Mr DePalma does not mention any of the negatives and more importantly, he totally ignores the reality that some of the same constituents in the US that now support NAFTA, if it becomes politically expedient to do otherwise, will turn on it with a vengeance. As a result he sounds a little naive and the book's arguments feel shallow.

As a college magazine editor and writer, I've heard dozens of speakers and read many authors over the years who either apply political and economic theories to events in Latin America or tell stories that attempt to shine a light on individuals or groups in that region. But in "Here", DePalma puts a face on the people and finds the story behind the events, public and private, he witnessed in his singular role as a journalist covering Latin America, the U.S., and Canada. By combining these stories with reflections of his own family's immigration and throwing closely observed political events into the mix, he illuminates the struggles, aspirations, and challenges facing all of us on the American continent. He presents an original and well-grounded worldview that, whether or not you agree with it, provides a solid and insightful foundation for a long overdue discussion on the connectedness of North and South.

As a writer, I admire the clarity and accuracy of observation in DePalma's prose, whether he's unmasking Subcomandante Marcos during a downpour in Aguascalientes or listening to a Mayan soldier for the source of the outrage that fed the Zapatista movement. DePalma doesn't lose the individual in the larger scheme of things, but also never loses sight of that larger context.

DePalma's book humanized for me recent trends on the American continent. My only regret after reading it is that I didn't do so before accompanying students on a recent learning expedition to Mexico. Next time, I'll take it with me.

Anthony Depalma's book "Here: A Biography of the New American Continent" re-introduced me to a continent I thought I knew. His personal and passionate portrayal of Mexico and Canada opened my eyes to nations which, until now, were unfamiliar to me. Thank you, Mr. Depalma, for sharing your experiences with all of us and for your wonderful contribution to America. Here, Here!

In his preface to this book, New York Times journalist Anthony DePalma laments the historical distortions he acquired growing up in the United States. He writes QUOTE We don't think much about Canada or Mexico at all, because they are too close, too common UNQUOTE

His words echoed two personal experiences which immediately came to mind. As a student in Paris, I was once invited by an American friend to her college "junior year abroad" class in international politics taught by a well-known French political scientist. Asking the class what was the name of the ruling political party in Mexico, he got blank stares from his fifty odd young and eager U.S. internationalists.

Later, some French Canadian friends gave me a tape of songs by leading singers from Quebec (Charlebois, Gagnons, and others). Only once in the dozens of times I played this tape for friends in the United States was it recognized as a contemporary product from our northern neighbor.

I therefore found appealing DiPalma's invitation to take his readers on a journey of discovery reflecting his six years of reportage from Mexico and Canada for the New York Times. DiPalma couples highly readable analysis of both the history of both countries, including in relation to the United States, and their recent politics, particularly in the 1990s. He writes eloquently and hopefully of a future which he is believes is destined to link the three countries even more closely, placing special emphasis on the "triple elections of 2000" when new administrations were elected in all three countries. QUOTE From 1993 to 2000, North America evolved from being defined solely as three seperate nations divided by two borders on one continent to being a community of shared interest, common dreams, and coordinated responses to problems that have no regard for borders. UNQUOTE

DiPalma's optimistic outlook on the future relations of these three neighbors might seem to short shrift the real difficulties and controversies surrounding some aspects of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) which he analyzes in a positive light against the historical backdrop developed in this book. Clearly, it was not his intention to make these debates a major focus of his book.

I have no doubt that better understanding in all three countries of each other's politics and history will be critical in the twenty frist century. I found this book to be one of the few existing attempts to take a truly "North American perspective" on the trilateral relations between Canada, the United States, and Mexico, and one which is grounded in a broad, if somewhat selective, view of the histories of the three countries, and thus the continent. Hopefully, readers in the United States will welcome it as a positive contribution to increasing their historical and geographical literacy of their own backyard.

DePalma evaluates the common historical experiences of the cultural and political entities that make up the North American Continent. He likewise analyzes the similarities and differences between the three large geo-political entities of Canada, Mexico and the United States.

Multi-Level Relationships
DePalma skillfully considers the dynamics involved in the question of the geographical implications of the term "North American" versus the cultural and political ones. He surveys the history of their societies and their politics, as well as the religious history of each entity and their complex interplay and multi-level relationships through history and currently.

DePalma speaks out of an Italian-American background as an American journalist with an academic style. He has lived in Mexico with his Cuban-American wife. They also lived in Canada, where DePalma served as the Director of the New York Times' Canadian bureau. DePalma himself traveled to far reaches and isolated locales in the great Canadian territories to learn about local culture, ethnicity, political views and economic patterns.

Common Origins
His astute observation and facile analytical ability have enabled him to present here an understandable three-dimensional portrait of the broad tapestry of communities in the three geographical North American giants. With the sweeping changes pressed upon us in recent decades, the three countries often thought of as divided by continent-wide borders are now seen as three descendants of an early mix of invaders and indigenous, with different approaches to the somewhat common problems of their troubled heritage.

I especially appreciated DePalma's ability to weave a tight multi-layered view between the events and trends of the past with the confusing rapid-fire of change in our recent era. His presentation of the history of NAFTA is helpful, his analysis providing insights into the problems and the benefits of this complex agreement between the three great North American neighbors.

Different Identities
In regard to that designation as North Americans, DePalma hands us an updated portrait of the struggle for identity involved in this friendly yet antagonistic relationships across the borders north and south of the United States. As DePalma spins out the personal stories of the political and economic movers in the history of Mexico, Canada and the US, this sounds at times like a novel of international intrigue.

There is life and fire in the story, readable as a political or economic analysis or simply as a fascinating human drama. This is a fascinating cultural and economic analysis. Any reader will learn a great deal of fact as well as perspective from a new comparative point of view, which is both analytical and sympathetic.

DePalma writes between the expected lines of standard academic disciplines, with the authoritative flavour of personal relationships and astute academic investigation and analysis.

All in all a good look at the differences and similarities between Bananada, the Untied States and Mehico. For someone who has spent the entire '90s outside my so-called "homeland" of back bacon and beer, this was a good fill-in-the-blanks on what NAFTA has had on North America.

The guy nails Canada pretty good esp. on the lack of opportunity and stifling of creativity. Plus he gets bonus points for seeing what our universal health care is all about--cheap but pretty useless should you ever really need to use it. Could've thrown in a lot about the whole underground grow-op economy that flourishes up here.

I would say that the only mute pt. was his putting his kids into a private school in Ontario. Does the NY Times pay its writers enough to do this and what were his fears of Canada's public schools? The public schools up here are decent so I sort of lost a bit of respect for his views after reading that.

Mr. DePalma, naturally, doesn't disappoint the denizens of right wing think tanks like the Cato Institute or the neo-liberal editorialists of our major broadsheets in his favorable depiction of the economic impact of the controversial North American Free Trade Agreement, and prospective readers of this quaint sentimentialism of a book should realize the treaty provides the impetus for even writing a book like this in the first place. Mr. DePalma can find nothing inherently wrong with the promises proferred by the acolytes of free trade ideology (hey, all of us North Americans reap rewards from this stuff!!), so his seemingly feigned appreciation for the distinctive characteristics of a Canada or Mexico really tests credulousness, unless of course those traits begin to converge with that behemoth to the north or south. Do Canada or Mexico have any singular accomplishments that might actually teach the US a thing or two? And are those accomplishments jeopardized by the tenets of global trade like open markets, reduced government expenditure and obeisance to transnational (ie US) corporations? Well, Mr. DePalma frankly doesn't give a damn, and neither should you about his book!