Customer Reviews

Rio Grande

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Jan Reid has composed a unique anthology of writing on one of the two great southwestern rivers in his book "Rio Grande." Its main fault, if it has any, is that it is much too short. I could argue with the selections, but found them all of note and so would prefer more, rather than changing the ones Reid used in this book.

I grew up along the other great southwestern river, the Colorado. Both rivers originate in the Rocky Mountains and wind through canyons between mountains in the desert, one reaching the Gulf of California and the other the Gulf of Mexico. Both have fascinating geology, biota and human history. Reid is primarily concerned with the latter. From the beginning of the river in the San Juan Mountains in Colorado to its mouth (if you can call it that) between the border cities of Brownsville, Texas and Matamoros, Mexico, he brings us samples of fiction and non-fiction about the great Río de las Palmas, Río Bravo del Norte or, as we Norte Americanos know it, the Rio Grande (pronounced " Rio Gran" in much of Texas). Modern and relatively modern authors from John Nichols ("The Milagro Beanfield War") and Paul Horgan ("Great River") to Woody Guthrie ("Seeds of Man") and James Carlos Blake ("In the Rogue Blood") and older writings, such as John Reed's "Insurgent Mexico" (1914) and Robert T. Hill's "Running the Cañons of the Rio Grande" (1901), all cast their spell and the spell of the land through which the Rio Grande travels, even if it is sometimes not as nice as we would like it to be.

The most heart-rending chapter is "Ciudad de la Muerte" by Cecilia Balli. This chapter is about the three hundred women murdered in the border city of Juárez, over the last ten or so years. As I live only about 50 miles north of the border between El Paso, Texas, and Juárez, Chihuahua, I have some personal interest in these monstrous crimes. I am quite happy that we forbade our children to ever go across the border when they were in their teens, despite the fact that all of the victims so far have been Mexican and our kids were decidedly American. Also several teenagers who crossed the border (especially at night) have gotten into major trouble. I just don't trust the situation and Balli's essay really gets to the heart of that fear of the border city. Still, I have crossed the border on a number of occasions, but only a few times at Juárez.

Despite all this the border lands and the Rio Grande have a rich history and culture. Reid has caught this, but I still would like more. Where is La Llorona, the wailing woman, who morns the children she allowed to drown in the river or the Confederate invasion up the Rio Grande of New Mexico in 1861? Both center on the river and both have a lot of local color. Still, I guess it is better to be left asking for more than wishing you had not read the book in question!

I highly recommend this book for anyone wanting to gain some of the historical and literary flavor of this once great river, now polluted and tamed, squeezed, like the Colorado, of nearly every drop, before it finally reaches the salty waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

This is an extraordinary collection of 39 well written essays all inspired by the Rio Grande. The Prologue is equally well written and constitutes a 40th essay of real quality. For example:

"At 1,885 miles, the Rio Grande ranks twentieth in length among the earth's rivers, yet it has only two major tributaries. The river that Cabeza de Vaca knew as Río de las Palmas has gone by many names, a number of them lovely: Mets'ichi Chena and P'osoge and Paslápane ("big river" in languages of native peoples), Río Caudaloso ("carrying much water" in Spanish), Río de la Nuestra Señora ("river of our lady"), Río Turbio ("muddy" or "turbulent"), Río Guadalquivir, Río de la Concepción, Río de la Buenaventura del Norte, Tiguex River, River of May, Grand River, Río del Norte, Río del Norte y Nuevo México, Río Bravo del Norte, Río Grande del Norte. The river's distinctiveness is captured by the two names that have endured: Mexico's Río Bravo ("angry river" or "fierce river") and the United States' Rio Grande ("great river")."

Or this section on the first writer on the great river:

"Cabeza de Vaca was a survivor in another important way. Men named Dorantes and Castillo and another known only as "the Negro" lived to tell much the same story. But Cabeza de Vaca had the talent and foresight to put it down on paper--to write about it--and as a result their wild experience has lived on under his signature. La Relación (The Relation, or his account) was first published in 1542; seven years later he retitled a second edition Naufragios (Shipwrecks), which seems to imply an impish sense of humor. Cabeza de Vaca wrote a longer chronicle about his time in South America, but the first one became an ageless book of travel and adventure. For Europeans it provided the first vivid glimpse of a wilderness that would be called Texas, and of a river that one country severed from Spain would call Rio Bravo and that another country severed from Mexico would call the Rio Grande. For the people who came to call themselves Texans, his book was the foundation of a literary heritage. Cabeza de Vaca was not the best-educated survivor of that shipwreck--nor was he the only one to put thoughts and quill to paper--but he wrote with subtle, instinctive flair. "Eating the dogs," he began one chapter, "seemed to give us strength enough to go forward; so commending ourselves to the guidance of God our Lord, we took leave of our hosts, who pointed out the way to others nearby who spoke their language." La Relación is a work of art. And from it has flowed a shared literature of Mexico and the United States."

I've found it impossible to pick favorites from the broad selection here; my only real criticism is that I would have liked to see more selections from Mexican authors. But hopefully, the publishers will release a second edition; there is certainly enough written on the Rio Grande to justify the effort.

I've included the table of contents in the first Comment so that you can get a flavor of the treasures here.

Robert C. Ross 2009

This is a really fine book, immensely informative and also entertaining, handsomely designed and generously conceived. Jan Reid, himself a fine writer, has brought together a collection of fine writing on the subject of a big river, the Rio Grande. He follows the river from its source in the mountains of Colorado, through fertile valleys, desert, and roaring canyons to its turgid mouth on the Gulf of Mexico. While there are many words devoted to the many miles of landscape, Reid's primary interest is the social and political history that makes up the borderlands from El Paso to Brownsville. A region divided by a national border still contested by those who have lived and worked here for countless generations, Rio Grande country as it is characterized in Reid's book is both Texan and Mexican, with all the extremes that combination implies - no country for old men, you could say.

Given the world we live in, drugs and guns figure prominently along the river. Robert Draper tells of U.S. Marines stationed there to apprehend drug runners and the shooting of an 18-year-old boy herding goats. Don Ford recounts his experience as a cowboy smuggler of Mexican marijuana. Reid's own contribution (besides the lengthy and fascinating introductions to each section of the book) is an account of three armed Americans busting prisoners from a jail on the Mexican side of the border. And the Border Patrol is a constant dark presence, as in Elmer Kelton's "The Time It Never Rained."

There is humor, dry and otherwise, in Molly Ivins' report of a drunken mishap involving the mayor of Lajitas, who happens to be a goat. John Spong describes a loopy effort to build an exclusive resort with a luxurious golf course in the Big Bend. Gary Cartwright provides a sadly comic tour of his favorite haunts in Mexican border towns. Tom Miller describes the life of a parrot smuggler. We get an excerpt from John Nichol's humorous "Milagro Beanfield War." There's also a surprising visit by the young John Reed waiting in Presidio for the revolutionary army of Pancho Villa to reach Ojinaga, still in the hands of the federal army.

Meanwhile, the entire book is richly illustrated with period photographs, all of them in glorious black and white. This is a terrific book with hours of good reading for anyone interested in rivers and the mix of cultures and history that make up the borderlands between Texas and Mexico.

This is a great book for those with interest in the Rio Grande. My only criticism is that the book is very Texas/border centric. The river's presence in Colorado and New Mexico only merits 53 pages in this 320 page collection of essays. Guess that's what you get from a Texas author.