El Paso

Five Families and One Hundred Years of Blood, Migration, Race, and Memory

De: Jazmine Ulloa

Narrado por: Frankie Corzo, Jazmine Ulloa

From New York Times reporter Jazmine Ulloa, a sweeping human history of El Paso, revealing violence, power, and privilege at play in America's most famous border town.

El Paso has been called the “Ellis Island” of America’s southern border, a mountain pass cum border town cum bifurcated metropolis where past meets future, and disadvantage meets opportunity, or so the promise goes.

El Paso is an extraordinary, can’t-look-away reported history; it uses deep research and dozens of new interviews to blow away the myth of this place, where Mexico’s Juarez and America’s El Paso intertwine. It charts the history of El Paso through five families. From the Mexican Revolution and the Mexican Repatriation, to the shifting immigration laws under Reagan and Trump and the violence and bloodshed brought on by the drug war, El Paso captures a place often misunderstood or forgotten by the rest of the country, and the world.

El Paso is a brave new work of narrative nonfiction that gives new voice and perspective to history that has long been checked at the border, or told through the lens of white men alone. Ulloa draws upon meticulous research and reporting and stunning historical detail to craft the intimate narratives of an unforgettable cast of characters.

Reseñas de la Crítica

Praise for El Paso:
“What if El Paso was accorded the same place in American history as Ellis Island? This brilliantly told book makes a persuasive claim that El Paso belongs in the center of the American narrative.” —Lawrence Wright, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Human Scale

“Jazmine Ulloa’s stunning book is at its core an origin story, one filled with tales of revolution, uprising, displacement, rioting, rampage, and mass migration. In the five families portrayed here their yearning to be heard and understood is surpassed only by the sense of hope and the reimagining that comes from living between two countries and cultures. El Paso will amaze you with what it reveals about this iconic border city that has been both in plain sight and never truly seen until now.”—Oscar Cásares, author of Where We Come From

“El Paso is the magical and tragic crossroads at the center of North America. And in Jazmine Ulloa’s beautiful and impactful storytelling, we see it evolve from a frontier town to a fraught urban center, its streets and alleys the setting of epic historical encounters and culture-defining social movements. At last, that great border city in the desert has the book it deserves.” —Héctor Tobar, author of Deep Down Dark and Our Migrant Souls

“A richly-told, eye-opening book that offers truths that all of us should know, about immigration, the border, and ourselves. Brilliantly reported and full of people you will never forget, this is the real story of America.” —Beth Macy, author of Dopesick and Paper Girl

“In the ebbing and flowing narrative of immigration battles and families trying to find their place in the world, the author guides us, expertly, through history, politics, and personal stories, ending with her own family’s origin story. ... A passionate and urgent account that transforms the embers of a bypassed history into flames that consume the present.” —Kirkus (starred review)