Bad Mexicans

Race, Empire, and Revolution in the Borderlands

By: Kelly Lytle Hernández

Narrated by: Joana Garcia

Length: 13 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

Bad Mexicans tells the dramatic story of the magonistas, the migrant rebels who sparked the 1910 Mexican Revolution from the United States. Led by a brilliant but ill-tempered radical named Ricardo Flores Magon, the magonistas were a motley band of journalists, miners, migrant workers, and more, who organized thousands of Mexican workers—and American dissidents—to their cause. Determined to oust Mexico's dictator, Porfirio Diaz, the rebels had to outrun and outsmart the swarm of US authorities vested in protecting the Diaz regime. The US Departments of War, State, Treasury, and Justice, as well as police, sheriffs, and spies, hunted the magonistas across the country.

But the magonistas persevered. They lived in hiding, wrote in secret code, and launched armed raids into Mexico until they ignited the world's first social revolution of the twentieth century.

Taking listeners to the frontlines of the magonista uprising and the counterinsurgency campaign that failed to stop them, Kelly Lytle Hernández puts the magonista revolt at the heart of US history. Long ignored by textbooks, the magonistas threatened to undo the rise of Anglo-American power, on both sides of the border, and inspired a revolution that gave birth to the Mexican-American population, making the magonistas' story integral to modern American life.

©2022 Kelly Lytle Hernández (P)2022 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Awesome

The ending was just as fabulous as the beginning, I'm gonna recommend this book to anyone I meet. Thank you for enlightening me. Recommend me more on the same subject.

Amazing Story, Bad Reader

Loved the book, but I wish they hired someone who could pronounce stuff in Spanish! It’s so key, especially when the book contains this much Spanish. It became distracting as some point.

The book was good but the reading is not

But this reading is so choppy and awkward I have to send it back.
The reason is the obvious fact that the performer is unfamiliar with spanish names. She reads Spanish words as though each word is such an accomplishment, it is very distracting from the text of this book.

A compelling story of rebellion

A real life story of rebels against the empire seen many times over in today’s pop culture. These are the lives and tribulations of people that actually went through it. A fundamental tale of the Mexican American experience.

Great book, but why is the narrator so bad?

Great book, story, but why is Dora the explorer narrating? in English or Spanish her enunciation is awful. I can't believe you couldn't find a hispanic narrator that can pronounce correctly both languages. it's just disrespectful that an important mexican-american story is given so little thought on getting an appropriate voice in the audio book.
Even her English sounds artificial. Can't even pronounce crypto correctly, I'm English!
The important work done by Mrs. Hernandez is affected by this poorly chosen narrator.

great historical information despite the narrator.

it would be better read than listening to the audiobook. narrator is excruciatingly bad in her pronunciations which create unnecessary distraction.

The narrator succeeds in destroying the book

Ms . García’s ignorance of Spanish pronunciation is astounding and it bedeviled listening to what otherwise would have been an interesting history. Accents are mere suggestion to her and her incessant rolling of inexistente Rea changes the meaning of words. This work required a narrator who could efficiently cross from English to Spanish and who had some knowledge of Mexican place names.

Narrator wrecked it

I became progressively annoyed as the narrator of a book about Mexico mispronounced almost every Spanish word. Couldn’t they find a single Spanish- speaking narrator? She learned to roll her r but put the stress on the wrong syllable almost every time. Cringe! Ruined the experience for me.

Read on your own!!! Narrator cannot pronounce Spanish words!

Excellent story. Absolutely TERRIBLE narrator. No ability to pronounce words like San Luis Potosí she inflects on “to” and not on si and it comes up 100 times in a few chapters. Save your credits or cash. I want my money back

*Update*

Amazon sent a response from the recording company. It said we can’t really do anything but your concerns are noted.

Maybe implement quality control before it ever comes out!

Brutal Pronounciation

Why oh why destroy this great text with someone who has never uttered the name of a Mexican town or city before? Every time I hear potosi like a do see do, versus Potosí, I cringe.