The Haunting of the Mexican Border
The Haunting of the Mexican Border
A Woman's Journey
The Haunting of the Mexican Border is a woman’s view of the violence and generosity of the border. For fifteen years beginning in the 1980s, Kathryn Ferguson made documentary films in Mexico’s Sierra Madre. As she traveled south, she encountered people who were traveling north, and she learned that the border at which they converged was deadly. Drawing on her own experiences, this book explores how US immigration policies erode the lives of ordinary citizens on both sides of the border.
The Haunting of the Mexican Border is a breathtaking work of art. Ferguson’s artistry shines in her prose, polished and raw in a perfect combination, and her ability to convey the beauty and power of humanity.'—Story Circle Book Reviews
Ferguson’s prose is transcendent, effortless, lifting off the page with the eye of a smart filmmaker who finds just enough detail to tell the imagination where to go but leaves off before laying on so much as to drown out that self-steering vision.'—Santa Fe Reporter
An important account of how the [Mexican borderlands] region continues to serve as a ‘haunting’ presence as well as a space whose history, stories, and art need to be more deeply appreciated and understood on the other side of the border.'—Southwestern American Literature
[Ferguson’s] prose is marked by a deep kinetic awareness of how her physical presence as an American, a woman, and a traveler affects the migrants and indigenous tribal members she encounters during her filming expeditions.'—Pasatiempo
As a documentarian, Ferguson brings a journalistic approach to the material, providing context for the in-the-moment situations she describes, and the book itself provides useful context for the border as a whole.'—Foreword Reviews
Ferguson’s book is more than a memoir. It is an adventure story toughened by sore feet from walking and walking and walking steep, narrow paths.'—Albuquerque Journal
A wise and humane account that draws on a lifetime of exploring the border country and pondering its meaning.'—Kirkus Reviews
This is an important book at the right time. We need to read this story and understand its vision. Recommended.
An unforgettable memoir that takes readers south to Rarámuri country then north into Arizona’s militarized culture of terrorized immigrants and the people who stand up for them. The writing is exquisite, descriptive, action packed, and deeply meditative. The book reads like a novel; I couldn’t put it down.
With a rare woman’s perspective, Kathryn Ferguson masterfully guides us through treacherous, hardscrabble geography and psychology where two different worlds both clash and meld. This is a must-read for anyone intending to live in and understand twenty-first-century America.
A writer, filmmaker, and dancer, Kathryn Ferguson lives in Tucson, Arizona. She is a coauthor of the award-winning book Crossing with the Virgin: Stories from the Migrant Trail.
