July 2009: Ask a Policeman: A Rafe Buenrostro Mystery

Latino Book Club will meet on July 25th to discuss Rolando Hinojosa's Ask a Policeman at 3 pm.

A rather different book from our earlier ones, yet a very pertinent one to the US-Mexico border issue, and an old one too. No, it is not immigration, it is drug-trafficking.This novel is of course much lighter than many of our earlier novels, even though it deals with a very serious problem of drug trafficking. Reading this novel, published in 1998 these days when the drug wars are at its height in Mexico, after the death of the main drug lord, makes it so real and current. A colleague of mine who specializes in Colombian literature, always reminds his students that the drug problem is not simply a Colombian issue, rather much closer to home, one in Mexico. Of course the problem is also very American where the market demands the trafficking. Reading this novel one may be reminded of the movie Traffic, which if you have not seen, is a must see among the Hollywood films about this topic (brilliant acting by Benicio del Toro and Michael Douglas). Of course in the movie the American side was led by a White American dealing with his own problems with a drug addicted daughter, unlike Rafe who is Mexican American, very much in tune with the Mexican culture.

It actually makes the novel humorous when Rafe and his Mexican counterpart play along with the American District Attorney, who is unaware of the cultural norm of exchanging pleasantries and asking about families' well being before jumping into business, unlike American mainstream culture which keeps personal out of business. I also enjoyed the fact that the Mexican Director of Public Order of Barrones is a woman. I look forward to hearing from the others about the characters Rafe Buenrostro and Lu Cetina.

25th July 2009
Latino Book Club members Lizzy, Cathy, Irene, and I met at our usual place and discussed Hinojosa's Ask a Policeman. We all agreed that it was an easy and fast read, just like a good detective novel should be. In spite of the fact that it was "light" the drug issue was very current. One thing that was pointed out was the senseless killing. The Goméz family go on a killing spree, which includes their own family. It tells of the complete lack of human connection in favor of making hordes of money quickly and illegaly. The arms that are used in the killings are coming from the United States as is the demand for drugs. The series of senseless killings is topped by the erotica-murder-suicide filmed by the Goméz son and delivered to the police. All this talk led us to discuss other books that depict such senseless killing, outside the drug world. Lizzy pointed out Teresa Rodríguez' Las hijas de Juárez. It is based on Rodríguez' investigative reporting of a true incident of multiple deaths of women in Juárez. You can read about it on Univision's Webpage.
Another book that takes a look at senseless mass killing is Jorge Ibargüengoitias Las muertas, a fictionalized story based on the brothel murders known as the "Las Poquianchis" incident in the state of Guanajato, Mexico. It uses dark humor to counter the macabre incident.

Although Olga wasn't there to initiate the topic she suggested about assimilation vs. acculturation, we did get to discuss it. Assimilate, which is a term defined in Cultural Studies as taking on the culture of the mainstream, leaving behind, or loosing one's original cultural habits. In cultural studies assimilation sees cultures in hierarchy, and therefore to assimilate is to consider one better than the other, and therefore has a negative connotation. This led to a very interesting observation by Cathy of involuntary assimilation vs. voluntary assimilation. She is Mexican American (although Cathy Murphy, does not say so, like millions of other Mexican Americans), but does not speak Spanish, something she says that she would love to speak and understand, but it was not a choice she made, nor one her parents did, who could not speak Spanish either. She sees herself assimilated, but perhaps, not by choice. On the other hand I spoke of how a graduate classmate of mine of Ecuadorian heritage would only speak in English to her kids, so they would assimilate with the mainstream US culture. Here is an example of voluntary assimilation, where the child who could have learnt Spanish and more of the Ecuadorian culture is denied the opportunity, even when it is easily accessible. If you have comments or thoughts, please comment.

Moving on to our next month, we will be reading Cristina Henríquez' The World in Half. You can read more about the book and the author in this months e-newsletter. This is the first Panamanian American author in our list. Also for fast readers, we wanted to let you know that in September we will be reading Luis Rogríguez' Always Running.
Happy readings!