"El Paso:" Five Famlies and One Hundred Years..." Reviewed by Bill Schwab

The City of El Paso is often referred to as the "Ellis Island" of the United States' southern border. Translated as "mountain pass," El Paso has a twin city across the Rio Grande, Ciudad Juárez. Crossing the Pasa Del Norte Bridge, from Juárez Avenue to South El Paso Street, immigrants seeking to enter the U.S. leave behind their beleaguered pasts and embrace opportunity, promise, and hope.

Ulloa opens her book by recounting the August 3rd, 2019 mass shooting at the El Paso Walmart, by a white supremacist, where 23 people died in a targeted attack against Latinos. This tragedy sets the tone for her to look back and uncover the stories of past Mexican revolutionaries and activists.

Ulloa is a journalist with deep roots in Texas' sixth-largest metropolis. She applies analytical research and draws on countless interviews to weave together the histories of Ciudad Juárez and El Paso. She chronicles this history through the eyes of five families, the Chews, Martinezes, Holguins, Rubios, and Mura'ls, who give a new voice and fresh perspective to this often misunderstood and overlooked Southwestern region.

From the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920) to the Mexican Repatriation (1929-1939) to the violence and murders perpetrated by the drug cartels today, the author deftly educates the reader about these Southwest cities and the challenges they have faced. She highlights Herlinder Chew, a 17-year-old Chinese-Mexican woman soldier in the Mexican Revolution, and Miguel Martinez, a 15-year-old orphan, who could not even ride a horse when he was drafted into Pancho Villa's army. Using her extraordinary storytelling skills, Ulloa intertwines the lives of ordinary people with their historical settings. She recalls the many ethnic groups who have passed through El Paso over the years: Black, Jewish, Italian, Slavic, Greek, Syrian, Lebanese, and others.

Readers may sometimes find the meticulous account difficult to follow because the author jumps back and forth across generations and countries, intertwining the trials and successes of the five families. But she asserts that the plethora of details has a way of drawing us back to reality, despite efforts to suppress, ignore, or compartmentalize history. She maintains we cannot escape the traumas of our past, and if we don't face them head-on, they will return with a sinister force.

The author addresses the shifting immigration laws enacted by Presidents Reagan and Trump, as well as the growing anti-American public sentiment. She underscores President Trump's jingoistic rhetoric as the latest example of the suppressive, ugly side of U.S. history.

The City of El Paso is a "backdrop to an immigration fight that at its crux, scholars say, is truly about the preservation of American democracy." A passionate Ulloa recounts a part of U.S. history often bypassed and transforms it into a story that helps us understand the present-day southwestern immigrant crisis.

"El Paso” is a long-overdue spotlight on this gateway city, with 285 pages of narrative, plus 28 pages of works cited. It will be of particular interest to readers who appreciate analytical history books and those who like emotionally powered stories.

About the author:  Jazmine Ulloa is a national reporter for The New York Times. She previously reported for The Boston Globe, where she was part of a team that won the Toner Prize for Excellence in Political Reporting. A native of El Paso, she began her career as a journalist in Texas, working for numerous newspapers. Ulloa has made appearances on MSNOW, CNN, and CBS, as well as on Al Jazeera's documentary television program Fault Lines. This is her debut book.

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