Each week Lone Star Literary profiles a newsmaker in Texas books and letters, including authors, booksellers, publishers.
Kay Ellington has worked in management for a variety of media companies, including Gannett, Cox Communications, Knight-Ridder, and the New York Times Regional Group, from Texas to New York to California to the Southeast and back again to Texas. She is the coauthor, with Barbara Brannon, of the Texas novels The Paragraph RanchA Wedding at the Paragraph Ranch.
7.1.2018 Alfredo Corchado on friends, family, and freedom — on both sides of the border
Meet prize-winning journalist and immigration expert Alfredo CorchadoHis latest book, Homelands, is the sweeping story of the great Mexican migration from the late 1980s to today.
It’s told from the perspective of four friends who first meet in a Mexican restaurant in Philadelphia in 1987. One was a radical activist, another a restaurant/tequila entrepreneur, the third a lawyer/politician, and the fourth, Alfredo, a hungry young reporter for the Wall Street Journal. Over the course of thirty years, the four friends continued to meet, coming together to share stories of the turning points in their lives-the death of parents, the births of children, professional milestones, stories from their families north and south of the border.
His story has never been timelier, and we appreciated the chance to converse with him via email earlier this week.
LONE STAR LITERARY LIFE: Where were born, Alfredo, and where did you grow up and how would you describe those days?
ALFREDO CORCHADO: I was born in a small town, San Luis de Cordero, Durango. My first memories are of my tiny hometown, walking dirt and cobblestone streets as though they belonged to me and my younger brother, Juan. We walked everywhere and everyday to pick up food from our grandmother’s house. We waved at our neighbors and we were known as Herlinda’s sons.
Your family brought you to the U.S. when you were six years old. What were those times like?
We left San Luis de Cordero when I was five years old and spent nearly a year in Ciudad Juarez as we waited for our green cards to cross the border legally and be reunited with our father, who worked in the fields of the San Joaquin Valley. I cried a lot. I didn’t want to leave Mexico, and the idea of going to another country was like heading for another planet. I missed my hometown. Ciudad Juarez seemed monstrous to us, but my mother was committed to raising as us as a family, together with my father.
Your family eventually bought a restaurant in El Paso, and now you make El Paso your home at least part of the year. Do you consider El Paso to be your hometown, and how would you describe that city?
I work as a Mexico Border correspondent for the Dallas Morning News, so I crisscross the border a lot. I do consider El Paso my hometown because it’s the only place where I don’t feel like I have to choose between one side or the other. I often say that the border, El Paso, is the epicenter of my homelands. It is our Ellis Island in the Southwest, a place of new opportunities. It’s a welcoming, tolerant and generous city with great history with important lessons during thes4 difficult, divisive, nativist times.
When you chose a career path, you became a journalist. Did you always enjoy writing and storytelling? What drew you to this profession?
I actually wanted to be a songwriter, but failed miserably. I was intrigued by the idea of journalism after a reporter asked me when it was like to work in the fields, underage, without clean drinking water, enough toilets. The idea that someone wanted to tell my story was powerful, so much that I decided on journalism and once I got the taste it felt like an incurable disease. It still does.
Can you tell our readers a little of your history as a journalist — the papers you’ve served and the positions you’ve held?
I worked as a reporter and editor at the El Paso Community College newspaper. I also worked as an intern at a local TV station and left after I was told I had no future in journalism. I wasn’t a very good writer and too shy. I worked at my parents’ restaurant.
But that rejection was the best thing that happened to me, because it told me how much I loved journalism. I went back, as a radio reporter and later at the college newspaper at UTEP, the Prospector. I followed that up with internships at the El Paso Herald-Post and the Ogden Standard-Examiner. My first full-time job was at the Wall Street Journal. I’ve been with the Dallas Morning News since 1993, covering Mexico, Cuba and U.S.-Mexico relations via Washington DC. I’ve covered Mexico’s democratic search, its endless drug war and immigrant journey.
Along with newspaper journalism, you’ve also written two books. Your most recent, Homelands, is a powerful story that examines acceptance of people from other countries and cultures. Can you tell us about your book and how it came about?
Homelands is the universal story of immigrants and the search for home. It’s about blending into two countries, feeling that you belong on both sides. It’s a story about the power of friendship, and pays homage to Mexican workers who with their sweat and determination have contributed greatly to both countries, particularly the United States. It’s about unrequited love. Midnight in Mexico was about returning home to Mexico at a difficult time, witnessing the massacre of the country you were born in. Homelands is about returning to the U.S. and trying to understand a moment in time, serving as a bridge, sometimes a broken bridge between both countries.
You’ve recently returned from visiting the new temporary tent shelter for unaccompanied migrant children in Tornillo, Texas, built as part of the Trump administration’s policy of separating members of migrant families deemed illegal. What was that experience like?
The story in Tornillo was one of the most compelling stories that I have covered. Seeing people coming from everywhere, throughout the Southwest with a message of “you’re not alone” was riveting. It sent a message to families, children and the border. For a community that’s been much maligned, misunderstood and treated as a piñata for too long, the message really resonated with people from all walks of life.
As the Mexico correspondent for the Dallas Morning News, how would you describe the border and illegal immigration situation?
As I said previously, the border, immigrants are treated as punching bags to serve the careers of fear-mongering politicians. The U.S. side is one of the safest, richest in terms of culture, and yet remains a complex place. The great Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes once described the border as a scar. At times it’s a fading scar and too often, these days, a deepening wound. But always as resilient and vast as the desert.
How are your friends from the book now? How has the book and current events changed their lives?
Like all friendships, we have our ups and downs. But one of the most remarkable outcomes of the book process was settling old scores and celebrating more than thirty years of friendship. Not many people can do or say that. Primo remains as committed as ever to human rights. Ken, I think, will one day run for office, and David is expanding his interest in agaves. I don’t know that the book has changed our lives, other than to bring us closer, remind us of that wintry night in 1987 and the consequences of that chance encounter.
Are there books like yours that you would recommend to readers interested in understanding the issues of acceptance and understanding when it comes to immigration, and those from other countries and other cultures who now live here?
Yes, there are several books, too many to list. Now that I can devote more time to reading, here are a couple that I’m looking at now now. Vanishing Frontiers: The Forces Driving Mexico and the United States Together by Andrew Selee, a book that serves as a sobering reminder of how and why both countries are increasingly interdependent, despite the political rhetoric coming out of Washington.
I’m also reading Ali Noorani’s There Goes The Neighborhood, which examines the factors that are driving the immigration debate in this country.
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Praise for the works of Alfredo Corchado
“In Homelands [Corchado] recounts his experiences and those of three friends —altogether, three Mexicans and an American of Mexican descent — as they grapple with having two countries to call home. . . It eloquently chronicles the effects of the North American Free-Trade Agreement between Mexico, America and Canada, the militarisation of the border after the attacks of September 11th 2001 and Mr Trump’s victory.”
—The Economist
“A mix of memoir and deep research into various Mexican and American political immigration issues, exploring complications of life on both sides of the border . . . An affecting, timely book.” —Kirkus Reviews
“In addition to providing historical context for the current debate on immigration, this book is a timely and personal meditation on the concept of ‘migrant’ in the United States.” —Publishers Weekly
“This personal, moving tale illuminates the very heart of the polarizing immigration debate that is roiling America today.” —David Axelrod, Director at University of Chicago Institute of Politics, Former Senior Adviser to Barack Obama, author and CNN Senior Political Commentator
“The latest from the Dallas Morning News’ award-winning borderland correspondent is a breezy, expansive narrative that traces the Great Mexican Migration of the second half of the twentieth century.”
—Booklist
“A sensitive, thought-provoking self-portrait of Mexican Americans who, wherever they go, call the borderlands home.” —Library Journal
“With the country at odds over immigration, now is the perfect time to learn more about the issue. Journalist Alfredo Corchado provides an opportunity in his latest book, Homelands: Four Friends, Two Countries, and the Fate of the Great Mexican-American Migration. In it, he shares the experience of coming to America using his own story and those of three friends; Corchado follows them over the course of three decades.”
—Bustle
“Vividly and entertainingly rendered . . . Homelands performs a valuable service. Politics, after all, isn’t the only way that a disenfranchised and vilified community can counteract the stereotypes, misunderstandings, and even stupidities imposed by others. It can also do so if its expatriate sons and daughters, who have traveled far and succeeded, despite the odds, return to help. These voices, like Corchado’s, will make the voyage easier for those who will surely follow.” —Texas Monthly
“For Mexican-Americans, Mexican always comes first―this describes the story of Alfredo Corchado, the son of farmworkers who arrived following the Bracero rogram. Call it determination, call it ganas, but Corchado rises above his rural circumstances to become a much-sought-after journalist. During his formation, he befriends three likeminded men, compas we call them in Spanish. Offering a balance of honest personal anecdotes and clear-eyed assessment, Corchado reveals what immigration is truly about. A book like this doesn’t happen often.” —Gary Soto, author of The Elements of San Joaquin
“Corchado reports from across borders with the advantage of seeing the world with multiple perspectives. In the end, it’s those who have the least who inspire Corchado the most. No matter where we call home, this book is an inspiration.” —Sandra Cisneros, author of House on Mango Street
“Alfredo Corchado’s soul is fondly and firmly rooted in both the U.S. and his native Mexico. In tracing the life journeys of himself and three friends, he provides a window to the migrating millions helping to transform North America in the 21st Century. Homelands is an evocative and essential tale for our times.” —Dudley Althaus, Mexico correspondent, The Wall Street Journal
“Alfredo Corchado’s moving and deeply personal story traces through his own journey and those of three friends, the odyssey of generations of Mexican immigrants. Homelands is a masterful tale–both heartfelt and informative. Pitch perfect.” — Jose de Cordoba, Latin America correspondent, The Wall Street Journal
“Alfredo Corchado has written a book that comes along just when we need it most. We are a country that is always defining and redefining itself, a nation that is at constant war with itself regarding its own identity. He has taken the story of four Mexican-Americans who have lived all their adult lives in America and turned their experiences into The Story of America, an America that takes them in and welcomes them, helps them to rewrite their lives and their identities–then takes what they have to offer, rejects them, then hates them. This is a story of exile and belonging, of yearning and nostalgia, not simply a nostalgia for a home country that has been left behind but a story of a nostalgia for an America that has only existed as a promise that has never been fulfilled. We pine for America but what are we pining for? If you want to meditate on who we are as a nation and take a look at some hard truths of who we are, then read this book. Then read it again.” —Benjamin Alire Saenz, winner of the PEN Faulkner award for Fiction and author of Everything Begins and Ends at the Kentucky Club
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