Where We Come From
Oscar Cásares
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Brownsville is the setting for this gripping story about family, being a good samaritan, and unintended consequences. Nina is a middle-aged woman who lives with her infirm mother and takes care of her when their housekeeper, from the Mexican city of Matamoros, asks for help: can they please let a few relatives stay in the pink shed in the backyard for a night or two. Nina reluctantly agrees, but then shady members of a trafficking outlet twist her arm into letting more immigrants who cross without authorization stay there. Her infirm mom suspects something, and then Nina's nephew Orly comes to stay at the house for the summer while his dad works in LA. Casares writes very plausible relationships and the book has a wonderful sense of place. Residents of the Rio Grande Valley will smile and nod at references overt and subtle like buying raspados from a tiny shack or playing in a drainage ditch. The pacing is spot on, along with the cautionary example of how good people can get caught up with the polleros who regularly abuse and use migrantes. A timely tale about the urge to help and how it can be twisted by sinister forces. |
Oscar Cásares is the author of Brownsville, a collection of stories that was an American Library Association Notable Book, and the novel Amigoland. He is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Copernicus Society of America, and the Texas Institute of Letters. Originally from Brownsville, he now lives in Austin with his family and teaches creative writing at the University of Texas at Austin.
Where We Come From is a publication by Knopf. Click here to purchase.
Where We Come From is a publication by Knopf. Click here to purchase.
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