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Literature A heroine’s journey “Into the Beautiful North” BY LUIS ALBERTO URREA SELECTION FOR THE 2013 “IF ALL OF ROCHESTER READ THE SAME BOOK…” VARIOUS EVENTS AT VARIOUS VENUES 473-2590, WAB.ORG [ REVIEW ] BY REBECCA RAFFERTY
This year’s selection for the city-wide book club, “If All of Rochester Read the Same Book...” takes readers on a journey from a rural Mexican town in trouble, across the border into an America we see through fresh eyes. “Into the Beautiful North,” which was also selected for the National Endowment for the Arts’ Big Read program, is an enthralling, epic story, one of daring and romance, of disillusionment and expanded experience. The book’s author, Luis Alberto Urrea, will visit Rochester this week. City Newspaper talked to him about the book, the real-life origins of parts of the story, and what the work has to teach us about each other. The story opens in the remote Mexican village of Tres Camarones, which most of the men have left to pursue work north of the border. In time, drug dealers and dirty cops descend on the town and threaten the remaining population. Inspired by a screening of “The Magnificent Seven,” the intrepid yet circumstantially adrift 19-year-old Nayeli devises a plan. She and three of her best friends will travel north and return with seven Mexican men to rid the town of the bandits. That covers the surface purpose of the journey, but crucial undercurrents of the story include closure-seeking, and the main character’s growth. “The entire journey is kind of a Joseph Campbell myth,” says Urrea. “In many ways, I was thinking about King Arthur, or Beowulf, or Mad Max. They’re just not written about women,” he says. By the end of the book, Nayeli has transitioned to become the warrior she seeks. Though Nayeli does bring men back — lots of them — to Tres Camarones, they “aren’t going to stand in for her, they’re actually going to back her,” he says. This is the 13th year for Writers & Books’
city-wide reading program, the goal of which is to “bring people together to talk about real-world issues and their own experiences,” says Karen van Meenan, director of special projects at Writers & Books. The organization has organized a calendar of events around the program, including book discussions and related activities in the community.
16 CITY MARCH 27 - APRIL 2, 2013
“In terms of choosing ‘Into the Beautiful North’ specifically, we were attracted to the issues around immigration,” says van Meenan. “This is as complicated and important a topic in our country today as it ever was.” Though the Rochester area has a good number of migrant workers, “it is not an issue Author Luis Alberto Urrea will visit Rochester this week to discuss that we talk about openly his novel, “Into the Beautiful North.” PHOTO BY MATT DETURCK very often,” she says. “Much of the programming around the book addressed this, from a Spanishto their call for warriors. Nayeli and Tacho’s language discussion with migrant workers to journey across the west is one of nonstop the screening of a documentary film on local marvels and increasing disillusionment as female migrant workers.” their perceptions of the United States dissolve Despite the heavy subject matter, Urrea’s into frequent bafflement with its strange and sharp wit keeps readers chuckling and his often ridiculous realities. The divide between romantic storytelling keeps us sighing at almost the two worlds contracts and expands every turn of the page. The author chose to over and over as they witness America and compassionately convey the depth of each interact with others. complicated situation. Through the book, Urrea Nayeli’s act of confronting her father, wished to dispel “whatever idiotic, monolithic though done with nobility and grace, is quite picture we have of anybody else,” he says. “They damning, and marks the epitome of this divide. are multifaceted just like we are, on either side.” Nayeli, too, is based on a real young woman When the nearly unsinkable Tacho — the of the same name, whom Urrea met while sole male in the quartet of travelers, who doing relief work in a Tijuana garbage dump. wishes to leave behind the doldrums of smallThe author himself was born in Tijuana, and town life and its homophobic slurs — has a though he immigrated to California at age 4, language-based misunderstanding with a post- he grew up between the two countries. 9/11-hysterical border control, the resulting It was the real Nayeli’s grandfather who scuffle is balanced later by the kindness of a was swallowed up by The North. “It’s a very close-to-retirement, burned-out border control specific story in my mind of her tragedy, but officer who is astonished by the kids’ story and I think it became emblematic of all kinds of journey. A startling interaction between Tacho, border sorrow,” says Urrea. There is a feeling that something must follow this untidy Nayeli, and some documented MexicanAmericans contrasts with many random acts of closure, which Urrea might address in the book’s possible sequel. sweetness from strangers. The town of Kankakee, where Nayeli discovers her father, is based on the real Like other elements of the novel, Urrea drew the incident with the documented workers from Kankakee, which has not only a very successful revitalization story, but also provides real life. The owners of a Mexican restaurant in Chicago, where Urrea resides, knew he was a hopeful handbook for forging a successfully an author and wished to see his writing. Urrea multicultural town. The inhabitants are a gave them a copy of his novel, “The Devil’s second group of heroes in the novel, and Highway,” a true and wrenching story about the real-life town has begun a dialogue illegal border crossing, and was surprised to with Kalamazoo, Michigan, after the latter learn that they were deeply offended. “They population chose “Into the Beautiful North” hate the undocumented,” he says, “because they for its city-wide reading program. had done everything the ‘right’ way.” The greater focus of the last section of the Author Luis Urrea will visit Rochester this novel is upon Nayeli and Tacho’s long trip east weekend and participate in multiple book to Kankakee, a small town outside of Chicago readings, signings, and discussions from from which Nayeli’s father last sent a postcard. Wednesday, March 27, through Friday, They depart as the rest of the group organizes March 29. Visit wab.org for a full calendar a horde of homesick Mexican men responding of events and details.