Desert Hawk Books

 

Tunnel Kids

Lawrence Taylor and Maeve Hickey

 

 

148 Pages
26 halftones
6 x 9

Paperback

Quantity:  $17.95 & S/H

Cloth

Quantity:  $45.00 & S/H

 

"Taylor and Hickey reveal the poverty and uncertainty of these teens' lives and the fragility of their relationships and their futures. Their circumstances express the sharp, heartbreaking contrast between U.S. prosperity and Mexican poverty, which continues despite increasing signs of economic growth." —Booklist

"Caught in the swirling eddies of population that flow across la frontera are the kids of Barrio Libre, and for a fleeting moment they are also caught in the pages of a timeless, well-crafted ethnography. . . . Tunnel Kids is not your typical detached academic treatise on human suffering. But its subtly reflexive commentary on ethnographic methods makes it much more than a purely emotional or voyeuristic indulgence." —American Book Review

"Here is the very best of the documentary tradition-the lives, both told and shown, of children who seek a better life across a border that separates two nations and in so doing, prove themselves resourceful and knowing." — Robert Coles, author of Spiritual Life of Children

"Through words and images, Taylor and Hickey have created an honest and poignant portrait of life on the border. Hickey’s spare photographs allow the fear, the hope, the strength, and the vulnerability of the tunnel kids to seep into our consciousness." — photographer José Galvez, author of Vatos

"I want to say how much the students in my Culture and Globalization course appreciated Tunnel Kids. I selected the book because I wanted to explore how border studies contribute to our understanding of other processes of migration and globalization. It is a unique and compelling book, and I look forward to using it in my course again next year." —Dianna Shandy, Macalester College

"My students really enjoy reading Tunnel Kids; it seems to resonate well with those who are learning about the borderlands for the first time. I assign the book in three classes (Intro to Chicano/a History, US Mexico Borderlands, and Asian and Mexican Immigration). Overall, the story about homeless children captures a human dimension of the border that say, the maquiladoras, drug trafficking, and illegal migration cannot. I know my students (mostly working-class Latinos) relate to the story of Tunnel Kids because they can see aspects of themselves and their experiences woven into the narrative. . . . I am so pleased with the book on many levels." —Grace Delgado, California State University - Long Beach

Beneath the streets of the U.S.-Mexico border, children are coming of age. They have come from all over Mexico to find shelter and adventure in the drainage tunnels that connect the twin cities of Nogales, Sonora, and Nogales, Arizona. This book opens up the world of the tunnel kids and tells how in this murky underworld of struggling immigrants, drug dealers, and thieves, these kids have carved out a place of their own.

Two parallel tunnels— each fourteen feet wide and several miles long— drain the summer rains from Mexico to the United States. Here and in the crumbling colonias you'll meet the tunnel kids: streetwise El Boston, a six-year veteran of the tunnels; his little pal Jesús; Jesús' girlfriend, La Flor, and her six-month-old baby; wild Negra; poetic Guanatos; moody Romel and his beautiful girlfriend, La Fanta. They form an extended family of some two dozen young people who live hard-edged lives and answer to no one in El Barrio Libre— the free barrio.

Lawrence Taylor and Maeve Hickey met these kids at Mi Nueva Casa, the safe house built to draw the youths out of the tunnels and into a more normal life. The authors spent two summers with tunnel kids as they roamed all over Nogales and beyond in their struggle to survive. In the course of their adventures the kids described their lives, talking about what might tempt them to leave the tunnels— and what kept them there.

Hickey's stunning portraits provide a heart-stopping counterpoint to Taylor's incisive prose. Story and photos together open a window into the life of the tunnel kids—a world like that of many homeless children, precarious and adaptive, albeit unique to the border. Where most people might see just another gang of doped-up, violent children, Taylor and Hickey discover displaced and sometimes heroic young people whose stories add a human dimension to the world of the U.S.-Mexico border.

Writer and anthropologist Lawrence Taylor is Professor and Head of the Department of Anthropology at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth. Artist and photographer Maeve Hickey has exhibited both sculpture and photography extensively in Europe and the United States. They have also coauthored The Road to Mexico (University of Arizona Press) and Ambos Nogales: Intimate Portraits of the U.S./Mexico Border.