True Tales from Another Mexico: The Lynch Mob, the Popsicle Kings, Chalino and the Bronx - Tapa dura

"Any reader interested in Mexican society of the last decade or so-those already fascinated with the country and the changes it is going through, interested non-specialist readers, or students-will take great pleasure in this book." "Quinones is not only an excellent journalist with a wonderful nose for a good story, he is a thoughtful, well-read man with a real ability to relate his stories to the larger picture. And in Mexico, as elsewhere, the larger picture is deeply rooted in the past." ." . . a refreshing treatment of a country in which everything has been penetrated by the ruling party. . . . This is an excellent view of the informal economy and various means that are used to get around Mexico's relic-like system of social, economic, and political organization." ." . . these are stories of human resilience, told with irony and humor. . . . Quinones has found a treasure trove of anecdotes. . . . These stories are insightful and rich in detail." "Quinones offers an intersting series of post-NAFTA stories that defy simplistic first/third world dynamics; with its intimate portrayal of small communities' leaders and their dissidents, "True Tales from Another Mexico" portrays the country on its own terms." "This beautifully written collection of essays is a wonder and a delight. . . . Quinones has succeeded in finding 'another Mexico.' Intimately tied to the United States, it is at times far from God, but as this splendid book shows, it is also in the midst of a transformation." "The book is a journalistic, ethnographic relevation of the forces shaping Mexican culture in the twenty-first century. It is an easy read that has as many flavors as the "paleterias" (ice cream shops) he writes about, with enough ingredients to enable the reader to fully savor the bitter and sweet sides of a growing and expanding Mexican identity and society."

Quinones merges keen observation with astute interviews and storytelling in his search for an authentic modern Mexico. He finds it in part in emigrants, people who use wits and imagination to strike out on their own. In poignant stories from north of the border -- about Oaxacan basketball leagues in southern California and the late singing legend Chalino Sanchez whose songs of drug smugglers spurred the popularity of the narcocorrido -- Quinones shows how another Mexico is reinventing itself in America today. But most of his stories are from deep inside Mexico itself. There a dynamic sector exists. It is made up of those who instinctively shunned the enfeebling embrace of the PRI's paternalism, including scrappy entrepreneurs such as the Popsicle Kings of Tocumbo and Indian migrant farmworkers who found a future in the desert of Baja California. Here, too, are true tales from ignored margins of society, including accounts of drag queens and lynchings. From the fringes of the country, Quinones suggests, emerge some of the most telling and central truths about modern Mexico and how it is changing.