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Title: Distant Neighbors : A Portrait of the Mexicans by Alan Riding ISBN: 0-679-72441-9 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 23 October, 1989 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (15 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Captivating
Comment: I had to read this book as part of a foreign study program in Cuernavaca, Mexico. It is a brilliant social history of the perception on the Mexican people. Our educational system is built around a brief New World history on top of an extensive European tradition; unfortunately the lands south of our borders generally aren't a part of our perception of history.
Alan Riding makes this very plain early on in the book; in the first paragraph, he states, "..nowhere in the world do two neighbors understand each other so little. More than by levels of development, [these] two countries are separated by language, religion, race, philosophy and history."
Perhaps Riding can summarize his own purpose best when he wrote that "the purpose of this book is to make Mexico more accessible to non-Mexicans. It is inspired not by a desire to expose the country's vulnerabilities, but by the belief that Mexico would be served if better understood by its northern neighbor."
If you're interested in putting Mexico in a perspective complimentary to your boiler-plate knowledge of world history, read this book. After you read it, your mind will begin to "look south" when examining issues close to home (especially if you live near the US-Mexican border).
Rating: 5
Summary: Read this book if you are moving to Mexico!
Comment: I am surprised that people seem to be critical of Alan Riding's excellent work. The key here is an objectivity that is so seldom seen in this type of work. This is not a travel guide...it is a guide to understanding the differences that are real, profound, and do exist between two cultures. I was able to enjoy Riding's book as I purchased it shortly after moving to Mexico to work in 1993. It helped me so much that I have loaned copies (yes I have purchased more than one copy) and given them to visitors and other ex-pats working in Mexico. I am a Canadian citizen who is married to a Mexican citizen. This book has not only helped me understand Mexicans it has helped my marriage too! It is not Mr. Riding's place to critique or spew contempt for the PRI party, he merely provides the truth and lets the reader make up their mind. As far as Mexican people enjoying this book, I have passed it for review and commentary to Mexicans of all social classes and they all enjoyed the book and offered little in the way of unfavorable reviews. I have read Octavio Paz and the Labyrinth of Solitude and it is very introspective but very subjective. Riding may not be a poet, but he is also not a Mexican author who is subjectively speaking for an entire population. Alan Riding is a keen observer and he presents the facts! Read it and make up your own mind!
Rating: 4
Summary: The Best Book in English about Mexico and Mexicans.
Comment: The Rocky Point (Puerto Penasco) Times calls this the best book in English about Mexico. The only reason I didn't rate it 5 stars was some of the history. It needs someone to do an update of Fox's Presidency and Commandante Marcos.
Growing up in New York, it was just a facsination. I now live in Tucson, Arizona. The border is an hour away. Distant Neighbors is an apt description. American and Mexicans talk past each other without really hearing each other. His best chapters? The beginning chapters about how the Mexican nation was born and the later chapters about the different regions of this diverse country. Distant Neighbors is my guide to start exploring beyond Nogales.
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Title: The Labyrinth of Solitude: The Other Mexico, Return to the Labyrinth of Solitude, Mexico and the United States, the Philanthropic Ogre by Octavio Paz, Lysander Kemp ISBN: 080215042X Publisher: Grove Press Pub. Date: June, 1985 List Price(USD): $14.50 |
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Title: Bordering On Chaos by Andres Oppenheimer ISBN: 0316650250 Publisher: Back Bay Books Pub. Date: October, 1998 List Price(USD): $19.99 |
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Title: There's a Word for It in Mexico by Boye Lafayette De Mente ISBN: 0844272515 Publisher: McGraw-Hill Pub. Date: 11 August, 1998 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: The Mexicans: A Personal Portrait of a People by Patrick Oster ISBN: 0060011300 Publisher: RAYO Pub. Date: March, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Limits to Friendship : The United States and Mexico by Robert A. Pastor ISBN: 0679725431 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 23 October, 1989 List Price(USD): $19.00 |
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