Good Reads Book Review: By The Lake of Sleeping Children by Luis Urrea

--This review by "Eris" first appeared on  Good Reads--


This collection of essays centers around the orphans, dump dwellers and trash pickers in Tijuana. As they slag through our trash (courtesy NAFTA) to make a living, or beg, or accept missionary charity because the prayer is worth the trade for food and clothes, you follow along a guilty observer. These are humans, they don't live that far away. A human created border, a wall of poverty... marginalized by their own countrymen (as we do with our homeless and poor), criminalized by our countrymen - they just want to live. Urrea takes us briefly into their worlds, giving a snapshot of those who live with a sense of humor even at the destruction of all they own because there is no other way to get by. While this is dated in regards to the political situation, the words are relevant as ever. Humanizing, hard to read, and beautiful - I recommend this to anyone who has interest in solving the problems of poverty, fixing our relationship with Mexico and its citizens, or who just has an interest in humanity and how we treat each other. What you do unto the least of these...