The immigration story never look as if to leave the headlines for long, so The Far Away Brothers will, regrettably, be timely for many years to come, or at least until some of the unbearable chaos in much of Latin America is fixed.
Until then, The Far Away Brothers will be a vital read, providing a very personal account of one family's efforts at dealing with the gang-related violence in El Salvador. This is a much too current story, and the names have been changed of all the vital players because there is still the possible for retribution, both to family members in the US and still back in their home village.
A farmer whose only real "capital" is his land ends up taking out high interest loans to pay coyotes to smuggle out his identical twin sons when their lives appear to be in impending danger if they do not join the most vicious of street gangs. Lauren Markham details the horrendous days and weeks the boys suffered in their journey through Mexico and into the US, providing a picture of what dozens and hundreds of people are meeting every day. She meets the boys when they are finally in California, in a high school where she is on staff and where the boys have to rush through layers of administration and paperwork to get their green cards before their critical 18th birthday.
To provide a better view of the situation, Markham traveled to El Salvador and talk to family members still there. We see the impact of the rising debt from those coyote payments, the complications the boys have in making even the smallest of payments toward the debt, and the discouragement continuing unrest and crime has brought to those who are unable to make the trek themselves.
I obtained this book from Blogging For Books for an honest review.
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