This special issue of High Country News takes an on-the-ground look at the human landscape of illegal immigration in the West.
Finding hope in a new land
Mexican-born author Rose Castillo Guilbault first saw America from the window of a Greyhound bus. The 5-year-old sat next to her divorced mother, Maria Luisa, who had taken a distant cousin’s advice to heart: Head to El Norte. “Get out of this cesspool. It will pull you down and drown you. You’re still young. Start…
It ain’t easy getting old
Cormac McCarthy discards his bitter nostalgia to tell a story set along the border in the 1980s.
The puzzle of plate tectonics
Few people forget their first visit to the Grand Canyon. The chasm does not reveal itself until you are nearly at its edge. And then it appears, over a mile deep, with a barely visible Colorado River winding through its heart. Geologist and writer James Powell was as awestruck as anyone on his first-time visit.…
Timber crews should ditch tree-farming ethos
Regarding your recent cover story on the Healthy Forests Act (HCN, 4/17/06: The war on wildfire): The biggest impediment to legitimate hazard fuels reduction on the Forest Service district where I work (South Park, in central Colorado) is that the project units are laid out and marked by timber personnel. The main goal of the…
We don’t need no stinkin’ GPS
I so hoped “Waypoints of the Heart” was part of your recent April Fools’ spoof (HCN, 4/3/06: Waypoints of the heart). I was chilled by the words, “the unwavering locating and decoding of geocaching is like finding a rubric for the universe …” Here, in the increasingly mapped, sanitized and sold Southwest, geocaching is on…
Tombstone forest
Regarding your recent essay “Mute, riven, blessed” (HCN, 4/17/06: Mute, riven, blessed): Headstones, crosses and other symbols used to mark the passing of a life are prohibited on national forest and Bureau of Land Management lands. Although well-meaning mourners find comfort in placing memorial markers in a beautiful setting, others find the memorials intrusive. One…
Destruction is not a valid protest
Regarding Robert Amon’s views on eco-terrorism, I must stress there are valid means of protest, and burning down buildings is not one of them (HCN, 4/17/06: Eco-terrorism and the trial of the century). Martin Luther King Jr. and Mohandas Gandhi did not sneak around at night, wearing masks and committing acts of destruction. Yes, they…
Terrorist sympathizers
Yes, Mr. Amon, I have noticed that 12 young people have been charged with arson and conspiracy to commit arson — and I am ecstatic about the possibility that they might go to jail for the rest of their lives for their crimes (HCN, 4/17/06: Eco-terrorism and the trial of the century). You may want…
Looking good, HCN
I’ve been meaning for several months now to compliment HCN on your superb graphic design. HCN has a remarkably handsome and easy-to-read look and feel. That may sound trivial. However, given the visual mess made on the pages of much bigger and better-financed publications in our region (Rocky Mountain News, are you listening?), I’m continually…
The Immigrant’s Trail
Note: this essay introduces several feature articles in a special issue about the West’s immigration landscape. Last month, as immigrants and their supporters geared up for the May 1 “Day Without Immigrants,” and the Senate considered another comprehensive immigration bill, an 18-year-old Mexican woman gave birth amid the cactus and mesquite trees of the Arizona…
Dear friends
WELCOME, CARMELLA Carmella Hensyel has joined HCN’s marketing department. Carmella worked most recently as marketing and sales director for Scenic Mesa Ranch in nearby Hotchkiss, which offers guided hunting and fishing. When the ranch began raising bison, Carmella helped develop and promote products ranging from buffalo meat to leather furniture: “It was extremely important to…
HCN says farewell to an old friend
High Country News has always been fortunate in the people it attracts, whether they are readers, writers, staff or board members. Never has it been more fortunate than the day in 1984 when Herman Warsh agreed to join our board. Herman knew he was signing on for a tough voyage. Circulation was about 3,500, the…
Repo Manic
“An ordinary person spends his life avoiding tense situations. A repo man spends his life getting into tense situations.” — Repo Man, 1984 At 5 foot 9 inches tall, Gary Autry doesn’t cut a towering figure, but his broad shoulders and bulk give the 42-year-old former high school linebacker a commanding presence. He wears a…
Abandonment
Plenty of jobs, not enough pay: Economic forces push Mexican workers north
Heard around the West
THE WEST What makes Mormon crickets run? More than just the lust for protein and salt. The insects hustle because they’re afraid they’ll be gobbled up by the cannibalistic cousins trotting behind them, reports the Reno Gazette-Journal. Researchers from the United States, England and Australia who studied cricket migration in southern Idaho found that the…
Perseverance
An immigrant’s journey: Dust, flies, and the long walk
Apprehension
On an 860,000-acre refuge, wildlife officers face a human torrent
Contradiction
Fault lines in the land of opportunity
Hope
After 16 years in the shadows, two sisters win legal residency
Isn’t it time to bury the hatchet?
It’s time to take a blockhead to lunch – and listen to what he has to say.