April 15 2009 Page 3

Immigration Issues Top Mexico Book Club’s Reading Recommendations for April
Ed Hutmacher - MexicoBookClub.com

Who doesn't have an opinion about illegal immigration? Even if you're not sure on which side of the vitriolic debate you stand, we can all agree that immigration is one of the thorniest hot-button issues yet to play out in the ongoing love-hate relationship between Mexico and the United States. Below are three good books that underscore the prickly problem.

The Tortilla Curtain by T.C. Boyle (1995/Penguin Group/Fiction) — First published in 1995, shortly after California passed its controversial Proposition 187 law denying public benefits to illegal aliens, T.C. Boyle's best-seller The Tortilla Curtain has since become a contemporary classic. It’s a fictional tale of two wildly disparate California couples on a collision course in the pursuit of the American Dream. Los Angeles liberals Delaney and Kyra Mossbacher lead an affluent yuppie-ordered lifestyle in a gated hilltop community seemingly inoculated against the abhorrent human and natural elements that threaten to encroach on their cozy existence. Undocumented and destitute Mexican immigrants Candido and America Rincon desperately cling to their dream of a better life in the U.S. as they fight off starvation in a makeshift camp in the ravine below the well-to-do Mossbachers. From the moment a freak accident brings the two couples into intimate contact, their opposing worlds become entwined in what becomes a tragic comedy of cultural misunderstanding — both couples have their own version of the American Dream, conflicting ideas about material success, individual responsibility and equal opportunity. In the United States, which defines itself as a nation of immigrants, Boyle's fable questions who gets to slam the door on whom and reminds us that while the American Dream may seem ideal, nothing is ever as fulfilling as it is anticipated.

The Devil's Highway: A True Story by Luis Alberto Urrea (2005/Little, Brown & Company/Non-fiction) — In May 2001, twenty-six men from Veracruz, Mexico launched a risky expedition to illegally cross the Mexican-U.S. border into Arizona via the deadliest route imaginable, a corridor called the Devil's Highway. Misled and abandoned in the hellish desert by merciless "coyotes" hired as guides, only twelve men survived the ordeal. News of their harrowing journey might easily have been dismissed by jaded Americans as just another bad thing that happens if it weren't for Urrea's award-winning literary exposé. In The Devil's Highway, Urrea achieves a lot of things, but maybe the most important is putting a human face on the anonymous immigration statistics by giving the victims their identities as husbands, fathers, sons and brothers with names, honorable histories and worthy dreams. At times poetic and then horrific, the story is both epic in scope — a trek through Mexico's desolate wilderness in search of the promised land — and intensely personal — a survival story that has the depth of genuine tragedy. When overheated rhetoric of one sort or another swamps any clear sense of the human stakes involved with the immigration question, this book will alert readers to the profound consequences.

The Immigration Solution: A Better Plan Than Today's by Heather Mac Donald, Victor Davis Hanson and Steven Malanga (2007/Ivan R. Dee Publishers/Non-Fiction) — Here is a book we recommend principally because of its incisive, though controversial, conclusions: that no matter how hard average Mexican immigrants work at their mostly menial jobs, they will add less to U.S. national wealth than they cost the taxpayers for their health care, the education of their children and, too often, incarceration. To most of us, this flies in the face of what is generally published, broadcast and promoted by the mainstream media where sympathizers to open borders and unrestricted access to U.S. social services abound. Unless you're of the Lou Dobbs and Pat Buchanan persuasion, a book such as The Immigration Solution won't likely appeal to readers, and will probably be dismissed out of hand by pro-immigration enthusiasts. Which is a shame. Absent any sentimentality and demagoguery, The Immigration Solution is an excellent summary of the economic, sociological and historical interplay that reverberates throughout the immigration debate, and proposes that the U.S. should adhere to the same kind of immigration policy in place in other advanced nations, one that admits skilled and educated people on the basis of what immigrants can do for the country, not what the country can do for them. The authors' suggestions are serious, provocative and worthy of careful thought for anyone seeking an informed opinion on this vital issue.

Ed Hutmacher is Editor and Chief of Mexico Book Club. Also reviewed this month, Opening the Borders: Solving the Mexico-U.S. Immigration Problem for Our Sake and Mexico’s by Larry Blasko, and The Three U.S.-Mexico Border Wars: Illegal Immigration, Drugs and Homeland Security by Tony Payan. For more information on these and other books with Mexico-related themes, visit the website at MexicoBookClub.com.

Baile folklórico, literally "folk dance" in Spanish, is a collective term for traditional Latin American dances that emphasize local folk culture. Each region in Mexico, the Southwestern United States and Central American countries is known for a handful of locally characteristic dances. Bill Bell Photography click on photograph to view in larger format

Below are photographs taken in Guadalajara Jalisco Mexico

2009 Int'l Fireworks Art Symposium Update

PVNN

As part of Puerto Vallarta's 90th Anniversary celebration, a National Fireworks Competition turned the Puerto Vallarta Sports Stadium into a dazzling fiesta full of bright lights and colors last June. (Willy and Rocio Flores Photography)

  Puerto Vallarta will explode in a profusion of light, color and sound from April 20-24, as the city hosts internationally famous fireworks manufacturers and showmen, who'll present spectacular displays of the finest and newest fireworks, during the 11th International Symposium of Fireworks.

Throughout the four-day event, the Puerto Vallarta Sheraton Buganvilias Resort and Convention Center will serve as a meeting point for fireworks manufacturers to exchange the latest technologies and ideas with other members of the pyrotechnic industry.

The fireworks symposium also gives pyrotechnical showmen the chance to showcase their various disciplines and specialties. Various product demonstrations and shows will be open to the public during the event, including traditional fireworks displays evoking Mexican fiestas and folklore presented by fireworks companies from several states in Mexico, including Jalisco, Tlaxcala and Mexico D.F., among others.

Most nighttime displays will be held at the Sports Stadium in the Hotel Zone or on the Malecón in downtown Puerto Vallarta. Daylight displays will be at the Sheraton Buganvilias Resort and Convention Center. The programs listed below are free and open to the public. Keep checking back for updates as program details are finalized.

11th International Fireworks Symposium Public Events Schedule:

Monday, April 20, 2009

Fireworks display #1 by:
Unión de Pirotécnicos del Estado de Jalisco
Comisión Representativa del Estado de Michoacán
Comisión Representativa del Estado de Guanajuato
Antonio Sonora Corona, Zacatecas

Type of Show: 8 Traditional "Castillos de Morillo" plus an Aerial Display.
Castillos are the most traditional type of fireworks still produced in Mexico and is pure living history and a great tradition in the area. A show not to be missed.

Location: Sports Stadium Baseball field (across from the Sheraton Hotel)

Time: 8 pm to 10 pm

Fireworks display #2 by:
Pirotecnia Mexicana Artesanal, S.A. de C.V.

Type of Show: Pyromusical Towers.
In this 45 minutes show, the main attraction will be 3 Castillo 25 m tall towers portraying the tradition of fireworks in Mexico.

Location: Malecón

Time: 8:30 pm

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Fireworks display #1 by:
Pirotecnicos de Tultepec

Type of Show: Daylight Castillo
Known as the capital of Mexican fireworks, famous for it’s large consumer fireworks manufacture, the 40 members of the group “Pirotécnicos de Tultepec” will present a daylight Castillo.

Location: Sports Stadium Baseball field across from the Sheraton Hotel

Time: 12 Noon

Fireworks display #2:
A large display including three 35 meter high Castillos, plus a main Castillo of 50 meters in their pyromusical show in the evening

Location: La Lija, El Pitillal

Time: TBA

Fireworks display #3 by:
Pirotecnia Espectacular Adán

Location: On the Malecón

Time: 8:30 pm

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Fireworks display #1 by:
Pirotecnia Espectacular Adán
Fuegos Artificiales Adrían
Facon Eventos Pirotécnicos

Type of Show: "Castillo Piromusical"
“Mexico ante el Mundo” (Mexico Before the World) is the title of the show where families with a long tradition in the pyrotechnic industry will blend 5 traditional Castillos into a pyro-musical show. All of their experience and mastery will be used to blend the traditional components of Castillos with modern technology to create an exciting 1 hour show.

Location: The Malecón in downtown Puerto Vallarta

Time: TBA

Fireworks display #2 by:
Ramsa Pirotecnia

Type of Show: Traditional "Castillo" plus Pyro-musical
From San Pedro Zumpango, State of Mexico with a long tradition in the manufacture of fireworks, David Silva President of Pyro Producciones Piromusicales will design and fire with a FIREONE equipment, 18 minutes of special pyro-musical show with a great Castillo with double tower 30 meters high with great set pieces, shells 3”, 4”, 6”, 8” made by Ramos Family: Alejandro Ramos Avila, Diego Ramos A., Juan Ramos A. Jose Ramos, Julio Ramos García, Misael Ramos, Gustavo Ramos, Alejandro Ramos Jr., Rogellio Ramos and Luis Ramos. In this spectacle will be fire bombettes, candles, mines and comets in 30mm and 50mm made by Joel Hernández of APM Fireworks.

Location: On the Malecón

Time: TBA

Fireworks display #3 by:
Unión de Pirotécnicos de San Mateo Tlalchichilpan

Type of Show: Traditional
San Mateo Tlalchichilpan is a town known for its long tradition in the manufacture of fireworks and the Unión de Pirotécnicos are very well known for their experience, creativity and artistry, having won respect among all “Maestros Pirotécnicos” in the country. This show promises some of the most complicated set pieces of the week.

Location: The Malecón

Time: TBA

Friday, April 24, 2009

Fireworks display #1 by:
Unión Estatal Poblana de la Pirotecnia Yotécatl

Type of Show: Traditional "Castillo" and aerial display
From the State of Puebla, the second largest region of manufacturing of fireworks in Mexico, the Union has decided to convene the new generation to design an outstanding show for the Symposium, having as main theme "Puebla History and Culture." An interesting mixture of new ideas supported by the experience earned through many years of hard work and tradition. Great expectations for this show.

Location: Football field across from the Sheraton Hotel

Time: 8 pm

All of the programs are free and open to the public except for two private events. One private showing will be held on Sunday April 19, at the Sheraton Hotel by the locally famous Zagal. The other will be the closing event on April 24th at the Westin Regina. Both shows will involve floating platforms on the Bay, so even if you do not have tickets to attend these events, you should be able to see the fireworks over Banderas Bay.