Where We Come From: A novel

As many other reviewers, I have lived in Brownsville, Texas where this novel takes place. The author is himself from Brownsville. Casares succeeds in giving the reader a vivid and gritty image of a typical family in a typical house in a typical neighborhood in this part of Texas, more similar to Mexico than to Texas towns just a couple of hundred miles North. This is a place with a long history of daily interdependence between Hispanic people on both sides of the border; women from Matamoros cross the bridge to take care of the homes and children of the women on the Texas side. When I lived in Brownsville, you could cross over to Matamoros for "dinner in a foreign country." No more, the narco trafficking has made it too dangerous to go there casually or maybe at all. And while South Texas has long been an area where those from further South attempt to enter, the growth and scale of human trafficking and suffering has surely increased. This is a story about how a seemingly small favor by a woman on the Brownsville side for a woman from the Mexico side ends up involving her in a human trafficking ring. Against the larger backdrop of illegal immigration, this is a story about a vulnerable boy eluding both traffickers and the Border Patrol and the Brownsville woman who hides him. Casares is an accomplished writer who unspools the tale as easily as if he were sitting at your kitchen table and telling you the story. Worth the read.

Well written with compelling characters this book brings alive the situation at the southern border. Two boys from different worlds become friends by risking making decisions against caution.

This novel takes place in the border city of Brownsville, Texas and portrays the intersection of the lives of two twelve-year-old boys, one American the other Mexican. The Mexican boy is undocumented and was on his way to live with his father in Chicago, but he’s stranded because he recently escaped from a Border Patrol bust of the human smuggling ring that had been in the process of transporting him to Chicago. The American boy was in the middle of a boring summer vacation with time on his hands, and his inquisitive curiosity has led to his discovery of the Mexican boy hiding in his Godmother’s backyard.This story explores the dilemma of living in an environment where the Border Patrol is cruising the streets looking for the “illegals,” and most—but not all—of the city’s residents are inclined to look the other way when they see things. It’s the story of two boys who are similar in many ways, but whose world’s are diametrically different because of where they come from.This is a interesting story which I think would be appropriate for the young adult genre. It depicts a reality about a segment of American life which is worth learning about. I learned about this book from a list of suggested books written by Mexican American authors that would be preferable to the overhyped American Dirt .

Oscar Casares writes of Brownville, Texas, in his novels and short stories. This is a town I know well, having lived there for several years, so I was drawn to Casares’s first book Brownsville: Stories, which I found quite good, as was his second Amigoland. This, Where We Come From, is his newest novel, and it is a beautiful examination of family. It tells of Orly, a twelve-year old, who has come to Brownsville from his affluent Houston existence to spend two summer weeks with his godmother Nina, who is his father’s aunt, in her ailing mother’s home in Brownsville in a low-income neighborhood. We get the idea that Orly’s father is just “parking” him for a couple of weeks, but we also come to realize his father is hoping for some sort of coming of age experience for his son. What Orly encounters during his stay in Brownsville is indeed life-changing for him—though perhaps not the experience his father envisioned. The novel explores the nature of family and whom we choose to include in our families, blood-related or otherwise. Casares’s book also is set amid the turmoil of migrants seeking asylum in the US and how we, as simple observers of this, cannot even hope to understand what these people are going through, what they are fleeing from, and what happens when they find themselves all alone in a strange land. Where We Come From is an important book. It is one that might open hearts and minds, and I think it should be read.

I started reading this book as an excerpt in Texas Monthly magazine, and was so intrigued that I looked it up right away and ordered it. I enjoyed it so much. I've never, ever written a review on Amazon before, so that tells you how much I thought of it. As another reviewer stated, don't start it in the evening or you will find yourself reading late into the night. The characters of Nina, Orly, and Daniel seemed so real. I like how the book portrays the issues of illegal immigration through the lenses of those who experience the consequences. It does not judge, but lets the reader in on the experience. I live on the Texas coast, and although I do not live on the border, this is a very real issue in our state.I haven't read any other books by this author, but am definitely interested in reading others. Great book! It really spoke to me and I find myself thinking of the book, characters, and issues quite often.

This is the third border book I've read this year-- all influenced my beliefs and emotions about the reasons this country exists and despite all the problems, people give everything for a chance to become an American. Such wonderful characters with well drawn back and forward gazing stories. As a Texan, the sense of place is spot on. The senses are fully engaged, I can taste the raspa.

The author is a master storyteller weaving a parable that is surely a classic. I loved the character development and the no-win situations he presents to Nina. And more than anything, I love the compassionate and heart wrenching care in describing the condition of folks that live on the Mexican side of the border and the decisions they must make to live their lives with dignity.