Both Sides

Both Sides: Stories from the Border is a spiritual cousin to ¡Pa’Que Tu Lo Sepas!, last year’s anthology from Down & Out Books to benefit the people of Puerto Rico following the tragedy of Hurricane Maria. Both anthologies exist in response to the heartlessness and cruelty of the Trump administration, borne out of frustration toward the senselessness of American politics, and the abhorrent racism that drives Trump and his supporters to new lows on a daily basis.

The title, Both Sides, of course comes from Trump’s comments following the alt-right white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, VA in 2017 that left 19 injured and one, Heather Heyer, dead, following an attack on protestors by Neo-Nazi James Alex Fields, Jr. In his remarks following the attack, Trump defended the white supremacists, Neo-Nazis, neo-Confederates, Klansmen, fascists, and their dehumanizing rhetoric by stating that there are “very fine people on both sides.” Trump’s racism is further crystallized by his dream to waste a considerable amount of tax payer money building a wall across the US-Mexico border, a literal monument to his intolerance, bigotry, and xenophobia, all of which is wrapped up in narcissism and egotistical tendencies so large that if ever made physical Trump himself would not be able to hold it in both of his own tiny hands. We’ve seen Trump’s racism toward Mexico escalate from his 2016 campaign stops where he called Mexican immigrants rapists and murderers to actual genocide, tearing children away from their parents and locking them in cages to die of disease and to suffer physical and sexual abuse at the hands of their jailers.

In his introduction to Both Sides, editor Gabino Iglesias notes that the border is a humanitarian crisis, one that has been both militarized and politicized, and that this anthology is “a tool that will help us do a little bit of the most significant thing contemporary American fiction can do: rehumanizing la frontera.” It attempts to turn Trump’s own words against him, to show the humanity of the human beings living on both sides of the border, and the human experience we all share.

To that end, Iglesias has assembled 16 authors to tell 15 stories about living on the border, borders that are physical, as well as emotional, literal, and also abstract. The stories share the border as a conceptual theme, while the stories themselves roam across a variety of genres. You’ll find here stories of magical realism (like Rios de la Luz’s “The Letters”), revenge narratives (such as Buitre,” from the Sisters of Slaughter, Michelle Garza and Melissa Lason), horror, crime, dystopian near-futures, and noir. This is a transitory anthology, discontent to remain in one place for too long, preferring instead to spread its wings and explore the various corners and elements literature has to offer.

Daniel A. Olivas serves up a look at the Mexico-California border during Trump’s second term (and possibly beyond) in “Los Ostros Coyotes.” After the Great Wall has been built, Mexican children seek to escape the tyrannical US through a 21st Century Underground Railroad in order to be reunited with their deported parents.

Johnny Shaw delivers what might be the best opening line in the entire antho: “Gordo should have been in bed with his wife, but instead he was driving a van full of corpses to a demonio necrofago’s lair.” “Fundido” explores body disposal for the Cartels, but it’s also got plenty to say about family and sacrifice. In “American Figurehead,” Shannon Kirk takes us to France after the US has fallen into total anarchy after a series of catastrophes coalesce to close borders all across the world and liars are the worst kind of criminal.

“Colibiri,” by Nicolás Obregón, recounts a sheriff deputy’s attempt to ID a dead migrant. I found myself really attached to Deputy Milagros and her mission, and I couldn’t help but wonder if she’s featured in any full-length novels. Obregón is an author whose works I’m going to have to explore more of in the near future, because this story was pretty damn good!

Cina Pelayo writes about self-imposed borders built for the sake of conformity and the attempts to reclaim and carve out one’s own cultural identity in “The Lament of Vejigante.” Pelayo bleeds onto the page here, and there’s such raw honesty that it at times feels more like a personal reckoning from this Chicago-based Puerto Rican author. She does a marvelous job illustrating the borders that surround her female protagonist, from her mother’s attempts to raise her as a monolingual English-speaker to the racism she confronts on the regular. This story is an emotional powder keg, wrapped up in Puerto Rican myth and culture, and told with vivid realness. It’s an honest slice of life, and potent as hell.

Christopher David Rosales tells a really good story about a father seeking revenge against the gangbanger that put his son in the hospital. “Fat Tuesday” plays with the literal borders between California and Mexico, but the real borders here are all about the father’s separation from the life he once led as a gang member to his current life as a professor.

Rob Hart’s “The Other Foot” was a personal favorite of mine and it involves a near-future catastrophe. A powerful solar flare has wiped out the US’s electrical grid, making Mexico the place to be. A father and his daughter attempt to cross the border to rebuild their life, but a US militia, for whom “the cruelty is the point” has other plans…

J. Todd Scott is a writer that’s been in my TBR for a while, so it was good to finally get introduced to his work in “Waw Kiwulik,” which explores a DEA agent’s attempts to track down a Mexican drug runner across Native American tribal land. Sandra Jackson-Opoku delivers a surprisingly funny detective romp in “She Loved Trouble.” She’s another new-to-me author and like Obregón and Scott’s work, I really dug the hell out of what I read and need to check out more of her stuff! Her ex-convict and his Afro-Latina cousins who run a digital investigations firm were an absolute blast to read about and I’d love to meet up with this crew again.

“90 Miles” closes out the anthology, and Alex Segura delivers a hell of an emotional capper. There’s 90 miles of shark-infested waters separating Florida and Cuba, and Segura explores the perilous, hope-fueled journey and the natural and man-made dangers a small family of refugees must confront. It’s a potent finish, one that fully crystallizes Iglesias’s aim to humanize the migrant experience and tell truth through fiction.

These stories are about borders, yes, but – more importantly – they’re about people, first and foremost. Both Sides is a powerful anthology, filled with a diverse mix of authors who travel across the borders of literature to deliver an eclectic collection of stories and experiences, all with the singular purpose of demolishing the lines and boundaries that exist between them, their stories, and us.