The Border Between Us

by

Rudy Ruiz

While a compelling and satisfying coming-of-age story, THE BORDER BETWEEN US also explores the experiences unique to the south Texas-Mexico border regions.

The Border Between Us by Rudy Ruiz is the ultimately heartwarming and satisfying story of Ramón López, a Mexican-American child growing up in Brownsville, Texas, as well as Matamoros, Mexico. A smart, talented, and enterprising child, Ramón struggles with his relationship with his father, a hard-working but seemingly hapless man with dreams he’s always just short of realizing. Discovering he has a natural artistic talent, Ramón has dreams of his own – to get out of Brownsville and become a successful painter. Still, his father has different plans for his son that may make Ramón’s dream impossible to follow. 

What a great story! I loved reading about the precocious and enterprising young Ramón, his life, and the entire López clan. There was so much love in this family, no matter where each member was in their life journey or how that journey was treating them. The López men are vibrant and vivid characters, and while the women seemed quiet and subdued, they were so unimaginably strong, as evidenced by the setbacks and heartbreaks they weathered and overcame. 

Each chapter offers a vignette of life in rural, small-town south Texas on the border with Mexico, and as each unfolded, the area felt more and more familiar. The fluidity of living and working in a border town was so obvious and necessary, with the border bridge checkpoint always a consideration or an afterthought for those going about their daily lives. 

The author’s writing style is compelling, and I was quickly immersed in Ramón’s life and did not want to have to set the book aside for anything until his story was told. Besides the ‘physical’ border between the two countries, there are a variety of other borders Ramón must eventually traverse in his journey: childhood to adulthood, false dreams to dreams of the heart, and the border he perceives between himself and his father. While the story is a wonderful coming-of-age tale, it is told nestled within the complexity of growing up with one foot in the U.S. and the other in Mexico, pursuing the American dream as a young Latino, and the contrasts in attitudes of the privileged and those without, and Anglos. 

I recommend THE BORDER BETWEEN US to readers of literary fiction, especially those who enjoy coming-of-age stories.

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