Happy Thanksgiving

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  I often tell people that one of the things I like about living in Mexico City is that it allows me to skip Thanksgiving dinner. A long story: I come from a very conflicted family, and I've never been a big turkey guy. However, I confess that I try as often as possible to think about how much I have to be thankful for. My work as a mitigation specialist, which gets me very close to families that have no resources -- neither financial, emotional nor practical -- makes me think about what my family, difficult as it may have been, was able to offer me. I hope those of you who are in a similar position will reflect on this, not just on the holiday but whenever you can.

And yeah, that's my thumb in the photo. One of the things I can't be very thankful for is my talent as a photographer.

 

Hello New York

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If anyone's reading this in the Big Apple, there are several events connected with the publication of One Life this coming week -- coincidentally around the Days of the Dead, pertinent given the book's subject matter, which is life and death. On October 31 at 4 PM, I will be part of a panel speaking about the border between Mexico and the United States at the Graduate Center at CUNY, 365 Fifth Avenue, Room 9206. On November 2 at 2 PM, I'll be interviewed on a radio show called The Write Stuff, on WNYU Radio at 89.1 FM. And on November 3 at 1 PM, I'll be on The Leonard Lopate Show, WNYC, 93.9 FM.

I'll also be reading from the book, and in a dialogue with esteemed novelist Daniel Alarcón, at the Strand Bookstore on November 3 at 7 PM. If you can make it to that one, I'll also be signing books -- and there will be some wine with which to celebrate. Please come and say hello.

 

New and improved

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I hadn’t updated this web site since I began it in 2008. Now that my first novel, One Life, has just been published, I thought it was time to give it a new coat of paint. Thanks to the help of a technical wizard and web designer named Michael Dunham, here we are. Since I began the site, I mostly posted in the blog about Mexico City, which has been my home since 1990. Back in 2008, I had spent several years making a living writing for magazines about the place. But my life has changed a great deal since then. Mostly, I’ve been working as a mitigation specialist, assisting lawyers in the US who defend undocumented Mexicans (and other Latin Americans) who have been charged with capital murder and as such are facing the death penalty. We try to find them a better destiny that that.

This work is the point of departure for One Life.

In any case, while I am going to continue to post about Mexico City, I want the blog to reflect a wider array of my interests, and especially my progress as a writer. I will be in New York until November 4 promoting One Life, and then in Austin at the Texas Book Festival on the 5th and the 6th. If you are around any of those areas, please click on the Events page, in case you can help celebrate the publication with me.

Help save the blues in Mexico City

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Two years ago I wrote a blog post about Ruta 61, a blues club in the Colonia Condesa which was then celebrating its tenth anniversary. Unfortunately, with no fanfare, the owners of the building have closed the club and have booted Ruta from its home. The club's founder, Eduardo Serrano, is trying to raise 200,000 pesos to find a new space and get the necessary permissions to reopen. He's doing it through Fondeadora, a Latin American crowdsourcing website. I've donated. Ruta was the only blues club in this entire city of over 20 million. Click here to go to Fondeadora and give. It's a worthy cause, people. Give what you can.