MORMONS IN MEXICO

As you have read in earlier posts to this column, although born and raised in El Paso, on the Mexican Border, I was ignorant of the Chinese and Japanese in Mexican history. But I did know about the Mormons. After Utah was annexed by the United States in 1848, many Mormons, to escape the American ban on Mormon practice of polygamy, fled to Mexico.

I read there are over a million Mormons in Mexico today, including many Mexican converts. They are mostly in Chihuahua and Sonora. I knew about the original escape from Utah, but I should have assumed their legendary missionary efforts would be activated in Mexico as in the U.S. and elsewhere. George Romney, once a Presidential candidate, and father of Mitt Romney, was born in Mexico.

Our neighbor Mexico surely has a history which so many of us know little about. That is a reflection on our educational system that ignores the 1,969 mile border we share with that neighbor to the south.

Buy a copy of “Dos Gringos”  here.

The Main Cause of Death in Hollywood!

The main cause of death in Hollywood, they say, is encouragement. I can understand that concern as the encouragement I have received for the film potential of my latest book, “Dos Gringos” has been mounting. But, I don’t consider it threatening.

Readers, including screenwriters and others in the film industry have said that “Dos Gringos” is visual, moves along, well written with a unique voice. The characters are well developed, deep, but at the same time humorous. They say all that and more. And at this time, the centenary of The Mexican Revolution, and set in El Paso and Juarez, anything having to do with Mexico gets attention.

“Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid—with accents” they call this story about a Norwegian and an Irishman who meet in an El Paso bar and against all common sense, are conned into going to Chihuahua to fix a gold mine with parts that, they learn too late, purposely don’t fit. I welcome all the positive comments. 

I am encouraged–healthily encouraged.

Buy a copy of “Dos Gringos”  here.

The El Paso Times reports on “Dos Gringos”

Ramón Rentería of  The  El Paso Times wrote: “Fred R. Andresen recounts the early life of his Norwegian immigrant father in “Dos Gringos,” an action-adventure novella set in El Paso and the ore-rich mountains of Chihuahua in 1916, as the Mexican Revolution still flared.”

Renteria summarized, “… a penniless Norwegian and an Irish drifter meet in an El Paso bar, where a Pittsburgh con man hires them to fix a gold mine in Mexico. Andresen’s easy, quick read also touches on other historical aspects of intrigue during the Revolution: spies, gunrunners, and Germans in Mexico determined to try to keep the United States out of World War I.”

“Andresen, an international businessman was born and raised in El Paso. He grew up in…a brick house in the desert north of El Paso, where his father worked for many years as an expert machinist with El Paso Natural Gas Co.”

His first book, “Walking on Ice: An American Businessman in Russia,” a collection of essays based on six years he spent working in Russia, was widely praised.

 For the whole article please see http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_15285818?IADID=Search-www.elpasotimes.com-www.elpasotimes.com

Buy a copy of “Dos Gringos”  here.

The Next Book– “A Norwegian and an Irishman meet in a Texas bar…”

Based on a true story from The Mexican Revolution

In the middle of The Mexican Revolution, a penniless Norwegian and a drifting Irishman meet in an El Paso bar and are hired by a Pittsburg con-man to fix a gold mine in Mexico with parts which, they discover too late, purposely don’t fit. 

Arthur, the Norwegian, is focused on fixing the mine and needs the money to propose to his love in El Paso. Michael, the Irishman, is focused on the local women, is fresh from Ireland’s bloody Easter Uprising, and needs to redeem a painful guilt and find a new life.  They both are at gunpoint to perform or not perform. Their mutual distrust fades in the face of guns from the warring sides and they must work together to survive and escape back to Texas. 

 Complicating their mission is a mysterious black-suited man selling guns to both sides in the Mexican war, part of Germany’s intrigue to keep America out of World War I—and a German and Brit are there to spy on each other.  

I am so happy to be finally seeing this book “Dos Gringos” into print and will be on the market in May—for Cinco de Mayo. It really is my first story, told me by my septuagenarian father in a Phoenix Mexican restaurant, about his escapades in The Mexican Revolution. It was developed through a number of Hollywood screen-writing courses before I went to Russia for business in 1991 and where I wrote three other books, two yet to published. . Research for this story took me back to El Paso, Texas where I was born and reared. That alone was and is a fascinating experience.

 Coming soon!