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.

El Paso and Juarez~like Orphan Sisters

Spain searched for “Cibola”, the Seven Cities of Gold and never found them. But from late 16^th century they kept traveling up the Rio Grande River, through El Paso del Norte, the pass through the foothills of the Rockies, all in the name of Roman Catholicism, and gold. So the two cities, Juarez and El Paso, like sisters, grew at that pass.

 But, today, it struck me as if the sisters were always orphans. Juarez is too far from Mexico City, even Ciudad Chihuahua; and El Paso is too far from the center of Texas, like Dallas and Austin. Their “parents ” don’t really know them.  And like orphans who have grow up divided by “the tracks,” actually that shallow and narrow river, one in a middle class working family and the other in distressed barrio of crime and poverty, they are far apart, but still sisters.

 Having been born and raised in El Paso, it is a sad feeling to see my home, El Paso, called the 2^nd safest city in America and its sister city Juarez, called the most dangerous city in the world today.  There are articles asking if Mexico can survive. If Americans were not buying the drugs and supplying much of the guns, there would not be the problem. Something to think about. What is our responsibility?

Buy a copy of “Dos Gringos”  here.

DO REVOLUTIONS EVER END?

Like most revolutions, the Mexican Revolution is a story – but unlike most stories, it is one that never ends. As we sit across the border from Juarez, named for the great hero of Mexican independence, the conflict continues. Many factors contribute to the criminality of today. While celebrating the 100^th anniversary of the Revolution, we cannot ignore the conflicts today. We have a lot to consider and to learn.

It’s important for us, sitting in the safety of El Paso, Texas, deemed the Second Safest City in America and across the Rio Grande is Juarez, considered the most dangerous city in the world, with 5,500 killings since January 2008, that we reflect, learn from these tragic events, and take action as we can to change it. Revolutions are about change and like many events in life history; the end result is often not what many thought it would be. It is our responsibility to keep our hearts, and minds, and actions, directed toward change that is beneficial to all, to peace, to happiness for all. What can we Americans do to help bring safety and order to our neighbors in Mexico? What is the American role in this criminality? It is drugs and guns. And we must take steps as responsible citizens and human beings to invest our elected officials to take effective action.

 In my recent trip to El Paso to promote my book, “Dos Gringos,” I found a silence about the violence across the river. I realize there is not much an individual can do about this costly issue, but I was surprised there was not more concern expressed.  Change is difficult to manage and usually resisted. But lives are at stake here and we have to make the change quick and lasting.

Buy a copy of “Dos Gringos”  here.

“Dos Gringos” heads for El Paso (Uno Gringo, anyway,)

This week I will be in El Paso, Texas, my home town, to speak and sell and sign books at a number of places as part of the centenary of the Mexican Revolution there.  Talks are scheduled for the El Paso Museum of History, Barnes & Noble, and the Central Library. I hear all this is well advertised so I expect reasonably good audiences. I will be talking about the story behind my book, “Dos Gringos,” and about my father and grandfather’s part in all of that. I look forward to this as I have myself learned from giving the talks. I realize how much is into the story that comes from within. Underneath my father’s actual story, are known historical stories and some implied intuitive behavior. I am sometimes surprised at what is there, having come out from under the blankets of the past.

I will also be meeting old friends and making new ones. Coming “back home” after 50 years is a real experience. On my first trip back there three years ago I found so much had changed and so much was the same. This will be especially so in El Paso this time, rated the 2^nd safest city in America, and across the Rio Grande is Juarez, Mexico,  the most dangerous city in North America due to the drug cartels and the murders. So discussing the revolution of a hundred years ago within the present bloody atmosphere across the border will be interesting. I will have something for this space on that when I come back for sure.

Buy a copy of “Dos Gringos”  here.

Hooray for El Paso

 This summer, El Paso, Texas was named a 2010 All-America City.  The All-America City Award, given to ten communities each year by the National Civic League, is considered the “Nobel Prize” of city awards. El Paso is my hometown and the beginning and ending settings of my historical novel, “Dos Gringos,” set during the Mexican Revolution.

You wouldn’t guess that with Juarez, Mexico, a city of 1.7 million, and one of the deadliest cities in the world, that El Paso across the Rio Grande is the 2nd safest city in the United States for cities over 500,000 in population. (Honolulu is first safest.)

The violence in Juarez has been ongoing for nearly three years, with killings averaging between 200 and 300 a month, while crime in the City of El Paso continues to decrease. The 2nd safest city ranking is based on Uniformed Crime Report data compiled by CQ express numbers from 2008. El Paso’s 2009 numbers were lower than 2008, and 2010 numbers are currently lower than 2009. El Paso is a safe city, full of life and culture.

Buy a copy of “Dos Gringos”  here.

Pancho Villa in “Dos Gringos”

Readers of “Dos Gringos” know that the infamous Pancho Villa is not a major character in the story. But surely his side of The Mexican Revolution is very much there, and represented by “The Hawk” who personifies the spirit of the revolution and is the savior of the common man for young Tomás. Villa killed his first man at 16, a man who had raped his younger sister. He worked in the mines near Parral, Chihuahua, where much of the “Dos Gringos” story takes place. He soon tired of the laborer’s life and added bank robbery to cattle rustling and murder on the list of crimes for which he was wanted by the Díaz government.

He  joined Francisco Madero’s revolutionary forces, thereby making a historical transition from bandido to revolucionario. The charismatic figure was able to recruit an army of thousands. Villa also became something of a folk hero in the U.S, and Hollywood filmmakers as well as U.S. newspaper photographers flocked to Northern Mexico to record his battle exploits–many of which were staged for the benefit of the cameras. Villa ruled over northern Mexico like a medieval warlord. During fiestas the mustachioed legend would dance all night with female camp followers, although he didn’t drink. According to one of Villa’s last surviving widows, he officially married 26 times.

He attacked Juarez and my Norwegian grandmother, after she and my grandfather moved there to be near my newly wedded father, told me of Villa’s cannon ball landing in her front yard, which I remember was a quite small piece of ground.

In 1923 he was assassinated while returning from bank business in Parral. Today Villa is remembered with pride by most Mexicans for having led the most important military campaigns of the constitutionalist revolution. Don’t underestimate the respect his name still garners in Mexico. If Villa in not personally in “Dos Gringos,” his spirit surely is.

Buy a copy of “Dos Gringos”  here.