There's No Jose Here

Gabriel Thompson
January 2007     ISBN: 1560259906

From living room televisions to the Congressional floor, the immigration debate has become one of the most heated and polarizing issues of our time. Yet Americans remain largely ignorant about the actual lives behind the headlines and talk-show bluster. This book is an attempt to change that.

In this behind-the-scenes narrative, journalist Gabriel Thompson tells the story of a Mexican immigrant named Enrique, a 34-year old livery cab driver who arrived illegally in the United States at the age of 16. His life since then�which has seen his daughter poisoned by lead, his mother abandoned in Mexico by his father, his cousin murdered in Brooklyn, and his best friend shipped to Iraq�is filled with the everyday tragedies so common among the United States� least visible and most vulnerable populations.

At once harrowing and inspiring, There�s No Jos� Here takes readers from impoverished Mexican villages to hidden sweatshop floors in New York City, as Enrique and his family follow an endless search for a stable life, one that should force people to take a hard look at the immigration drama�as it plays out in real life.

Gabriel Thompson writes for New York magazine, The Nation, The Brooklyn Rail and In These Times. The author of There's No José Here, he lives in New York City.