BJ's Blogs
Salvadors de la Frontera
Listen as BJ Taylor reads her short story, Salvadors de la Frontera. It follows Gabriella Zamora as she investigates a car crash that injured one border patrol agent and killed another. If you like this short story, then continue to keep up with U.S. Marshal Gabriella Zamora and her special team in The Borderland Mysteries.
BJ Taylor Interview
Listen to this interview with BJ Taylor, where she shares information about the situation going on at the South Texas border, as well as her research process for her stories, including her experience and knowledge of the economic and social issues involved in the borderland.
The City of Palaces by Michael Nava
In 2020, Michael Nava, the finest Mexican American writer of any age, published The City of Palaces which was a marked departure from his mystery novels, the Henry Rios series. The City of Palaces, he stated, would be the first of a trilogy of books, loosely called Children of Eve. Perhaps, in this new year,…
Crimes of the Tongue: Essays and Stories by Alicia Gaspar de Alba
At last, the writer and academic, Alicia Gaspar de Alba, has finally published a rich composite of her essays and stories about our borderland. Born in El Paso, she was raised in both El Paso and in Ciudad Jurez with “a forked tongue and severe case of cultural schizophrenia, the split in psyche that happens…
Review of Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Canas
It’s Dia De Los Muertos, Day of the Dead, and what better way to celebrate than with a book review of Isabel Canas’ excellent second book, Vampires of El Norte about the undead. In many ways, this second book, still in the Mexican Gothic vein, shows a maturity of subject matter and writing style different…
Review of The Hacienda by Isabel Canas
It’s October, Hispanic Heritage Month! As such I’m reviewing the first novel of a rising, young star in Hispanic literature, Isabel Canas and her book, The Hacienda. The novel is set in tempestuous nineteenth century Mexico, 1823. The book is unabashedly Mexican Gothic. Think Adams Family, Telemundo, without the comedy. The first character we meet…
Review of Unsettling: The El Paso Massacre, Resurgent White Nationalism, and the US-Mexico Border by Gilberto Rosas
This blog begins by challenging my readers to explore the truth of the current southern border crisis. I can think of no better way to start this journey than to recall the deadly mass shooting at the Walmart store on August 3, 2019, in El Paso, Texas. For those of us who call the Rio…
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