Violence and Hope in a U.S. Mexico Border Town

A timely and data-driven monograph enriched by the authentic voice of its Mexican American subjects, Violence and Hope reveals sociopolitical strife and power between the borders of two nations. It is a potent story of inequality of opportunity, immigration, drug and human trafficking, gangs, prostitution, poverty, crime, and family violence in "Esperanza," a U.S. town 45 miles from Mexico. Glittenberg tells how members of a community in need of transformation, riddled with drive-by shootings and competing gangs, become enraged by a violent event and mobilize to confront the wide-reaching issues they face. Esperanzans, in their growing awareness that violence comes not only from the outside but also the inside, seek financial resources and courage to escape from their cultural pattern of silence, complicity, and complacency.

Also by Jody Glittenberg and available from Waveland Press: To the Mountain and Back: The Mysteries of Guatemalan Highland Family Life (ISBN 9780881337921).