ustxtxb_obs_2006_05_05_50_00003-00000_000.pdf

EDITORIAL Cinco de Mayo As holidays go, Cinco de Mayo in Mexico is a mere blip on the radar screen, with the exception of the state of Puebla. There, poblanos reenact the Battle of Puebla every year, as led by Ignacio Seguin Zaragoza. Born in Bahia del Espiritu Santo, Coahuilabetter known these days as Goliad, TexasZaragoza led forces loyal to Mexican President Benito Juarez. Though outnumbered, he managed to defeat the French in a daylong battle on May 5, 1862. His victory was admittedly short-lived, since not long after French troops marched on Mexico City. In 1863 Napoleon III installed the ill-fated Maximiliano as Emperor of Mexico. \(Also admittedly short-lived, since four years later Maximilian was much for the history of a holiday too often associated with margaritas north of the border. It’s primero de mayo International Labor Daythat has always been more significant, in Mexico as well as in much of the rest of the world. The first May Day, now long forgotten, was a movement of immigrant workers. \(Read your on a heightened significance with plans for a “Day Without Immigrants” walkout and boycott on both sides of the border, as well as elsewhere in Latin America. This issue of the Observer goes to press the week before the May Day events, so it’s still too early for us to weigh in on the boycottwhich threatens to split a nascent civil rights movementand its effect on Congress, where debate on immigration reform legislation is pending. Instead, we’ve devoted much of the current issue to the broader theme and context of immigration. In “South Texas Hold ‘Em,” Forrest Wilder examines the rise in the immigrant detention business that has received little attention during the ongoing debate. “For the savvy investor looking for a growth industry,” he begins, “South Texas offers a sure thing.” Observer contributing writer James K. Galbraith, a professor at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, writes about the rally in he attended last month in Austin, where the spirit was festive and patriotic. “This isn’t the antiwar movement I grew up in, of white college kids, liberal protestant churches, Dr. Spock, and veterans of the Abraham Lincoln brigades,” he explains. “It’s not the civil rights movement, although the crowds everywhere were a gorgeous mixture of American colors…” Of a slew of current books, we’ve chosen to review two with very different takes on immigration: Enrique’s Journey: The Story of a Boy’s Dangerous Odyssey to Reunite with his Mother, by Pulitzer Prize-winning Los Angeles Times reporter Sonia Nazario, and Lockout: Why America Keeps Getting Immigration Wrong When Our Prosperity Depends on Getting it Right, by Michele Wucker, a senior fellow at the World Policy Institute in New York. Although not specifically about immigration, the excerpt from Inferno by Charles Bowden that begins on Page 6, with photos by Michael Berman, couldn’t be more of course, is a seasoned border writer; Berman’s photos capture the stark reality of the Arizona desert, where every year migrants perish while trying to cross into the United States. Also appearing in this issue are Austin filmmaker Heather Courtney and Austin attorney Dan Kowalski, who contemplates “The Moral Physics of Immigration.” The last word goes to writes from New York, with his heart still in the Rio Grande Valley. And finally, in honor of Ignacio Seguin Zaragoza, Goliad’s best-known native son, Happy Cinco de Mayo. THE TEXAS OBSERVER I VOLUME 98, NO. 9 I A Journal of Free Voices Since 1954 Founding Editor Ronnie Dugger Executive Editor Jake Bernstein Editor Barbara Belejack Associate Editor Dave Mann Publisher Charlotte McCann Associate Publisher Julia Austin Circulation Manager Lara George Art Director/Webmaster Matt Omohundro Poetry Editor Naomi Shihab Nye Copy Editors Roxanne Bogucka, Laurie Baker Staff Writers Forrest Wilder, Tim Eaton Editorial Interns Leah Caldwell, Rachel Mehendale, Sofia Resnick, Kelly Sharp, Elizabeth L. Taylor Contributing Writers Nate Blakeslee, Gabriela Bocagrande, Robert Bryce, Michael Erard, James K. Galbraith, Dagoberto Gilb, Steven G. Kellman, Lucius Lomax, James McWilliams, Char Miller, Debbie Nathan, Karen Olsson, John Ross, Andrew Wheat Staff Photographers Alan Pogue, Jana Birchum, Steve Satterwhite Contributing Artists Sam Hurt, Kevin Kreneck, Michael Krone, Gary Oliver, Doug Potter Editorial Advisory Board David Anderson, Chandler Davidson, Dave Denison, Sissy Farenthold, John Kenneth Galbraith, Lawrence Goodwyn, Jim Hightower, Kaye Northcott, Susan Reid Texas Democracy Foundation Board Lou Dubose, Molly Ivins, Susan Hays, D’Ann Johnson, Jim Marston, Gilberto Ocafias, Bernard Rapoport, Geoffrey Rips, Sharron Rush, Ronnie Dugger In Memoriam Bob Eckhardt, 1913-2001, Cliff Olofson,1931-1995 The Texas Observer \(ISSN 0040-4519/ righted @2005, is published biweekly except during January and August when there is a 4 week break between non-profit foundation, 307 West 7th Street, Austin, Texas 78701. Telephone E-mail [email protected] World Wide Web DownHome page www.texasobserver.org . Periodicals Postage paid at Austin, TX and at additional mailing offices. Subscriptions One year $32, two years $59, three years $84. Full-time students $18 per year; add $13 per year for foreign subs. Back issues $3 prepaid. Airmail, foreign, group, and bulk rates on request. Microfilm available from University Microfilms Intl., 300 N. Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48106. Indexes The Texas Observer is indexed in Access: The Supplementary Index to Periodicals; Texas Index and, for the years 1954 through 1981, The Texas Observer Index. POSTMASTER Send address changes to: The Texas Observer, 307 West 7th Street, Austin, Texas 78701. Books & the Culture is funded in part by the City of Austin through the Cultural Arts Division and by a grant from the Texas Commission on the Arts. MAY 5, 2006 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 3