Randy Jurado Ertll, un salvadore-o americano, creci- en el Sur Centro de Los _ngeles a fines de los a-os 1970 y durante los 80, y tambiZn vivi- en El Salvador cuando era un ni-o, as' como en Rochester, Minnesota, Washington, D.C., y en Alexandria, Virginia. En cada una de estas ciudades presenci- la dinOmica y retos de la comunidad Latina. Porque ha vivido y trascendido las luchas, es capaz de captar una imagen realista y compasiva de la comunidad Latina a travZs de esta experiencia convincente narrada en este poderoso libro.

A day after José Ángel N. first crossed the United States border from Mexico, he was caught and then released onto the streets of Tijuana. Undeterred, N. crawled back through a tunnel to San Diego, where he entered the United States to stay. Illegal: Reflections of an Undocumented Immigrant is his timely and compelling memoir of building a new life in America. Arriving in the 1990s with a ninth grade education, N. traveled to Chicago where he found access to ESL and GED classes. He eventually attended college and graduate school and became a professional translator. Despite having a well-paying job, N. was isolated by a lack of legal documentation. Travel concerns made promotions impossible. The simple act of purchasing his girlfriend a beer at a Cubs baseball game caused embarrassment and shame when N. couldn't produce a valid ID. A frustrating contradiction, N. lived in a luxury high-rise condo but couldn't fully live the American dream. He did, however, find solace in the one gift America gave him–-his education. Ultimately, N.'s is the story of the triumph of education over adversity. In Illegal, he debunks the stereotype that undocumented immigrants are freeloaders without access to education or opportunity for advancement. With bravery and honesty, N. details the constraints, deceptions, and humiliations that characterize alien life "amid the shadows."

13th October 1972: A Uruguayan Air Force plane, commissioned for a civilian flight, crashes in the Andes. Among the forty passengers are a first-division rugby team, accompanied by family and friends. Hindered by treacherous conditions, the search and rescue efforts cannot locate the wreckage, and are abandoned after eight days. Ten weeks later, two unkempt boys are spotted by a muleteer high in the Chilean foothills. One throws a note to him, across a mountain torrent: I come from a plane that fell in the mountains... In the plane there are still fourteen injured people... Drawing on extensive original research, the author sheds new light on this extraordinary story from a perspective of fifty years, expanding on events before, during, and after the ordeal. His retelling is enriched by the accounts of those who didn't return from the mountain, related through the eyes of their families, bringing much-needed balance to a story which has largely focused on the survivors. John Guiver's comprehensive account, which includes an in-depth look at the world from which the passengers came and an analysis of the possible causes of the accident, is a fundamental contribution to the history of this famous event.