Crossing the Line - by Linda Valdez (Paperback)

About the Book

Crossing the Line is told by a middle-class American woman who falls in love with the son of an impoverished family from rural Mexico--a man who crosses the border illegally to be with her. Married in 1988, Linda and Sixto Valdez learn to love each other's very different families and cultures, raising their child to walk proudly in both worlds.

Book Synopsis

Lyrically written with a poet's eye for the human condition and a reporter's attention to detail, this true love story set along the US-Mexico border takes one of the most contentious political disputes of our time and puts it in the context of head-over-heels, love-at-first-sight euphoria.

After years of writing nationally acclaimed commentary about immigration for the biggest newspaper in Arizona, award-winning journalist Linda Valdez tells her personal story of marrying a Mexican man whose difficulties in getting a visa led him to cross the border illegally.

A former Arizona attorney general says this book should be required reading for Donald Trump.

But that's not because this is a political treatise. It isn't. This is a true story that reads like a novel.

It's about how love turns vast differences in background, culture, and experience into a family's biggest asset.

It's a journey of discovery about the real Mexico and the real Mexicans--and why the United States is lucky to have them for neighbors.

It's about the personal triumphs and challenges of raising a child to love both cultures.

Throw in the blessing of two powerful matriarchs, the ghost of Pancho Villa, and a purposefully mistranslated wedding, you get a story told with humor and an emotional charge that is both timely and timeless.

About the Author

A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing in 2003, LINDA VALDEZ is a columnist and editorial writer at the Arizona Republic/azcentral.com. She has written extensively about immigration and border issues. Her commentary opposing Arizona's infamous anti-immigration laws earned her the Scripps Howard Walker Stone Award for editorial writing in 2011.