Las crónicas de Jackson Heights. (The Jackson Heights Chronicles)

Reviewed by María Ospina, Harvard Univ. -- Críticas, 11/15/2006

Accountant, travel agent, community organizer, actor, and co-producer of the award-winning film María llena de gracia (Mary Full of Grace, 2004), Tobón has written poignant and gripping chronicles about the neighborhood in which he has lived, worked, and helped for decades. Based on true events, Tobón’s stories that reveal the lives of Colombian immigrants in Jackson Heights, Queens, NY—a.k.a. Little Colombia. Rarely done before, this book brings to light the working-class immigrant neighborhood, contrasting the lives of those who consume cocaine in corporate restrooms and fancy nightclubs with the lives of mules—people who smuggle small bags of cocaine in their stomachs into the United States in search of a better life. The narration is sometimes laden with painful clichés and over-the-top descriptions; in addition, the Hollywood-like melodrama and Jesus-like protagonist (based on the author himself) simplifies what would otherwise be complex stories. Despite these drawbacks, and because the lives of Colombian immigrants in New York has seldom been told before, this work is highly recommended for public libraries and bookstores with a large number of Hispanic users.