MEDIA REVIEWS

Crossing Over: A Mexican Family on the Migrant Trail

By Ruben Martinez
Picador, 2001
330 pages, $14.00

Crossing Over is the selection for the third annual “Books on the Bayou: Houston Reads Together” sponsored by the Houston Chronicle, the Houston Public Library and the City of Houston. The Houston Bar Association is a partner in the community-wide effort to encourage reading and promote thoughtful discussion among Houstonians in libraries, classrooms, bookstores and anywhere that readers happen to come together. For information, visit
www.houstonlibrary.org/booksonthebayou or call 832-393-1313.

Reviewed by J. Bradley Compere

There is an invisible line that stretches two-thousand miles along the United States border, only taking physical form throughout various, relatively short stretches. This invisible line exists not in nature, but in political terms and realms of the United States. For years, migrant Mexicans have bravely crossed this line in search of a better life. Some found life, others found death. Ruben Martinez explores this all-too-evasive search in his investigation of the migrant journey, Crossing Over.
Martinez, an Emmy Award-winning journalist and Creative Writing Professor at the University of Houston, begins his journey with the migrants in Cheran, Michoacan, Mexico, an Indian town home to numerous seasonal migrant workers. His journey begins as an investigation into the lives of the Chavez brothers, three migrant workers killed in an accident in California while attempting to evade the Border Patrol. Martinez’s investigation, however, turns into a journey into the hearts and minds of the Cheranes and a political exploration of that invisible line dividing two cultures.
Martinez is welcomed into the Chavez family home by Dona Maria Elena, the grieving mother of the deceased migrants. Although she laments the loss of her three sons to the invisible line, she admits to Martinez that “God willing, we’ll all be there some day.” Through his discussions with the Matriarch and the rest of the Chavez family, Martinez shows that the migrant families are willing to sacrifice their lives and brave the risks associated with illegal migration to find a more fruitful life in the United States. As one survivor of the migrant road put it, “You’ve got only one chance in life, and if you make it, then you’ve got something to look back on.” Martinez eloquently encapsulates the enigma that is the migrant life: “You create a future so you can have a past, a past that reflects your own will rather than a past imposed by history.”
Martinez’s journey takes us through the lives of other migrants that have successfully taken to the road to defeat the invisible line. We meet a rebellious young man, Wense, who refuses to take no for an answer, telling tales of deserts, truck beds, sleeplessness and the American Dream. He sees successful migrants flaunting around Cheran in their American clothes and American shoes, waiting for the right time to repeat the journey himself. We meet a bruja, or Indian healer, who prophesizes the fate of restless migrants and the journeys that lie ahead and tells stories of those she has healed and those who were doomed. We meet a coyote, one who transports illegal migrants across the border (for a small fee, of course), who refuses to escort Martinez for fear that Martinez is an undercover American Agent. However, El Musico, as he is known throughout Cheran, shares tales of bravado and courage in risking his life for the sake of his fellow Cheranes.
Martinez takes us on this journey, making formal and informal introductions necessary for the forming of the epic story that is the lives of the Cheranes migrants. As Martinez points out: “How the Cheranes love to tell their tales of conquering the northern frontier!”
At the outset, Martinez was to interview the family of the brothers lost in a tragic tale of failure, sadness and regret. However, Crossing Over is more than an investigation into an accident involving illegal migrant workers from Mexico. It is a rich and colorful odyssey along the trail that takes poor migrant Mexican workers into a world of limitless opportunity and bounty. Although at one step through his trip Martinez points out that the Cheranes are a small part of such a large America (through a colorful metaphor in which a group of the Cheranes migrants are standing in a sea of snow under the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri), he never relents the fact that the Cheranes have made it.
The beauty of the story is that it is readily apparent that Martinez, a Mexican-American and a descendant of immigrants, through his storytelling ability empathizes with the plight of the migrants: “When they are denied Americanness by U.S. Immigration Policy, I feel my own is denied as well. They are doing exactly what my father’s parents and my mother did. They are doing what all Americans’ forebears did.” Shouldn’t we all be able to empathize with that?

J. Bradley Compere practices with the firm of Rymer Moore Jackson & Echols P.C. He is a member of The Houston Lawyer editorial board.

The Winning Brief 100 Tips for Persuasive Briefing in Trial
and Appellate Courts

(Second Edition)
By Bryan A. Garner, Editor in Chief, Black’s Law Dictionary and
Author of Garner’s Modern American Usage
Oxford University Press 2004

Reviewed by Fred A. Simpson

Bryan Garner, a respected writer noted for his works on English usage, scores again with his new edition of a book first published by Oxford in 1999.
When interviewed, the author explained how the book is actually his fifth offering on the subject of how to write better legal briefs. When asked what’s new and different about the current 515-page hardback copy, he cited two striking items.
First, practitioners sent the author an abundance of briefs over the past five years, good examples as well as bad examples. “Bad briefs are easy to come by,” he says, “but the good ones are hard to get.” Garner uses the good examples for their obvious merit, and he restructures the bad examples to show how to convey the same ideas in a more understandable and friendly format. Some of the good examples Garner uses were written by Houston lawyers: two of them by James L. Turner, Assistant U. S. Attorney, and one by the University of Houston’s David Crump.
Second, the author’s dedication to reading the works of others on the subject of language usage – an average of two books a week – provides meat for the increase in his “Quotable Quotes” which preface each of the 100 sections of the book. Incidentally, those individual sections, or what might be called “chapters,” each present one of the author’s “100 tips” on how to write more clearly and persuasively. The index to those 100 tips is at the end of the book by subject matter. Another index is also conveniently found inside the front and back covers where the author recites his “tips” verbatim, grouping them into these categories:
A. Composing In An Orderly, Sensible Way
B. Conveying the Big Picture
C. Marching Forward Through Sound Paragraphs
D. Editing for Brisk, Uncluttered Sentences
E. Choosing the Best Words
F. Punctuating for Clarity and Impact
G. Becoming Proficient in Designing Text
H. Sidestepping Some Common Quirks
I. Capitalizing On Little-Used Persuasive Strategies
J. Hitting Your Stride As a Brief Writer

According to the author, the most controversial part of his work is Tip Number 22, entitled “Put all your citations in footnotes, while saying in the text what authority you’re relying on. But ban substantive footnotes.” After the publication of the First Edition, this tip was the subject of a front-page article in The New York Times about the brouhaha raised by Tip Number 22, the author being described as a misleading “Rasputin.” Judges debate both sides of this issue which the author describes as a “lightning rod.” He also points out that Chief Justice Tom Phillips disagrees with his recommendation, and the Supreme Court of New Jersey wrote a special rule to ban the use of Tip Number 22.
Garner is an adjunct professor at Southern Methodist University, but his principal work is at the Dallas consulting firm of Law Prose, Inc., a company in which both he and his wife are active. Law Prose claims to have trained more than 40,000 lawyers and judges in the past decade. Garner conducts full-day CLE seminars throughout the country on the subject matter of his new book. He claims to cover all 100 of his tips about good brief writing in the course of each one-day CLE session.

Fred A. Simpson is a partner in the Houston Litigation Section of Jackson Walker L.L.P. engaged in insurance law, motion practice, appellate law, mediations and arbitrations.

Texas Annotated Business & Commerce Code

LexisNexis Texas Desktop Code Series
2004, 1019 pages

Reviewed by David V. Wilson II

LexisNexis’ 2004 edition of the Texas Annotated Business & Commerce Code is a manageable paperback volume designed to be a quick-reference guide to statutory authority in business transactions. It contains the entire Uniform Commercial Code, provisions of the Texas Finance Code pertaining to financial agencies and services, and provisions of the Texas Transportation Code pertaining to carriers. The Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act (“D.T.P.A.”) is included in the annotated treatment of the Business & Commerce Code.
The statutory text is followed by historical citations on a limited basis, so that the reader can track recent legislative developments in the various codes. The statutes are annotated with “Case Notes” citing published opinions discussing the statutes. According to the publisher, these cases were evaluated for their treatment of the statute by Shepherd’s Citator Service. The reader should be cautioned that the annotations are not exhaustive. Instead, the cases were selected for their recentness. The result of this focus is that some code sections, which have not been addressed by appellate courts in recent years, have no “Case Notes.” The volume also has a 156 page topical index to the codes.
Transactional attorneys should find this volume a useful and convenient starting point for commercial law questions. Commercial litigators will find the U.C.C. and D.T.P.A. as annotated in a single paperback volume a valuable addition to a desk or briefcase. The book lends itself to being a quick-reference tool, but should only be a starting point for more exhaustive research.

David Wilson is a partner in the firm of Hays, McConn, Rice & Pickering, P.C. He is a member of The Houston Lawyer Editorial Board.

I Remember Atticus

By Jim Perdue
State Bar of Texas Books & Systems Department
2004, 148 pages

Reviewed by David V. Wilson II

Part historical essay, part political screed, and part practice guide. I Remember Atticus is an interesting and quick read which will alternatively enlighten, bemuse, or puzzle the reader. The book is unapologetically a celebration of personal injury trial lawyers. It takes its title from the author’s identification with the fictional but inspiring lawyer portrayed by Gregory Peck in the film To Kill a Mockingbird. The author, Jim Perdue, is a highly successful trial lawyer whose practice has focused on personal injury claims, and he likens this part of trial practice to the “against all odds” representation of a black man accused of rape in the Jim Crow South by the lawyer portrayed by Peck.
The book begins with five chapters setting out stories from a wide historical background. There is the story of Susanna from the Apochrypha. There are the parables of Jesus. Later, we are told about individuals such as Clarence Darrow, who tried the Scopes “Monkey” trial and the Haywood murder trial, in a style that is intentionally more focused on story-telling than history. The common theme of the book is individuals or groups intervening in events to correct or prevent an injustice. The style of these chapters is meant to be instructional. As Perdue writes, “The stories in this book are written in the way I’ve told them.” Like any great trial lawyer, Perdue understands that story-telling is an effective way to hold the attention of the audience.
The last two chapters of the book are more or less political essays recounting the author’s belief that “corporate greed” and the perceived concentration of wealth in the early 21st Century have harmed both society and the legal system. The change in focus from the first five chapters is somewhat jarring. While Perdue makes a persuasive case debunking the more extreme myths propagated by so-called “tort reformers,” he lapses into hyperbole with passages such as, “The defense [lawyer] stands with legs spread and fists raised, defiant Jimmy Cagneys shouting, “Come and get me copper!”
Refreshingly, Perdue’s idealism is tempered by realism. He understands that many jury pools today come to courthouses in Texas with a jaundiced view towards personal injury cases, and that business defendants are on a more equal footing with sympathetic plaintiffs than in years past. His last chapter provides suggested trial themes designed to motivate the current era’s more cynical jurors in personal injury cases. This section is a valuable road map for both plaintiff and defense lawyers.
Perdue concludes the book with the observation that being a trial lawyer today is “hard cheese.” Fittingly, he concludes that at times when the difficulties of the practice intrude, one should “remember Atticus.”

David Wilson is a partner in the firm of Hays, McConn, Rice & Pickering, P.C. He is a member of The Houston Lawyer Editorial Board.

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