Orbiting buzzards in the desert country often
indicate that a person is dead out there somewhere. Those circling buzzards did
in this case as U.S. Border Patrol Officer Dolph Martinez had seen them and
headed their way while pursuing a group of undocumented workers that had
crossed the border and were heading through the surrounding desert. Dolph
Martinez had first seen the blood on a cactus and then found the body. While it
is not immediately clear whether or not the deceased person was part of that
group under custody nearby, it is clear is that the deceased probably died by
way of having his head opened up via gunshot and not the perils of the desert.
The deceased is also wearing distinctive boots and is not the first person
wearing those particular style of boots to be found dead in the surrounding
desert in recent days.
Based out of the hardship duty station in Presidio,
Texas, Patrol Officer Dolph Martinez, wants to investigate the case. Especially
because the deceased was found clutching a vial of blue metallic liquid. One of
those reasons he wants to investigate is that Sister Quinn is known to pass
these vials out now and then as some sort of talisman. In a region known for
eccentrics, she stands out as she is part nun and part witch doctor. Some
believe she is a saint in human form while other locals claim she transforms
into an owl at night, just like the souls of the dead, and flies around to perch
on tombstones. She is complicated and a sign that everything is going to get
very complicated fast.
Investigating a murder has little to do with his job
description, so his boss shuts down that idea. Instead, the mission of the
Border Patrol is to round up the folks they were tracking, process them, and
send them back across the border knowing full well they are going to see them
again.
But, officer Dolph Martinez can’t leave it alone and
is soon talking to the nun and many other folks while running afoul of his
boss, an officious DEA agent, and a number of other folks who wish he would
accept life as it is in the Border county where a river does nothing to stem
the flow of people and goods. The investigation may kill him, body and soul,
before he is through as things are going to get complicated and weird.
El Camino Del Rio: A Novel by Jim Sanderson was the 1997 Frank Waters Southwest Writing Contest winner and was published in 1998. As such, it depicts the Southwest Texas border country that I grew up with and existed before 9/11 changed everything. Because it was published over twenty years ago, it reflects language that may offend some readers today as it repeatedly refers to “wets” which is slang for “wetbacks” or illegals. It also contains some language that does not reflect women in the best way of description along with some graphic scenes of intimate sexuality. It is a book in today’s world that, at times, some would classify as “edgy” and others would call misogynistic.
Regardless of all that, there is a complicated and quite intense bordering on the surreal read at work here. El Camino Del Rio: A Novel does not fit easily into any labeling box. I enjoyed it while conceding that the last forty pages or so delves into the surreal and issues far too complicated to be easily explained. I also concede the fact that part of my appreciation was no doubt fueled by my love for the Big Bend area that dates back to my earliest childhood memories. This is not a read for everyone, but it is a very good read.
El Camino Del
Rio: A Novel
Jim Sanderson
https://www.jimsanderson-writer.com/
University of
New Mexico Press
August 1998
ISBN#
0-8263-1990-4
227 Pages
My reading copy came from the Downtown Branch of the
Dallas Public Library System.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2021
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