The Short Sweet Dream of Eduardo Gutierrez

By Jimmy Breslin

Book Overview

All of Eduardo Guti?rrez's dreams gave him no idea of the dangerous path ahead. The young dream of everything except death . . . The Short Sweet Dream of Eduardo Guti?rrez is Jimmy Breslin's most passionate and hard-hitting book to date. A work of conscience that travels from San Mat?as Cuatchatyotla, a small dusty town in central Mexico, to the cold and wet streets of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, this searing expos? chronicles the life and tragic death of an illegal immigrant worker, along with the broader issues of municipal corruption and America's deadly and controversial border policy. In November 1999, an accidental death at a Brooklyn construction site made headlines because the developers had major fund-raising ties to the administration of Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. But the dead man's name went all but unmentioned in the press coverage. In The Short Sweet Dream of Eduardo Guti?rrez, Breslin not only gives the dead man a name but tells the story of his life: his birth in San Mat?as, Mexico, his love for a woman named Silvia, and his hope of making enough money in the United States to secure a more comfortable future back home in Mexico. The story behind Guti?rrez's death is one of corruption, bad politics, and indifference to people whose lives are perceived not to count. With the issue of Mexican immigration and border policy taking center stage in our national debate, Guti?rrez's story takes on even more relevance. The account of his flight, his desperation in a foreign and hostile country, and his needless death at the hands of unscrupulous forces should be a wake-up call to us all. In placing this man in the story's center, rather than its footnotes, Breslin does the same thing he did so famously when he interviewed the grave digger at John F. Kennedy's funeral: he wrenches our attention back to a story's most forgotten but most human perspective. Jimmy Breslin has written a classic on the subject. Powerful, honest, and unsparing, The Short Sweet Dream of Eduardo Guti?rrez is a towering achievement by one of America's most respected journalists.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0609608274
• ISBN13: 9780609608272
• Release Date: March 2002
• Publisher: Crown Publishing Group (NY)
• Length: 213 Pages
• Weight: 0.86 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.8" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

a sad tale given justice by a great writer

Justice shall you pursue. This is Jimmy Breslin at his best, it reads like he talks, which can cause you to read a sentence twice or three times, but you get used to it. Eduardo Gutierrez was an illegal immigrant from Mexico; he was barely 21 years old when he was killed in a construction accident in Brooklyn on November 23, 1999. Born in San Matías Cuatchatyotla, to a very shy 15 year old woman, he lived a lonely life filled with fear in Brighton Beach/Brooklyn, sharing one bathroom and an apartment with 8 other illegal men, always in fear of capture and deportation. His life ended in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, when Eduardo fell three stories and drowned in wet cement. The builder, his employer, hired and exploited illegal workers with impunity. Breslin characterizes him as "a crook with blueprints." Everyone knew his long record of violations, but he was untouchable; he was a friend of Giuliani administration, his bagman had given Giuliani's campaign $83,000 in 1996. Eugene O. and his son Richie (a police chaplain wannabee who ran to Belgium to avoid the law he loved so much) were politically connected in the powerful Satmar-Hasidic community. In 1993, a city inspector cited his construction project as the worst building he had seen in a decade. After Eduardo's death, the press forgot about him. But Breslin went to his funeral in Mexico and came back to the USA over the border like the other illegal workers, citing the Border Patrol's stats on drownings and deaths on the route. This is Eduardo's recreated story, filled with stories of his struggle to get to NYC and the aftermath of his death. So much of New York is built on illegal labor, so it is important to read