Previously, I composed a journal article my odyssey along our southern border: I Walked the Entire US-Mexico Border. As the titles implies, this diary describes my experiences on a 2,000-mile trek that ended November 24th, 2017. This is pertinent to a recent article in the Washington Post.
Trailing close behind me, two young women set out to walk the length of the border in a single-extended trek. They started on Nov 19th, 2017, five days before I finished my last 32-mile section on El Camino del Diablo.
Tenny and Claire chose a slightly different route, and they skipped over the Tohono O’odham Indian Nation. But to their credit, 175 days after starting, they became the second and third persons to have walked the US-Mexico Border. Their trek is documented at WalktheBorder.com and in an article with Outside Magazine written by Zak Podmore. Mr. Podmore gave them credit for hiking the “entire” border and for being first to “Thru-Hike” the border.
I quibble over two adjectives in the article, since I believe that “entire” means “entire”. Likewise, “Thru-Hike” implies “entire.” Otherwise, the article is worth reading and a worthy addition to our national conversation about border security and immigration.
Recently, a father and son duo announced their intention to walk the US-Mexico Border. This caught the attention of Eli Rosenberg, a reporter for the Washington Post. Eli interviewed the father and son. Additionally, it appears Mr. Rosenberg communicated with Tenny and Claire. His article posted on March 9th at the Washington Post.
Most Saturdays, I’m found at the Palafox Market in Pensacola, Florida, selling mushrooms, herbs, smoking woods, and custom cut lumber.
After our Saturday market on March 9th, I returned home to find an email from friends who had forwarded a link to Rosenberg’s article.
I was irked to discover that Rosenberg had credited Tenny and Claire with being “The first people in history to have walked the entire US-Mexico border.”
To be honest, it more than irked me, it stomped all over my tender ego.
By chance, my wife once worked as a reporter with a large newspaper (Correo) in South America. I asked her, “As a reporter, have you heard of this new-fangled tool called Google?”
She replied, “Yes, Mr. Rosenberg should become more familiar with it.”
On Sunday, March 10th, I contacted Eli Rosenberg through various channels, and attempted to set the record straight. I pointed out the following facts:
My book-Border Walk, documenting my trek along the Texas-Mexico border, was published in 2018.
The movie, La Frontera(57-minutes), by Rex Jones with the Southern Documentary Project, also documented my trek along the Texas-Mexico border. La Frontera(whole movie) played on PBS stations across the country in 2017 and 2018.
Rex and I would both be speaking at the Oxford Conference for the Book, on March 28th, at a session called, “On the Border: a Movie and a Book.”
My walk had previously received national coverage in the Associated Press, Vice, Fox Business News, Univision, and scores of other media sources.
Mr. Rosenberg replied, “I’m checking into it.”
It took a couple days, but they finally corrected the article in the Washington Post(corrected).
In the meantime, Glynn Wilson with the New American Journal was reading my book Border Walk. Glynn relayed to me, a fair degree of schadenfreude, since he knows staff at the Washington Post who are quick to point out misspellings in his articles at the New American Journal.
By the way, if you aren’t following Glynn’s new online publication, you really should be.
Glynn emailed or texted me questions while he was reading my account, and after he finished Border Walk. My answers and clarifications were included in his article about my 2000-mile trek. To date, Glynn’s article is the most comprehensive in the media coverage of my trek along the US-Mexico Border: Alabama Scientist Publishes Book as First Person to Hike Mexican Border.
Finally, if you have a few free days next week (or just one free evening!), come on over to the Oxford Conference for the Book. Oxford, Mississippi is as pretty and storied a little southern town as you’ll ever see.
Square books is an Oxford high-point for bibliophiles. Square Books is widely considered one of the best independent book stores in the whole country.
When my first book was published-Year of the Pig, Square Books hosted a joint book signing for me and David Haskell, who wrote The Forest Unseen. David Haskell studied a single square-meter of the forest floor for an entire year, and then wrote an absolutely compelling book about his observations. That’s good writing!
Judging by the number of reviews David has gotten on Amazon, he has probably sold about ten times as many copies as I did with Year of the Pig.
I completed my last Oxford trip with a pilgrimage to Rowan Oak: William Faulkner’s well-preserved house.
Several years back, I went to eat with some friends at City Grocery: a restaurant right off the main city square. As we dined, I realized John Grisham was setting at the table adjacent to ours. My friend Chuck pointed out Larry Brown, who was drinking at the bar. Larry Brown came from a humble background, and to this day, he’s one of my main inspirations as an author. (The Rough South of Larry Brown)
I thought, “Dang, this is one literary town.”