Rudy Ruiz’s ‘The Border Between Us’ isn’t just about what it sounds like, bringing together two cultures. Instead, the book, which was longlisted for the prestigious Joyce Carol Oates Prize, is a deconstruction of ambition, identity, and what it means to chase the American Dream in a country that often demands you assimilate. Yes, that’s a lot, and yet it’s also the perfect book to read in preparation for Hispanic Heritage Month.
Synopsis
Here’s the synopsis for the book:
The Border Between Us is a poignant coming of age novel that explores the complexities of what it means to be an American when your family and your culture have come from somewhere else.
Ramón Lopez was born along the US–Mexico border but is determined to get out and embrace the American dream—and he’s not sure whether his complicated family is a help or a hindrance. The son of immigrants, Ramón’s admiration for his entrepreneurial father sours as he watches his dad’s dreams of success wither on the vine. Ramón’s mother is constantly preoccupied with his younger brother, who struggles with intellectual disabilities. And the outside world is rife with danger and temptations threatening to distract Ramón from his dreams of making it to New York and succeeding as an artist.
As dreams clash with reality and values conflict with desires, Ramón finds the American dream within his reach—but will it demand too big a sacrifice?
Excerpt
And here’s an excerpt from ‘The Border Between Us’ that you won’t be able to get out of your head:
As I rode, a panoramic view unfolded around me. To my left lay the teeming shacks, broken streets and tin roofs of Southmost. To my right, the Rio Grande snaked mysteriously towards the horizon in the east. Beyond that, I could see the vast sprawl of Matamoros, the spires of its cathedral jutting up into the clear blue sky, then ranchlands stretching beyond the fringes of the city. Somewhere out there, the river opened up and poured into the ocean. My thoughts and emotions swirled like the treacherous waters of the river below, with stories, memories and conversations bubbling up like the remnants of a raft capsized and shattered on the rocks beneath the surface.
Life on the border was truly mystifying. It was hard, at times, to tell the difference between good and bad, failure and success, life and death, Mexican and American, dreams and delusions, especially when the thin dividing line often blurred and twisted in unexpected ways, and when my instincts were to constantly cross that border back and forth rather than stop at its edge. In my mind and heart, the border ran through all things, including me. It was a wavering high wire I always balanced upon, my center of gravity invariably and incessantly shifting from one side to the other in an instinctive search for equilibrium. It was an invisible line I straddled, rather than an imaginary boundary at which I felt compelled to stop. I saw it not as a constraint, but as an invitation. Not an end, but a beginning, maybe the same way Evel viewed a ramp pointed at a precipice.
I pumped hard at the pedals, yearning to leave the confusion behind and simply savor my moment. Riding fast along the crest of the levee, hugging the curves, I picked up speed in a flash, my knuckles tightening their grip on the chrome handlebars. I was just a kid riding my bike on a sunny day, trying not to notice the people wading across the waters below in search of a better life. The Gulf breeze whipped through my hair. The sun warmed my face. And the golden light bounced off the red stripes, the white paint, and the blue stars of my dream in motion.
Rudy Ruiz is the author of “The Border Between Us” releasing in paperback in English and Spanish from Blackstone Publishing on Sept. 2, 2025. His previous novels include “The Resurrection of Fulgencio Ramirez” and “Valley of Shadows.” He is a winner of the Jesse H. Jones Award for Best Book of Fiction, the Gulf Coast Prize in Fiction and multiple International Latino Book Awards. A bilingual native of the U.S.-Mexico border, he earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Harvard. Visit his website at RudyRuiz.com.
