Hearts of Oaxaca

REVIEW: A new book feels like yet another rehashing of what drives Mexican immigrants over the border

If immigration weren’t the throbbing, hot-button issue it is in U.S. politics and business, Changing Dreams would have been a fine documentary photography book with eye-grabbing black-and-white compositions by Vicki Ragan and insightful text by former reporter Shepard Barbash. But because publishers are hooking their publications to the hot topic of the day, we get yet another view of what drives millions of Mexicans to border-hop into U.S. territory without bothering to immigrate legally. The pair chronicle Oaxacan woodcarvers whose art market in Mexico collapsed, leading them to Santa Fe and other artsy cities to maintain sales. Or they quit the artisan life and went into more lucrative construction or other jobs. Enough already. We like Changing Dreams more for the great photos.

Changing Dreams: A Generation of Oaxaca’s Woodcarvers
Photographs by Vicki Ragan, Text by Shepard Barbash
Museum of New Mexico Press
Clothbound: $39.95, 160 pages, 95 duotones