American Visa in Around the World in 80 Books

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Oct 15, 2020 Tony rated it really liked it

Shelves: setting-south-america, translated-fiction, project-fit, novels

The immigrant dream in the era of globalization comes alive in this story of a bumbling Bolivian schoolteacher desperate to get to America. Mario is a divorced middle-aged teacher from the countryside who has to come La Paz to apply for a visa to visit his son in Miami. Of course, his ultimate goal is to create a new life for himself in America, starting with the job his son has lined up for him at an IHOP. The only thing standing in his way is his lack of the titular visa.

Taking a room at a see The immigrant dream in the era of globalization comes alive in this story of a bumbling Bolivian schoolteacher desperate to get to America. Mario is a divorced middle-aged teacher from the countryside who has to come La Paz to apply for a visa to visit his son in Miami. Of course, his ultimate goal is to create a new life for himself in America, starting with the job his son has lined up for him at an IHOP. The only thing standing in his way is his lack of the titular visa.

Taking a room at a seedy Hotel California (ha ha), he meets several colorful long-term residents, including a hooker with a heart of gold, a former diplomat, a transvestite, and a former professional soccer goalie. Armed with little more than a fancy suit, fake documents (which are meant to convince the American Embassy that he has plenty of property in Bolivia that he would never abandon), a fistful of dollars, and a few small gold nuggets, his initial foray to the embassy leaves him shaken. His papers are pretty flimsy and he realizes that he'll need to obtain his visa through illicit means. And so begins a roller coaster ride through the seedy and sedate streets of La Paz, in an attempt to finagle a visa.

Fortunately (or rather, unfortunately), the teacher is also an avid reader of American crime fiction, and thus plans a dubious heist in order to raise the money he needs to bribe a shady travel agent to "fast-track" his visa. Those who have read the same American crime fiction as the protagonist will have a pretty good idea how this will all turn out. Meanwhile, he also befriends a stunning member of the aristocracy who gives him a glimpse of the high life, while his hooker friend tries to convince him to stay in Bolivia and move to the countryside with her savings. In any event, Mario's trials and tribulations abound with booze, sex, and plenty of outsize characters. Whether or not he elicits much empathy from the reader probably depends on one's perspective (I found him too foolish and selfish to care about), the story is an undeniably rich journey through the streets of La Paz. ...more

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May 13, 2022 Anna Ruth FL rated it really liked it

Shelves: bolivia-grc

I got really attached to Mario as he made his way through the hoops needed to get a visa to the USA so he can start a new life with his son in Miami. Some of his choices really annoyed me, the way you'd get annoyed with a friend making bad choices. Some of the language is kind of rough in terms of the way he refers to some groups of people. ...more

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Apr 27, 2012 Deedee marked it as to-read

Shelves: contemporary-fiction, translation, world-south-america, two-word-title, world-south-america-bolivia, year-1994

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Around the World in 80 Books