Surf journalist and writer Kimball Taylor’s new book The Coyote’s Bicycle, follows the flow of bicycles across the border between Mexico and the United States and makes the interesting case that bicycles are becoming one of the least tracked forms of illegal currency used to build illicit border businesses.
In an interview with The San Diego Union-Tribune, Taylor explains:
. . . bicycles are fungible, like a dollar. Once a bicycle leaves your hand, it joins the idea of a bike just the way a dollar would. That was shocking to me. Another journalist, Patrick Symmes, described it this way: “In America’s rough streets, there are four forms of currency — cash, sex, drugs, and bicycles. Of those, only one is routinely left outside unattended . . . I guess the most dramatic thing I learned on the trail of these bicycles was the story of El Indio, how this kid from an impoverished area who was abandoned with an elderly grandfather in his Oaxacan village was able to come to the border and see the value not in crossing but in becoming part of that underground economy, becoming a millionaire and losing everything dear to him in the process.”
We’re looking forward to reading this one. To purchase your own copy, please click here.
[Link: San Diego Union-Tribune]