Abstract This essay examines the ways in which Alfredo Corchado, author of Midnight in Mexico and Homelands, creates and reifies rhetorical leadership by championing the hybrid identity he possesses as a bilingual, bicultural Mexican American journalist working across literal and metaphorical borders, including the challenges he has faced and the vulnerabilities experienced in the pursuit of being a journalist. A significant figure in contemporary media as one of the most prominent Mexican American journalists in the United States, Corchado still publishes articles on the United States/Mexico border, immigration, and on Mexico. The essay considers Corchado and the way he discusses resilience, both expressively and as a rhetorical guide for audiences. The essay uses the two books to highlight Corchado's arguments for the power of journalism and the significance of rhetorical accessibility and the expansion of his writing to Mexican American audiences who might appreciate his standpoint in a richer fashion.

Abstract This essay considers rhetorical violence and the nature of violence as rhetorical in the language and actions of Patrick Crusius, the shooter charged with attacking a Walmart in El Paso, Texas. The language in the Crusius manifesto is the preface to the violence Crusius brought to El Paso resulting in the deaths of twenty-three people: United States citizens, Mexican citizens, and a German national. The essay advances a framework from which to evaluate violence as rhetorical and illuminates the intersection of the shooter's rhetoric and his act of violence.