Where do you find the U.S. border? At the Rio Grande? Ellis Island? How about a small town in the heartland? In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we begin a special series call The Storied Land, with "The Border." We'll touch ground at LAX - Los Angeles International Airport - and move north and east from there.

Writer, journalist and immigrant Pico Iyer tells Jim Fleming what it's like for new immigrants to fly into Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). They come to a land of hope and find many of the same people they thought they were leaving behind. Pico Iyer's most recent book is "Classical Tropical."

Judith Strasser (with audio engineer Marv Nonn) went to LA and toured immigrant neighborhoods. Judith reads her audio essay on the experience, richly illustrated with location sound. Also, Richard Rodriguez, author of Days of Obligation: An Argument with My Mexican Father, provides a commentary on the growing Hispanic population of the United States. And, Ruben Martinez tells Steve Paulson about Norwalk, Wisconsin -- a rural town in the American heartland where half the population is Mexican, drawn by a meat-packing plant that hires recent immigrants. Martinez is the author of The New Americans -- a collaboration with photographer Joseph Rodriguez.

• week of 04/12/98 - hour 3
• week of 03/07/99 - hour 2