Crossing the Wire Posted by Heather Tinus

Crossing the Wire




By Will Hobbs



This story is about a Mexican boy, Victor, who lives in Guanajuato and was born in Chiapas. His father died when he was a little boy so he became the man of the house. Victor works in the corn fields all day growing corn to sell so he can support his mom, little sister, and brother. One of his friends that also works in the fields with him tells him that he’s going across the border to the states with real American money to pay people to take him across safely, they call the money, “coyote money”. Victor can’t believe that his friend would ever consider it, he has heard many horror stories about people attempting to cross the boarder, but his friend assures him that he has enough money to pay off the coyote runners to take him across the boarder safely. Shortly after his friend left for the states, Victor finds out that the prices on the corn bottomed out and it was useless to even grow corn anymore. In order to keep his family from having to sell everything they own, Victor and his mother decide that the best thing is to try to get to the states before winter and send money back home. Unlike Rico, Victor’s friend, Victor had no money to pay the coyote runners to take him safely across the boarder, he was on his own. On his way, he comes across a church, so he goes in making his last prayers before taking off, and then he runs into the pastor who gives him some pesos to take the bus to the boarder. Unfortunately because Victor doesn’t look Mexican and more Guatemalan, he gets deported to Guatemala, but he escapes the group. He meets up with different people who have made several attempts to the states, or have even been in the states. Victor almost faces death jumping off a train near the boarder. Finally he meets a man, Miguel who was only 28 but has lived in the United States for awhile and got deported, he was making his way back, but he was badly abused by the boarder patrol, he walks slowly with a stick. He was smart and helped Victor get across, finally when they get across the boarder, with much hunger, he sees a familiar boy, and realizes it’s Rico! Rico’s big brother already has home in the states, so he was making his journey to his brother’s house in Arizona. Victor joins Rico on his journey to his brother’s house for work. Rico ends up calling his brother Reynaldo for help to Tucson, Reynaldo reaches a coyote to get them up to Tucson but it would cost them a lot, which Rico seemed fine with but Victor was worried because he knew it was starting to become colder and he didn’t have much more time until his family moved out of Guanajuato to a tourist town. Rico accidently agreed for him and Victor to become mules for Coyote runners (smuggling drugs). During their first smugglings they escape climbing the mountains. Finally they met a gabacho who drives around the desert to make sure no one is dying of thirst, he ends up agreeing to give them a ride to Tucson. The driver ends up ditching them at some gas station where they meet a man who knows Rico’s brother, where they find out that he was running a lot of coyote runners, and smuggling drugs up. They agree to not find Reynaldo and find work on their own. At the end of this story they both get jobs in Orchards picking grapes in the states.