Cajas de Carton

The first story is from the perspective of a young, male, Mexican narrator living in a rural community outside Guadalajara, Mexico. The narrator has an older brother named Roberto, with whom he is quite close. The family lives in poverty; they sleep on dirt floors, get their water from the river nearby, and milk cows to make money. In order to sell their milk, they have to walk for miles to the nearest road, where trucks come to pick up the milk jugs. Almost immediately, the narrator's father begins talking about California, which for them is a mythical place of opportunity across la frontera and where the family will eventually travel to make new lives for themselves. Roberto, the narrator's older brother, gets an idea of this life after visiting his cousin Fito in his apartment in Guadalajara, and becomes anxious to experience this new place.

Soon, Mama, Papa, the narrator, and Roberto take a long train ride to the border between Mexico and California. They take only a single suitcase with them. From the train station, they walk to a barbed wire fence and Papa explains to the family that they will have to cross this fence without any of the armed guards seeing them.