Mexikid: A Graphic Memoir

At the border, guards search the motorhome, focusing on the many bundles of charity donations. When they find the handwritten price tags from the children’s “Kmart” game, they accuse the family of planning to sell the items in Mexico and insist that the bundles contain “contraband” (72). Pedro knows that the guards are not well paid and that what they really want is an excuse to steal from the family. He is horrified when the guards focus on his new comic books and his Green Arrow action figure. The guards say that if the family cannot pay them a bribe of $200, they will confiscate everything. Apá stays calm and puts on the charm, pretending to know one of the guards’ cousins—a trick that Pedro has seen him use before and thinks of as the “Mexican Jedi Mind Trick”—but this time it doesn’t work (73). They accuse Pedro of having stolen the tape recorder. Apá bribes them with $20 and half of the charity bundles, and they let the family go through. Amá is angry, and Apá tells her that they can give some money to the poor in place of the items that the border guards have stolen. While Apá is on the CB radio talking to Sal, Pedro suddenly realizes that the guards have taken many of his things, including his cassette tapes and his Green Arrow toy.