Crossing the Wire

Victor and Julio are woken in the middle of the night by gang members, Cholos, kicking them and searching their things. Each Cholo has a triangle of blue dots tattooed on their wrist and rings of gold paint around their mouths. Julio tries to use the password that he was told, but the Cholos only laugh and demand their money. Julio threatens the Cholos with a knife, and they run away.

Victor and Julio go back downtown to the bus terminal, where they are approached by a man who says they could make money carrying drugs across the border on their strong backs. The boys are not interested. Instead, they try to make a little money carrying shopping bags for people returning from the U.S.

They meet a man named Hector, who has been deported the previous day. Carried across the border from Mexico as a baby, Hector grew up in the U.S. without documents and didn’t even speak Spanish. Now, he plans to pay coyotes to take him across. He had planned to use the tunnels, but he found out that the Americans closed the tunnels on their side with chain-link gates which only open when it’s flooding. Julio is upset by this news, though he still plans to cross using the tunnels. While they try to think of how they can cross in the tunnels, the boys turn their attention to finding enough money for food. 

Victor and Julio find food at a church soup kitchen, which is open daily for lunch. After, they go to a park where kids sell gum and wash windshields on the street. Victor decides to do this for a while, while Julio leaves and promises to meet him later that night.

Victor makes a little money that day, and that night, Julio arrives with a new backpack heavy with food. They eat, and even though Victor realizes that Julio must have stolen the pack, he decides not to ask questions. They plan to keep eating at the soup kitchen and save the canned food in the pack in case they need to cross through the desert on foot rather than through the tunnels.

Four days pass like this, and then there is a storm. Julio is excited and buys two inner tubes to float through the tunnels. Victor thinks it sounds too dangerous and decides he can’t risk drowning. Julio leaves alone.

The next day, Victor reads in the newspaper that the tunnels had been opened and that no one has drowned. He knows that by not joining Julio, he had been “too cautious, just like Rico had always said” (79). He goes back to washing windshields, where another child tells him he can make more money working at a factory, or maquiladora. But when Victor arrives at the maquiladoras, he finds them shut. A guard tells him the work is all going to China, where people work for even less than in Mexico.

Victor goes to the church and says a prayer to Our Lady of Guadalupe. A badly beaten man walks in using a stick, and Victor realizes that it is Miguel, the “lone wolf” he first rode the bus with. Miguel has a loaded pack, so Victor knows he must be ready to cross the border. He decides to follow him. Miguel buys a bus ticket. Victor, who has no money for a ticket of his own, sneaks on the bus behind Miguel.