Don Chepito lived in Monterrey Nuevo Leon Mexico. In certain seasons he left his home for making a living. He was in quest of a future, in quest of improving his life.
Don Chepito told me stories about his journeys, of his trips to Hatch New Mexico around the 50s and 60s. He told me about his trips to that town with good humor. Maybe he did it partly because his stories seemed full of danger. Once he told me about a day when he was attacked by a rabid coyote. He told this story with a lot of fantasy, he said that when the coyote tried to bite him, he threw a punch so hard that his arm went completely inside the coyote, so deep that, when he pulled it out, he turned the coyote upside down. He made it look so funny that his narrative became part of the repertoire of stories at Christmas time.
But one day, in a more serious tone, he told me how difficult it really had been for him on each trip. Especially how awkward it was when they sprayed him with chemicals all over his body. They did this every time he crossed. Some were abusive; they felt empowered. Sometimes they were called “lousy wetbacks.” They stripped them, sprayed them with pesticides, and some were not given a chance to close their eyes. They shaved their heads and sometimes made them throw their underpants. Although he said laughing, some of us were so poor that we didn’t even bring. The Border Patrol, at all times, tried to control access, allowed them to work but under those circumstances.
Many years passed, decades in itself, when he was benefited by the Bracero program, close to seventy years of age began to receive a pension from the United States. He could enjoy about fifteen years of it, and fortunately, when he passed away that pension pass to benefit Micaela, his wife, who while he defied the dangers to work in the North American fields, she defied the risks by being alone, with her children, in a Monterrey that did not look how it looks today.
Contested Borders: Immigrant Tales of (Un)Desirability and Access
Mediated narratives of immigrants and their place in the nation have a long and storied history, much of which entails negotiations of desirability.
Constructing Rhetorical Borders:
Peons, Illegal Aliens, and Competing Narratives of Immigration
Lisa A. Flores
Photo credits: Photograph by Dorothea Lange. 1942
Video credits: UTEP, Institute of Oral History
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