Crossing the Wire

“Rico wanted me to be excited for him. How could I pretend I was? It was all too much: this fortune in bills to be handed over to the smugglers, and even more so, the danger Rico thought was so appealing.” 

The smugglers Victor refers to are the coyotes, who guide immigrants across the U.S. border. This passage hints at a tension between the cautious Victor and adventure-seeking Rico that will come to a head later in the novel, when Rico lies to Victor and signs them up to cross the border carrying food for drug smugglers. Victor sees Rico’s stack of bills and can only think of how it would feed his family for months, while Rico sees only the possibility of adventure in the U.S. By the end of the novel, both have changed: Victor has taken risks he never thought he was cable of, and Rico has realized the importance of family.

“Rico always spoke of cars with reverence, even in front of his father, who couldn’t afford one. Nobody in Los Árboles could, and the same went for tractors. Ours was a village with so little that it didn’t even have the trees it was named after.” 

For Rico, cars are a symbol of the wealth and prosperity he will attain in the U.S. When compared with his life in the poor village of Los Árboles, this car-filled country seems glamorous and desirable.  

“As my mother set the food down, I grappled with my feelings. I was the man of the family. I should have been able to provide better than this.” 

Since his father is dead, Victor sees himself as the man responsible for providing for the rest of his family. It is this sense of family obligation that motivates Victor’s decision to cross the border illegally and seek work in the United States. 

“They say that ‘free trade’ is supposed to help us. We get manufacturing jobs like my son-in-law’s at the General Motors plant in Silao. That’s fine with the American companies. It’s expensive for them to pay car workers in the States. But when it comes to agriculture, this free trade is killing us.” 

This quote speaks to the difficulties of successfully navigating a global economy. While free trade has brought some additional jobs to Mexico, it has also flooded the Mexican corn market with cheap, American corn, making the corn Victor’s family grows in Los Árboles worthless. 

“Papa told me that our ancestors had built some of their greatest temples to the tigre. The powers of other animals didn’t even come close.” 

The jaguaracts as a symbol of the strength Victor draws from his home and family throughout the novel. Victor has a memory of encountering a jaguar as a child, and during the novel a second jaguar will lead he and Rico to safety. 

“Never in my life had I felt so alone. Unlike Rico, I wasn’t a brave person. I had no desire for adventure.” 

This quote speaks to Victor’s initial sense that he is not as brave as Rico. Victor is just about to leave home to cross the border to the U.S., and he is deeply afraid of what he will encounter. Nonetheless, he knows he must face these dangers in order to provide for his family. 

“Experience lay heavy on him, like a tree much carved upon. His shaggy hair, dropping mustache, and downcast eyes—one with a sleepy eyelid—made him look like someone to stay away from, a lone wolf kicked out of the pack. A lone wolf was what I was looking for, but this one I was in no hurry to meet.” 

In this quote, Victor describes his first impressions of Miguel. While Victor doesn’t initially want to meet the older man, Miguel will eventually become like a father figure to Victor. The quote also provides an example of one of the many times the novel uses animals to describe the traits of characters or situations. 

“A smile was growing at the corner of his mouth. He was happy. He had a mouse under his paw…[t]he policeman looked as sympathetic as a snake about to strike.” 

When Victor is on his first bus ride to the border, he is removed because he doesn’t have a Mexican passport or birth certificate. The Mexican policeman described here is compared to a snake, a symbol for Victor’s fear, while Victor sees himself as a mouse, common prey for serpents.

“I would only know I had been too cautious, just like Rico had always said.” 

Victor decides not to float across the border through the tunnels with Julio because he is afraid the gates on the other end will not be open, and he doesn’t want to risk death. After, when he learns that the gates were open, he regrets his caution. 

“I looked into the face of Our Lady of Guadalupe. As always, she was looking to the side. She’s looking at my mother, I thought. I comforted myself with the story of the miracle. It was an Indian the Lady had appeared to on several occasions. It was on the robe of the poorest of the poor that she left her famous image.” 

Our Lady of Guadalupe is the saint Victor and his mother turn to when making the difficult decision about whether he should cross the border. Victor frequently thinks of her in moments of difficulty. He buys a card with her image on it and carries it with him on his trip, and when he survives his snakebite, he believes she was looking out for him. She always leaves him feeling more hopeful, and good things happen for Victor when he places himself in the presence of her likeness; in this case, he finds Miguel again after a church visit involving the Lady, in Nogales.

“They are scum, my friend. I would rather die than pay them a fortune, only to have them betray me at the drop of a hat.” 

Here, Miguel is describing the coyotes who lead immigrants across the border. Miguel used to use coyotes, until one left him behind in the desert and he almost died. As more immigrants have begun crossing the border, the coyotes have become increasingly unreliable and ruthless. Most get paid regardless of whether those they guide make it across, so they have little incentive to ensure the safety of those they are guiding.  

“Don’t be sorry for me, or for yourself, either, when the bad things happen. You have to stay strong for your family. You have to be a man.’’ 

Miguel says this to Victor, reinforcing Victor’s feeling that he is responsible for providing for his family. The quote also foreshadows the coming difficulties that Victor will face, including being separated from Miguel. 

“It is, if you’re willing to work hard. In the States, it’s possible to start from the ground and reach the top of the tree. In Mexico, if you are born poor, there are no branches within reach, and the trunk is coated with lard.” 

Victor tells Miguel that Rico called the U.S. a “land of opportunity.” Miguel, who has been working in the U.S. for years, verifies this idea, with a caveat: in order to succeed, you need to work hard.  

“The valley floor was mostly grasses sprinkled with bushes and ocotillo—no places to hide as far as I could see. I felt safe as a caterpillar crawling through a yard full of chickens. What about the heat cameras and all the other Migra tricks?” 

This quote contains many representative elements of the style of the novel. Victor often observes the nature around him, in this case noting the lack of cover as he and Miguel flee the Border Patrol. Additionally, the author often uses Spanish words in English sentences, and here Migra is substituted for Border Patrol. Finally, the author uses animal references to reveal how characters are feeling.

“I pulled down the lid until it latched. It was only then that I wondered if there was a way to open it from inside. Wildly, I began to feel around for a latch in the pitch dark. Suddenly I felt like I was buried alive. Without a doubt, this was the stupidest thing I had done in my entire life.” 

This quote describes a rare moment where Victor makes an unwise choice. Instead of asking a fisherman if he can get a ride, he decides to hide in the man’s truck-bed toolbox. When the fisherman discovers his stowaway, he calls Border Patrol. In this moment, Victor realizes that he’s not even sure he can get out of the box on his own, and has made an unwise decision. 

“As Sandoval drove into a huge compound fenced with chain link and razor wire, I pictured how it might have been different back at the lake. What if I had asked the gabacho for a ride? I might be finding work right now, sending money home soon.” 

Riding in the car with a Border Patrol agent, Victor thinks back to his poor decision to get into the fisherman’s toolbox and imagines how things could have been different. By reflecting on his mistakes, he is learning about how he might do things differently in the future. 

“We got out of the bus at the side of the Port of Entry. I followed along as we were led, like cattle, through fence gates and chutes. I was too stunned to think about what to do next.” 

Victor is deported after being caught hiding in the fisherman’s toolbox. As he is being deported, he compares himself to a cow, powerless to intercede in his own fate. 

“The chicken wranglers don’t care. They get paid by the head. They still make good money if only half make it, that’s what I heard.” 

This quote refers to those who lead immigrants across the border, called “chicken wranglers.” Rico is telling Victor his story of trying to cross the border and recounting a rumor he heard about how the chicken wranglers make money. This quote points to the difficulty of acquiring accurate information about the process of crossing the border, as most information is shared by word-of-mouth. 

“The machine ate peso coins like candy, but what could I say. It was Rico’s money.” 

This quote points to the differences between Victor and Rico. While Rico recklessly spends his money when he feels bad, Victor saves carefully. Yet Victor doesn’t feel like he can or should confront his friend about his behavior.

“You don’t need to scare me, Rico. I’m scared enough, just like you. I tell you, everything will be better.”

When Victor and Rico are trying to figure out how they will cross the border, Rico snaps at Victor about rattlesnakes, making Victor’s skin crawl. But Victor doesn’t get mad in return. Instead, he replies calmly. This quote foreshadows the conflict the two friends will soon have over Rico’s involving them with the drug runners, as well as the role Victor’s ability to stay calm will have in their eventual escape.

“I could only think I had been given a miracle. I knew who to thank: the Virgin of Guadalupe, whose image I carried in my pocket, and my mother. She had been lighting candles for me in the village church, same as she used to for my father.” 

After he survives a snakebite, Victor attributes his survival to his mother’s dedicated prayers for him to the Virgin of Guadalupe. The Virgin is a touchstone for Victor throughout the novel, signifying his connection to home and family. 

“As I looked out across the face of the peak I saw something moving. I looked again and saw a creature out of my dreams, out of my childhood in Chiapas: a great spotted cat, silently and effortlessly ghosting in our direction. I blinked and the jaguar was still there, big as life in the silvery light, on a ledge that might connect to ours.” 

In the novel’s climax, Victor and Rico are hiding from Jarra on a mountain when a jaguar appears. The jaguar, a symbol of Victor’s strength and connection to home and family, draws Victor’s attention to a possible escape route along a narrow ledge. Victor wakes Rico, and the two climb the steep ledge to freedom. 

“I found out how lucky we had been to find work in the asparagus. Little would be grown here next year. The cannery was going to close because Americans were buying their canned asparagus from Peru.” 

This quote points to the complicated, global farming industry that is always operating behind the scenes of Victor’s personal journey. Victor left Mexico because farming there had become impossible, but this quote points to the insecurities he will still face seeking work in the north.