Strangers Among You

 

Strangers

Among

You

 

By

Alfred Brock

 

Introduction

 

This book talks about why migrants and immigrants are risking their lives to cross the border into the United States and become Americans.  It is a plain, simple telling of the Martinez family as they make their way from the countryside of Costa Rica to Detroit, Michigan.

                It is built, of course, upon the American dream and the American that exists in the United States of America.   More than that, however, it details the very real reasons people have for leaving their country to go to the United States.  Not enough people are aware that these people are leaving life and death situations.   They are coming from places that cannot be gone back to without a great deal of work and fixing.

                Of course - the work and fixing of correcting all that would be profitable for a great many people - but - right now too many people in the developed world are under the impression that millions of people fleeing their homes are doing it as an adventure and fun thing to do with their time.  In fact, if they stay, they would live in misery and many face death for themselves and their loved ones.  What they are doing is heroic.  Just as heroic as what our own ancestors have done. 

                At this point in time people are struggling to reach the United States.  They are striving with all their lives and abilities to come to these shores.  They are travelling with their families over dangerous lands.  They are dealing with treacherous people.  They are escaping life threatening situations.  They are hoping for a better life.  They want to build a better life for themselves and their family.  They are coming, some of them with nothing but their abilities and the clothes on their backs.  They are being driven from their homelands and the places of their birth having been left with one blessed hope and future and that is to live in the United States of America.  They desire to join their future with the American people and work hard and work together to build a nation this is strong and compassionate.

                Many of the hardworking people never make it to our shores or cross our borders.  Some give up their lives in the doing of this fabulous journey.  Their efforts end in blameless death that is tragedy itself.  They come with no dishonor hoping to have and to give what is the best of all human accomplishments - to be free, equal, to live in peace and to have an opportunity.

                Many try to shut them out.  Turning away from their own blessed truths and given fortunes provided to us by our union and pledges to liberty.  They cannot be shut out because these strangers among us are us.

​​​​​​​The question now, of course, is - what do we all do together?

Chapter 1

                Gilberto awoke.  He stared up into the rafters of his home.

                It had rained the night before and the smell of newly fallen rain was still heavy in the air.  It was sweet and refreshing.  As the temperature climbed into the day, he knew it would also be fleeting, as whatever moisture it brought to the land the wind and sun would take away by mid-morning.

                This part of Costa Rica has regular rain but for various reasons the forests, jungles and farmlands had been left in what was becoming to look like a drought.

                Still, he reflected upon his house.  He worked hard.  He realized this.  He knew it.  He could feel it in his hands and arms, up through his shoulders and all through his strong frame.  He provided for his family as best he could.  It was true they had only rudimentary furniture and that they lived in a ramshackle building made from weather boards.  He could see the texture of the tin sheets that made up his roof.  He looked over to the thin wall that separated his bedroom from that of the children’s room.  He looked down between his feet and could see into the kitchen where Maria cooked and worked each day.

                His eyes trailed over to her.  Maria.  His child bride. They had both gotten married when they were 17 years old.  They were so happy.  The villagers all came out for the celebration.  That had been 16 years ago.  Two years before the birth of his son, Gilberto, Jr.

                They were happy times.

                His father had passed away a year after his son was born.  His mother, a year after that.  Maria’s parents were still alive.  They lived in a village across the ridge in the next valley.  They were coffee farmers and almost completely retired.  Their state of living was not too much different from Gilberto’s.

                They had offered him to come live with them after his parents passed.  At the time remaining where he was with his family seemed the best option.  Though his father had died his two brothers and their families were still nearby.  Gilberto’s older sister, Teresa, lived down in the valley with her two children.

                That was a long time ago, however.

                During the intervening years one of his uncles had passed away.  His wife moved back to her childhood village in the mountains.  His other uncle moved away to San Jose.  He had only one letter from him asking him if he wanted to come take a job at a factory there.  That was the last time he had heard from his Uncle Gustavo.  He had decided not to go as Gilberto considered his whole life to be that of a farmer.  He could never believe there might be some other work in the world for him other than farming his own land.

                Teresa’s husband, Octavio, worked as an auto mechanic.  He did alright for himself.  There was steady work from the small businesses and farms around the area.  He also offered Gilberto a position with him at the shop.  Gilberto had just come off of two very good years providing vegetables to the local villages so he declined.  He did not foresee that the two villages near him would be nearly uninhabited in just a few years more.

                He sat up in his bed and looked out the window.  The last few drops of moisture had gathered on the sheer edge of the tin sheet above his head.  They slowly plopped down into the puddles below.  Puddles filled with precious, clear water.  He was glad had put out barrels to collect the rainwater.  That was what they drank from the most.  Maria was able to cook with it as well.  For washing, she needed to go to the creek.

                He stood up and stretched.  He made an effort not wake Maria.  She worked so hard.  Six days a week, like him, from morning to night and beyond.  They worked all the time.  Even on Sunday, the day of rest, after they had attended Church down the valley they would return and work again until night came.

                Gilberto recalled the story of Jesus and his disciples in the fields on the Sabbath.  How his disciples had picked the heads off wheat and ate them.  The Pharisees called out, ‘Look, your disciples are breaking the Sabbath law!’

                Jesus set them straight and reminded them about how David’s men at the showbread from the altar.  Gilberto remembered what Jesus said, ‘If you had known what this means, ‘I want mercy and not sacrifice., you wouldn’t have condemned the innocent.’

                Gilberto made the sign of the Cross upon himself and stepped out of the bedroom into the kitchen.

                He took his shirt from the chair.  He looked around the room.  The bucket of water, the simple sink that drained outside.  The checkered cloths hung at the window.  The shrine in the corner to Mother Mary.

                He took up the slotted water spoon and took a draught.  The drops rained down into the bucket.

                Turning, he walked to the door and outside.  He sat in the shade on the stop just outside the door.  The curtain hung behind him.  Soon the sun would be moving overhead.  The only shade would be in the small bunches of trees and bushes still left on the hillside.

                He took out a cigarette and lit it.  It was one pleasure he allowed himself.  He did not drink liquor.  He did not gamble.  He did not steal.

                The smoke curled up around his nose.

                He looked out on his fields that began just five feet from the door.

                In the past the fields had been set back.  One had to walk to them.  As time passed, however, it took more land to produce the same amount he had in the past.  These last two seasons all the new land, and even combined with that which his neighbor rented to him, brought in less.  This year, he knew, it might not even be enough to see them through to next year.  When the taxes came he would be in trouble.  He would have to do something.

                He looked at the land.  It was still broken and crumbling from where he had cut it with the plough.  Yellow clay, hardened red clay, lines of black and brown earth, now dried and caked.  Looking at it like that he couldn’t see how the seeds would even germinate let alone grow and thrive.

                 The work in the past week had been difficult.  All the preparation that had to go into the work that was done.  He had to order the seed.  The office where he ordered it from always insisted on payment in cash.  He kept the money in a metal cigar box he under the house.  He would set aside seed money for the following year each autumn after the harvest.  The rest that was made from the markets was the money they could save and use for food over the winter.

                They used to be able to buy gifts for the children and clothing too.  Even clothing was becoming too expensive.  If Maria hadn’t been a seamstress and able to make clothes from older clothing and even cloths that would seem to be rags they wouldn’t have been able to make it.

                The building where he bought the seeds at was modern.  It was covered in brightly colored metal signs.  They advertised all the biggest names in the world for the manufacture of fertilizers, herbicides, fungicides and insecticides.

                Gilberto was careful about all of those chemicals.  Not because he thought they were dangerous.  He really didn’t know too much about them.  He was careful because one of his neighbors had an infestations of mealy bugs.  He went down to the store to get bug spray.  They sold him some and he came back and put it on his plants.  It turned out to the wrong kind and it was out of date.  The treatment didn’t work and the bugs ate up the crop.  They almost spread to Gilberto’s land but because of the heat his neighbor’s crop had dried up.  All the plants died and with them the bugs.

                He remembered sitting in the shade across the road as a child when the farm store was built.  His father said it was a good thing but probably wouldn’t last.  Gilberto asked him why he had said that.

                His father said, ‘Either they will go out of business because no one around here can afford what they will sell, or we will go out of business because we cannot buy what they sell.’

                Gilberto’s eyes had been attracted to the shiny new metal signs.

                He thought it would be great if they had metal like that to make their roofs and walls with.  He laughed quietly to himself as he remembered that one day he had actually done that.  The shopkeepers had thrown away an old green, metal sign and he had seen it.  He dragged it up the hill to his father’s farm.

                His father saw it and said, ‘Good job, Gilberto.  I know just the place for that.’

                His father took it and made a roof for the pigs in the pigsty.

                Gilberto didn’t even visit the store this year.  There was no money for any of their chemicals and powders.  As it was there hadn’t been many insect infestations in recent years because the forests and jungles were now pushed so far back that the creatures couldn’t overwinter.  Gilberto was lucky with that but it didn’t matter because now even the water was gone.

                He stood up and walked over to the caked ground.  He kicked at it.  Some of it was hard as a rock.  Some was soft and burst into puffs of powder when kicked.

                He recalled how after the store had opened large trucks had come along.  There was some sort of government aid program that had been underway.

                The trucks had come along after the building was put up.  They graded the old dirt track and widened it.  Parts of it were paved.  There was more and more earthmoving equipment brought in.  It took over four years of work to build out the road.

                During the rainy season any part that had not been completed began to revert and wash away.  The project got bigger and bigger.

                At the same time larger and larger deliveries of chemicals and powders were brought to the building which was now called the ‘Farm Service Agency’.  The farmers went down to see what was there.

                Experts came from all of the chemical companies and put on presentations about the chemicals and powders.

                They were from all over the world.  The immediate problem that presented itself was that only one or two of them took into account that the official language of Costa Rica is Spanish.  At first many farmers went to the presentations but as it became obvious they would be given in English, Germany, French, Japanese and even Chinese, the numbers dropped off.

                As the prices became known even fewer went.

                In response to the drop in interest and the obvious advantages that the government might accrue if the farmers could increase production official offices reached out to relief agencies.

                They also answered the call and appeared with new technology and information.  Again, however, most of it was presented in languages other than Spanish and none in the Native Languages.  Only one or two of the attendees really comprehended that they would never be able to afford what was being put before them.

                The shipments continued.  As the road came to completion the shipments increased even more.  There were large lots set aside and piled high with the chemicals and powders.

                Then, there was new traffic there at the store.

                Even though the materials and road had been brought in ostensibly for the local farmers they began to be diverted elsewhere.

                At that time, Gilberto recalled, there was plenty of work.  The banana companies had begun to expand again.  As the chemicals weren’t being taken up by the local farmers the large corporate farms began buying them out.  The prices were rockbottom, after all, much of it had been donated through international agencies that had purchased surplus production from international firms.

                Of course, once the large companies realized what was going on they gladly offered further materials.  These were collected and shipped and once they arrived at their destination all they needed to do was wait.  After the initial time for the local farmers to buy the materials they didn’t want or understand how to use the manufacturers would sell them to the larger corporate farms.

                After a while they didn’t even wait anymore.  They shipped them in and moved them out.

                That is about the time the local store lost its luster.  The shipments didn’t even stop there anymore.  The pits and piles were reduced to nothing.  The corporate landholders built a small railroad and ran the stuff up from the port directly to their plantations.

                Chemicals and liquids intended to increase production on smallholders’ farms of a few acres or hectares were being directed to large plantations.  Some of the plantations were, and some still are, many square miles or square kilometers in size.

                All during this time the materials that were dumped on the soil or stored in barrels or sacks made of cloth, paper or plastic began to leak.  Designed in countries where the temperatures were, on average, 20 to 40 degrees cooler and nearly 50 percent less humid, the packages experience stresses and problems they had not been designed for.

                The bags and barrels burst open.  The powders and liquids leached down into the soil and poisoned the drinking water and the water used for crops.  The chemicals leaked down into rivulets, drains and sewers and made their way to the local streams, ponds and lakes. 

                Even many of the rivers ended up carrying along loads of toxic pesticides such as aldrin, dieldrin, endrin and DDT.

                Each one separately dangerous and toxic while all of them together created a horrible brew.

                Pests were practically eradicated.  This was followed by grasshoppers, butterflies, nearly all of the bees, spiders, small rodents, various types of plants, fish, aquatic shellfish and birds.

                A teacher had come once from Spain to teach the children in the school during Summertime.  There was always a lot of work on the farm during that time of year, in spite of the heat, but, the classes went on. 

                Gilberto was lucky as his father sent him to class.  He could hardly spare him but he wanted to give every chance to the boy that he could.

                One day the teacher had taken out a book and talked about it.  He remembered it very well because there were Macaw Parrots outside the schoolroom window that day.  The children were all imitating them as they made their loud sounds.

                The teacher held up the book, which was called, ‘Silent Spring’, by Rachel Carson.  He said that one day, if people didn’t stop using all these chemicals to farm that there would be no birds singing and no bees buzzing.

                Most of the farm boys had mocked him.  Saying that would never happen, could never happen.  Some wished that all the bugs would go away and one boy wished the loud parrots would go away.  He said there were so many on his farm that he could not sleep late ever.

                As Gilberto walked out into the center of his field, carefully, walking, so as to not disturb any seed that might find a moist place to grow, he looked out at the edges of the field.

                The forest used to grow quite close.   The would cut their fields out of the forest carefully so that the soil would not move and the water not run like a river into their neighbors land.

                During those times the jungle and forest were loud places indeed.  There were monkeys then.  Mantled Howler Monkeys, Back Crowned Monkeys, White Faced Monkeys and their little cousins the Squirrel Monkeys.

                There had been a family of Squirrel Monkeys in their barn when he grew up.  His father let them stay there because they ate up insects and chased off or ate up any mice that came by.  Between them and the cats there were no rodents.

                Out of habit Giberto listened for the birds.

                When he was younger their sounds and songs were everywhere.  From the Macaws to the Toucans, amazing Aracari, White Front Parrots, the emerald colored Quetzal and clouds of Hummingbirds.

                He heard nothing but the wind and the far off sound of locusts singing somewhere down the hills.

                No pests.  Nothing for them to eat.  Nothing else either.

                The fish and frogs were gone from the streams and creeks and what ponds had not dried up.  They were killed at first by the chemicals then by the chemicals and silt.  Now they were gone.  They had waited for them to return but they did not.

                Some more specialists had appeared and taught people how to farm fish.   Catfish and Tilpia.  That worked for two seasons.  Then the fish started to die.  It was just as well, Gilberto remembered, because someone from the government health department had come and ordered them to close all the fish ponds and told them not to eat the fish because they had been poisoned.

                They never said why but everyone knew.

                The fish farmers stopped selling the fish on the open market but some still took them down to the town or the city.  Others shared them and ate them.  Many people became sick and had to stop farming altogether.  Some moved away.  Some died.

                The ponds eventually dried up.  All except for one.  It persisted even in the highest heat.  Some chemical reaction had occurred and the water was bright blue.  If you put rubber boots in the water for too long they would begin to leak.  If you touched the water and did not wash with fresh water immediately it would burn your skin.

                He had reached the end of his field.  He stook on the row of rocks that lined it.  The hill fell off a bit here and there was a small track below where wagons used to pass.  It was beginning to slowly grow over with grasses.

                He could see into the hazy air down the valley.  He could just make out the town.

                Turning back to his home he saw how small it was.  How it had no door nor windows.  Just opening covered with colorful curtains that Maria had made.

                How could he do this to his children?

                If he remained there he realized that they may go hungry.  Even starve.

                He thought for a moment with pain about the old couple that had lived down the fill near the well.  They had long lived there.  They had a small farm like he had and raised vegetables.

                They had prospered when the chemicals came.  They grew so much they had extra money.

                The chemicals poisoned the water, however, and they were unaware.  As the runoff from their neighbors accumulated there the local stream became polluted.  The well silted up and the water turned salty.

                A truck road was built close to their vegetable stand and because of the large trucks that ran there no one went to buy their produce anymore.  It was too dangerous.

                Eventually their own production fell off and they spent their money.  They were too proud to ask for help.

                The old man got sick first.  Some sort of cancer of the stomach.  The old woman got a bacterial infection.  Neither was able to take care of the other.  They weren’t discovered until it was too late and both were dead.

                Their son had come up from the city to check on them.  They had not been able to tell him what was going on.  There was no telephone and the old couple could not read or write so there were no letters.

                They died in the middle of what used to be a vibrant community of sickness without anyone being aware.

                After that happened and their son discovered them word got back to the local government and a health inspector was sent out.  Surveys were done and medical students were sent out to do interviews in the local area.

                As a result of that tragedy some people got much needed medical care, at least for a while.  The other result that occurred is that the farmland of the old couple was bought up by one of landowners in the town for a very low price and the son was cheated out of his inheritance.

                Using the information gathered from the medical surveys this same sort of landgrab took place at several other farms up and down the valley.

                Gilberto glanced down to the right over his shoulder then back to his house.

                ‘No.’, he  said out loud to himself, ‘That will not happen to me, my wife nor to my children.’

 

Chapter 2

 

                Maria was born in a small village on the border between the forest and jungle and farms.

                Her father was a trader who bought and sold items to the Indians and farmers.  He worked for a small hardware store in the larger town nearby.

                In those days bandits were not a problem.  The farmers and townspeople regulated themselves while the Indians lived by their own codes and laws.

                There was very little crime.  When anything like that would happen the local police would eventually step in and take care of it.  The National Police were not there and the Army was never seen unless some young man joined and came home to visit family.

                Her father’s name was Nicolas.  He would take a load of supplies with him to a small hut in Maria’s village and there conduct some of his business.  Most of his business, however, was done on foot.   He would need to go through the village checking with everyone, then out to all of the farms and finally into the forest and jungle to deal with the Indians and others living there.

                It was hard work.  Maria’s father met a man named Bartholomew who was an Indian who lived near the forest and jungle line.  He knew the land in the wild areas.

                Nicolas had ventured into the woods alone when he first came to the area.  He became hopelessly lost.  He was led out by a pair of Indian hunters who could not speak English.

                He still needed to enter the area because it was part of his job.  The next time he went in he got lost again and had to abandon most of his materials.  He was able to get to the edge of the forest and jungle but had only his donkey with him.  It so happened that Nicolas stumbled past Bartholomew’s home.

                The older man came out of his house and watched as Nicolas stumbled past pulling along his donkey.  He was covered in sweat, bitten by mosquitoes and very upset.

                Bartholomew walked over to him.  Nicolas stopped.  Bartholomew took the reins of the donkey and led it behind his house.  Nicolas was sure that he had just been robbed and that the man would come back and kill.  He had no weapon except a pistol.  He hesitated in reaching for it.

                The older man came back and took Nicolas by the arm and led him into the cooler confines of his home.  He brought him water and put food out before him.  Then he went out the back door.  Nicolas could see him giving hay and feed to the donkey.

                When he returned he gave Nicolas water and sat down at the table across from him.

                That is how they had met.

                The fact is that Nicolas would not have been able to continue in his work in the wild lands without Bartholomew’s help.  He was able to talk with and interact, or at least make himself understood, with most of the Indians and Settlers but, even if he made a sale, he would not have been sure he could find his way back in an orderly fashion to his customers.

                It goes without saying that eventually, without a competent guide, that he would probably have died, if not sickened for the rest of his life by pestilent waters, spiders, snakes or other dangers, including Jaguars.

                As it was Bartholomew was more than a competent guide.  He was able to speak Spanish and three local Indian languages including Bribri, Cabecar and Maleku.  He was also able to converse with and communicate in a rudimentary fashion in Jaika, Boruca and Terraba.

                Bartholomew saved Nicolas’ life.

                If not fast friends they became effective business partners.  They supplied home goods and farming implements and hunting equipment to the locals all throughout the region.

                Bartholomew and Nicolas opened up the region to development in a rational fashion.  Farms became more orderly and the local tribes began to use materials for their lives.  It was generally working out well for all.  Conflicts were reduced as well.

                The Indians had no fast access to money, so, at first there was a problem with servicing their hamlets and villages.  Bartholomew took care of that by bartering and trading for jungle and forest goods as well as handmade items.

                At first Nicolas could not understand why Bartholomew was doing this and they argued over trading for things that Nicolas could not turn into the company.

                After three months of disagreements there was a large cache of materials they had collected and Nicolas was about to be in arears to his company.

                Bartholomew appeared one day at Nicolas’ office with two horses and a wide wagon.  He began to load the wagon with all the items they had.  Spears, blow guns, handmade kitchen items and many other crafts including weavings and cloths.

                Nicolas looked on with consternation.

                When Bartholomew was done he gestured to Nicolas to come sit beside him in the wagon.

                Nicolas reluctantly did so.

                Their journey took most of the day.  They stopped at a river and drank water, cleaned up and ate some food.

                They still had not spoken.

                They arrived at the nearest large town and slowly made their way through.  As they were leaving the town Nicolas turned to Bartholomew and was about to speak when Bartholomew made a motion with his hand signifying to be silent.

                They turned to the left onto a dirt track and proceeded back around the buildings to an open fieldlike area that was lined on both sides with market stalls.  Some of them had signs that indicated they were some sort of extension to the shops in the town itself.  It was a large market.

                Bartholomew stopped the horses, took them aside and tied them up.  He watered them and set them to the grass.

                Then he began unloading the wagon and setting materials all about.

                Within a short amount of time, even before he had finished unloading people began to approach them and soon they were surrounded.

                Bartholomew indicated to Nicolas to continue unloading.  He then set up a table, set out two chairs and sat down.  He began selling the items.

                There were Indians, Settlers, Townspeople and, most importantly, Tourists.  They all had money.

                Within a short time Nicolas saw that they had made enough money to meet his monthly quota and they had not even started to sell what they had across the wagon.

                As it was they worked late into the night and sold everything in the wagon except for a few items.  Bartholomew gave them away to other people in the market including the older women and men that had been selling trinkets and other small items for the tourist trade.

                Those people often made barely enough to survive and much of what they had was not even made in Costa Rica.  Postcards, keychains and the like.

                They spent the night in a small hotel.

                In the morning Nicolas was ready to go but Bartholomew took him directly to the bank where they opened an account and Nicolas deposited the money.           

                Nicolas made much more with that business in one day than he made all month trading across the region.

                They returned home and thus began the more profitable time for their partnership.         

                A week later Nicolas met Bartholomew’s family.  They were Martha, his wife, his sons, Mateo and Santiago and his daughter, Teresa.  This was the same Teresa who one day would become Nicolas’ wife.

                Teresa had developed an appreciation for languages like her father.  She attended the local Missionary School with her brothers and the other children in the area.  Unlike most of the children she stayed in school and was able to graduate after 12 years of education.

                When she first met Nicolas he was still a young merchant.  She was already working with her father in his own trading business and also taught other local children.  She had considered becoming a teacher.

                Her oldest brother Mateo became a hunter and eventually moved away from the area.  Salvador stayed nearby and became a farmer.  Teresa cared for her parents and continued her budding relationship with Nicolas.

                Books were hard for Teresa to come by.  The cost of purchasing and transporting them and then the additional problems with ensuring they were not damaged led to some of the problems.  The more insidious difficulties lay in the censorship.  Some books were just not allowed.  They could not be found in the bookstores and were not in the libraries.  There were several different reasons for this.

                Discussions of past conflicts in the country might cause a book to be banned or just not made available.   Any books that dealt with controversial subjects regarding government were practically nonexistent.  This allowed, of course, the continuation of violent and despotic rule by reducing any opposition.

                Another reason books were not available was language.  Many of the books, technical and scientific, were never translated into Spanish, or if they were, they were not made available to the local market.  If they were the costs associated with purchasing them were so high that they might as well have not been on the shelves.  Add to that the general level of literacy and the local area, region and, indeed, the entire country, was trapped in a world of ignorance.

                Some local officials were able to take advantage of this by their manipulation of fees and even changing rates of taxation to suit themselves.

                This was the reasoning behind Bartholomew having Nicolas maintain his money in a bank in the neighboring town as well as trading there.  The less the local officials knew about what was happening the better it was for Bartholomew and Nicolas.

                After two years Nicolas and Teresa got married.

                They moved into town and Nicolas continued his prosperous business.

                They had two children.  Marcos and Maria.

                Over time the trading business changed.  At first it all seemed orderly and things were going well for everyone.  As time passed, however, the government attitude toward land changed.  Larger parcels were sold and cut out of the forest and jungle.  The Indians were forced to change their way of life or leave the land.

                There were many conflicts between the Indians and new arrivals.  They involved direct confrontation between individuals or small groups, to police and the Army.   Eventually, the problems having expanded across the nation the Police were turned into a national force.  The dye was set.

                The national government had discovered that foreigners were interested in land and a lot of it.  They had already entered into a long term relationship with the banana plantation owners.  A cycle of settlement, removal and then banana plants had already established itself in the late 19^th century.  As the 20^th century went on the cycle became established business practice.

                As palm oil, coffee and other commodities took control of the valleys, then the hills and even the remote mountains, small farmers were forced off their land.  Indians were driven from their homelands or killed outright.

                It was in this terrible, brewing atmosphere of violence and greed that Maria met Gilberto.

                Gilberto had arrived in the area as a ranch hand on a small ranch just outside of town.  He found work in town and eventually got work at the merchant store run by her father.

                Over time he was able to save money and he bought a small farm in the hills overlooking the town.  At first the farm produced well.  He and Maria were in love and her parents arranged the wedding.  They even helped Gilberto’s parents travel to the ceremony and celebration.

                Maria was happy and content.  On the farm she made  friends with the neighbors and helped to teach the local children.  She thought about forming her own school but the local government was not cooperative.  Things were changing in the town and so that plan was put aside.

                As times were changing quickly Maria’s father did not change as quickly with them.  He was at first confused then critical of the way the Indians were being treated.  At first the Settlers did not agree with him and his business began to suffer.  They changed their mind, however, after seeing how large landholders from outside the area, and even from outside the country, would buy up land force farmers off it.

                All this was done at a rapid pace.  In one of the neighboring valleys most of the farms and remaining forest and jungle were swallowed up by just one banana plantation.  Very little money changed hands.  Most of the farms were condemned.  When that process proved too slow the developers hired local police to evict farmers just on evidence that a complaint had been filed.

                All the farmers were promised their day in court.  Of course, they had to pay and stipulations included registering complaints and challenges at the courts in the capitol.  All of these tactics left lives in tatters.  Some did not survive the shock of being expelled from lands they had settled or, worse, lived on their entire lives.

                Gilberto had dodged the worst of it for the time being.

                The  farm he took up had been cut into the landscape on a hill by a man who had worked with the logging company.  He had worked the farm for two years himself and then took on a tenant farmer.  The man became a logging company supervisor and took crews into the forests and jungles and took down all of the trees as they looked for and removed those with a commercial value.

                The rest was set afire.

                It was this ash and residue that fertilized the land.  At first, when Gilberto took on the farm, the land produced well.  There was a stream nearby and ponds both above and below the farm.

                He and Maria were happy to have it.

                The last Gilberto had heard of the lumberman was that they had gone up north to a newly opened region and began clear cutting.

                The local tribe had not been informed and some members came down to stop the work.

                One of the Indians was shot.  It wasn’t clear who did it.

                The next day the Indians returned and killed the lumberman and the three other workers that were with him.

                They set fire to a bulldozer.

                The local police contacted the Army.

                The Army contacted the National Police.

                The National Police came to the scene two weeks later and started an investigation.

                The result of the investigation was that the tribe was at fault and in revolt.  The National Police went into the jungle and attacked the first village they found.  All of the buildings were burned down.  Fifteen, men, women and children were killed.

                It turned out that the National Police had attacked a village of a neighboring tribe.  When the members of the original tribe found out about it they fell to fighting each other.  One tribesman went to surrender.  He was killed immediately as he exited the forest.  The rest of the tribe scattered and went west further into the shrinking forest and jungle.

                The official reasoning for the attack by the National Police was recorded as destruction of personal property by rebels.  As a result of that determination the government was able to submit papers for international aid that allowed them to replace the bulldozer for the lumber company.

                The next month lumbering began again.

                Maria and Gilberto enjoyed their time on the farm.  They noticed but were not concerned with the denuding of the jungle and forest.  It was all presented as progress.  There was a general sense of prosperity and opportunity in the area.

                Aid workers often came to the local village and countryside giving out medicine and providing instruction in farming techniques.

                As time went on it became apparent to Gilberto and other farmers in the area that much of the information they were getting was nonsensical or not focused on the local circumstances.

                They were invited to meetings where companies from the United States, Great Britain, Germany, Japan, China or Russia would slideshows would be provided, mostly with subtitles in the respective foreign language.  Brochures would also be distributed, also, again, in foreign languages.

                The presentations might be on anything related to farming.  From advanced irrigation techniques involving gigantic contraptions and infrastructure that did not exist in the area and which relied on amounts of water that were not available.

                A memorable demonstration that Gilberto and Maria attended together was on the subject of irrigation.  It took over three hours to complete.  The presenter spoke in broken Spanish and a reliable local translator were present, so, more than the usual number of farmers and merchants stayed until the end.

                It didn’t occur to the presenter, however, that after the first half of the presentation the reason most of the attendees remained was not that they were interested in purchasing the equipment and carrying out the techniques, but were either amused or attracted to all of the things shown in the background of the images and videos.

                They were amused in general because the circular irrigation systems being shown would only be viable in a small part of the valley.  In all the rest of the valley the water would flow and pool in one part of the field, or, if installed in the hills would wash away the soil and cause landslides.  From that point of view the entire thing was preposterous.

                Unfortunately for a few Tenant Farmers who left early on the owner of their land thought it was a great idea to install the circular irrigation systems.  He bought one that very evening.

                It was installed early the next Spring.  The amount of water it drew from the ground by motorized pumps dried up a local lake and the water on the fields, as discussed by the amused farmers at the meeting, soaked the hillside and set in motion a landslide that destroyed the fields and killed two families living below the operation.

                The items in the background of the presentation that attracted interest were the wide open fields of corn and sorghum beyond the circular cotton fields.  The farmers watched with glee and some little greed as farmers in the videos drove new trucks and cars and worked in air conditioned and modern offices.  Compared to their backbreaking labor and sunburnt days the videos looked like paradise and true advancement in technology and progress.

                They weren’t told about the reduction of the water tables where that irrigation was practiced.  They did not review the salt deposits brought up from below that poisoned the soil and necessitated moving the entire operation from site to site until all of the verdant fields shown in the videos were reduced to poisoned lands as a result of manmade desertification.

                They were offered good terms to purchase the equipment.  Like most of these schemes the contracts contained within them clauses for the transfer of the equipment to any new owner of any land on which the equipment was located.  This allowed aid money to be used to actually buy the land and displace the farmers who were supposed to be the actual recipients of that aid.  Nevertheless, the attending farmers that evening enjoyed the presentation.

                At first, whatever Gilberto planted on the land grew, and grew well.  He had a fine well on his land, a stream nearby and local ponds to draw water from.

                Over the decade that they were successful he noticed but was not concerned as the water seemed to change in color and become somewhat brackish in the streams.  The well started to go after the streams seemed tainted.

                During all of this Maria worked as a seamstress.  She was able to use some household money to purchase cloth in town.  She had a busy and successful business making clothes and household goods for her neighbors and the townspeople.  At one time she had two young women working for her.

                That was a happy time.  The women would bring their children and Maria would give them books and some tutoring.  Gilberto had friends as well among the local farmers and the tradesmen in the towns.

                The would offer small parties that were well attended and joyful.  Maria was very happy.

                The children went to school in town and she was able to help them when they came home.

                She became concerned when an Indian School was opened up in the town.

                At first there were no pupils.  Then, slowly, first one, then two and then three and then many, they came.

                She was concerned because her father had been an Indian.  He had told her about the old Indian Schools.  Many of them were little more than prisons or jails that kept the children locked up.  If they were lucky enough to reach adulthood they might find some menial job or, if they decided to return to the forest and jungle, might die there of disease or malnutrition.

                If they fell into bad company they would meet their deaths early on.

                She went to the schools to learn more about them.  They were a little different from those in the past.  They still separated the children from their parents.  Their parents were  told they could not raise their children in the wild and expect them to get on in the world. 

                In the past this was not a reasonable argument because, though their ways were different, the people who lived in the Indian towns and villages were generally healthy and prosperous.

                Time, however, had changed things.  The forest and jungle was growing smaller every day.  The Indians, though they fought as they could and resisted where they could were now able to see that the day would come when the forest and jungle were gone.

                Some would send their children to the schools in the hopes of them having a better life.  Some sent them out of desperation as their watched their livelihoods disappear, their homes destroyed and their people dying.  Others did not send them, the children were taken after the parents died.

                Maria did what she could for them.  She cared for them. Helped teach if she were allowed.  Brought them food and made them clothes.

                By the time Gilberto and Maria started to see problems with their farm there were three Indian schools in the town.

                There were about seventy-seven children in the schools.   They were kept separate from the other children who attended the simple public schools for a few years before being turned out into the workforce.

                Unlike the government schools the Indian schools were mostly run by religious groups from outside of the country.

                There was a Protestant Missionary School, a group of Nuns and a Non-Denominational School that was constantly experiencing problems with runaways, sick children or other problems.  It was rumored that some of the children did not survive their time there and were buried in the fields beyond.

                Maria would be at celebrations during holidays when they children opened gifts sent to them by people in the United States, England, Spain or other countries.  Some things were useful but she was confused and a little amused sometimes when the children received shoe polish, or nail polish, shoe strings or sunglasses. 

                She was concerned when the children would open one of their gift packages and pull out a book.  The child might have the book for a short period of time.  No matter whether it was a picture book, small magazine or written in a foreign language, always, Maria saw, the hand of one of the keepers would gently, and sometimes not so gently, come reaching down to pluck the book from out of their little hands.

                Maria was also taken aback by some of the teachings the children were exposed to.  She knew the complex and detailed belief systems that the children had come to learn in the tribes.  These ideas were treated with contempt and even hatred sometimes.  They were replaced by banal teachings or extremely questionable ideas and behaviors that were so different and unfamiliar to the children that they were mindboggling and incomprehensible.

                She would bring food to them on Saturdays and read to them.  She helped in the kitchen and brought along her own children to help.  In this way the family did what they could for these children.

               

 

Chapter 3

                The process of destruction in the area, overall, had been slow, but thorough.  It wasn’t as if it were planned to reduce the land to useless rubble but that was the end result.

                When the Spaniards had first moved through the area plantations and other businesses were set up.  They had certain circumscribed areas in which they operated.  They claimed a great deal of land but in most of the country they were still outnumbered.

                They became intimately tied to the land the people as time passed.  After independence the process of assimilation continued but still distinct societies persisted.  Even up until modern times the Indians stayed mostly to themselves as did the descendants of the settlers and their slaves.

                So much pronounced was this that several Indian languages still persisted.  This had slowed the ability of the native peoples to assert themselves.  There had been no guided effort by the government to assure that one language was spoken by all people.  As a result individuals or small groups would gain ascendancy in an area simply because they could speak more than one language.  The efforts by the Catholic Church to teach Spanish were often interrupted by violent purges or wars.  During more recent times as Protestant Missionaries arrived their efforts to teach English succeeded in a small way but with the common result that those who learned English either never had a chance to use or took the opportunity to leave and head for the United States.  Either way there was a constant drain on any activity that might make way for a more commonly acceptable society.  Ultimately it became a society governed by daily needs that could only be met by acquiring ever more scarce money.

                The land was picked over for farmland.  The more fertile lands ended up in large part, in the hands of corporations and large trading companies that traded internationally.  They had no interest in securing food and transporting it to local markets.  They were interested chiefly in agricultural products as a commodity.  The process had begun late in the time of the colonies.  During those years plants and their uses were still being discovered.  It took time to work out how they could be grown and shipped and sold commercially outside of the colonies.

                By the end of the 19^th century companies had developed that bought up the production of individual commodities, like coffee beans, cacao pods and beans, palm kernels and others and took them away for sale in the manufacturing nations.

                Some manufacturing was attempted and some succeeded but they could not compete openly nor for long with the gigantic systems outside of the area.  They were plagued with supply shortages as well as with severe weather and pestilence.  The crops, also, from time to time would fail due to weather, disease or insect.

                The process settled on by the traders worked for them.  They owned the steam ships and built rail lines to collect the materials they wanted.  They charged for these services so they bought the materials produced but discounted it because they picked it up and moved it and delivered it.  In some cases they processed it as well but most of that capability developed later.

                During the early part of the 20^th century capitalists in the United States realized the great potential of the fertile lands to the south.  Combined with weak, unstable governments that could be easily manipulated or destroyed the companies from the United States, Great Britain, Germany, Spain and elsewhere set up mini-empires that exploited the region.

                Near Gilberto and Maria’s home much of the land went to Banana farms.  They were also a great region for growing coffee for a while.  The absence of the shade trees, taken for lumber and paper ended up bringing an end to widespread coffee plantations in the area.  They were merely supplanted by banana plantations.

                As the 20^th Century wore on the plantations grew ever large.  If the local farmers could, they would get a job at the plantation.  Though paying much less than running their own farm the work was year round and paid whether it was a good season or not.  A major problem with this is that for every farmer that turned to corporate work there were ten that could not.  They had to leave the area.  This reduced the variety and availability of food and the process continued until the banana plantations ruled the roost.

                In the first third of the 20^th century a virus spread among the banana populations.  At the same time labor movements began.  Some were legitimate, others not so and still others mired in politics.  There were certain areas where the labor movement took off and did good things while in others the impact was small or non-existent.  In some notable cases the local corporations took care of political and labor resistance on their own with bloody results.

                As the virus spread, killing plants and reducing production, a strange choice was made based on the economics of the local area and not for the best outcome of the industry.  The afflicted plantations were abandoned.   Sometimes the plants were burnt or they were left in place to be overcome by the returning jungle.

                The companies found land there so cheap that they could buy up the surrounding areas and just move production over a little bit.  Even more farmers and homesteaders and Indians were displaced.  Except for a very few they left the area or were crammed into ever more dense communities that barely had enough fresh water and access to food and work to exist let alone thrive.

                Some of the displaced people switched places with the plantations and moved onto the land the plantation corporations had abandoned.  The long term problem with this, that occurred later in the 20^th century, is that the corporations maintained title to the lands.  That led to a second displacement decades later.

                By burning the infected plants the materials with the virus were wafted up into the atmosphere.  What might have been a serious infection in a section of a valley could, with the right wind conditions, spread across the entire valley and beyond.  By leaving other plants in place the virus was able to continue its lifecycle and spread again when the situation was right.

                As a result the entire banana crop, not only in Costa Rica, but across Central America, Africa and Asia, was diseased and began to die off.  The industry had relied on only one type of banana – the Gros Michel.  When that was devastated and the banana crop threatened it looked like bananas and the banana plantations might loosen their hold on the lands they had colonized.

                After intense work, however, the industry settled on the Cavendish banana to replace the Gros Michel.  Resistant to the disease that took the Gros Michel out of the commodities market the Cavendish replaced it.  The plantations replanted at a ferocious rate and with a short amount of time the Cavendish had replaced the Gros Michel worldwide.

                The important thing to know about bananas is that they are easy to grow.  As long as they are kept moist in relatively fertile lands and cared for they will grow quickly, they will grow large and they will grow enormous amounts of bananas with very little care.

                It was this attractive business model that pushed the Indians and later Settlers off the land.

                Having seen enough of the valley and coming to the conclusion that he had, that he could not raise his family in this place, he headed back to his house to speak to Maria.  After all, she would need to help move the family.  He could not just pick them up and go without a plan.  He was concerned about telling her and wondered how she would take it.

                When she arrived back at the house she was already outside cooking and doing laundry.  The children had just gotten up and she had them doing various chores.

                He plucked up a head of grass as he walked towards her.

                She looked at him and asked, ‘Out thinking in the fields?’

                He laughed nervously, and said, ‘Yes, I’ve been doing that.’

                ‘I wonder what is on your mind.’

                ‘I was just about to talk to you about that.  I have a question to ask and something to say.’

                She said, ‘One moment.’

                She called the children and then sent them to various duties.  Gilberto noticed they were all sent out of earshot.

                She stirred the laundry once more, set down the paddle, washed her hands and started putting out the food.

                She asked, ‘So then, will you tell me first, then ask, or ask then tell?’

                She smiled.

                He laughed again.

                ‘I’ve been thinking…’

                ‘So you said.’, she said.  She stopped and put her hands on her hips.  She looked him deeply in the eyes.

                He blurted out, ‘I have been thinking about leaving this place.  It can go no further.  The water is gone.  This year the crop may fail.’

                He looked over his shoulder, ‘This year, it seems the crop will fail.  We will either have to sell and move to town or find some other place to go.’

                ‘Well, that’s a different set of ideas.  So, what made you come to this conclusion?’

                ‘I looked at the field.  I looked at the valley.  Even if I sold this one and looked for another in the valley-‘, he turned and gestured, ‘there is not another place here that will do well.  It is done.  It is either a plantation, a mine or dry dirt.’

                He turned back to her.

                She moved the hair back on her forehead with one quick gesture.

                She asked, ‘So, where do you intend on us going if there is no other place in the valley?’

                He looked up at the sky, ‘The United States.’

                ‘What?  Why so far? What would we do there?’

                ‘Yes, the United States.  They talk about it sometimes in the town.  When the people come through they tell me how it can be there.   They have family or have seen it.  The land is still good there.  There is work.  I could work on a farm.  You could work also.  There is much good to be done there.’

                She didn’t look convinced.

                ‘Why so far?’

                He said, ‘It is bad all around.  I have found we can get a way there.  It doesn’t cost much.  We could be there in a couple of months.’

                She was quiet.

                He asked, ‘So, what do you think, Maria?’

                Maria said, ‘I think you have not thought this through, Gilberto.’

                He stood still.  His face frozen.

                She continued, ‘I have.  We can speak to my cousin Alejandro.’

                ‘Alejandro Ayala?  What would he know?’

                She turned to move the plates on the table.  She called to the children.  She turned to him and said, ‘He is a Coyote.  He can help us or show us what to do.  You are right.  We cannot stay here.  I will send for him and he will come and see us.’

                ‘When?’

                ‘I don’t know.  I will give you a message to take to the village.  He will get it and come here.  It might be soon, it might be a month.  We will need to wait.  I do not believe we should go with anyone but through him.’

                ‘Fine, then. Fine.  It is good to know a Coyote.’

                A Coyote is a person that takes people and helps move them from place to place.  They plan the whole trip.  They get paid a lot of money.  There is no guarantee that the trip will work out.

                They all sat down to eat.

                Maria served them tortillas and fresh fruit.  There were some bits of pork and a fish.

                ‘Where did you get the fish?’, asked Gilberto.

                ‘From Senora Chavez.  Her husband had some frozen from the town.  We have to eat it this morning, of course.’

                The food was good.  They drank water from the well.  Gilberto could just detect the salty sourness that he knew of from the wells down in the valley and in the hills opposite.  He looked across the valley.  It was worse over there already.  The hills were bare.  The houses were empty or had fallen down or burned away.

                He turned to his food and ate it.

                After breakfast they cleared away the table.  They would not tell the children right away.  They decided to wait until just before they left.  Though there were no specific laws against moving there were the dangers in letting others in know your business.

                The bandits were bad enough.  It might be too much to attract them. If they knew they were about the fly the nest they would descend immediately.

                He knew he would not be able to sell the farm on his own.  Because Alejandro was a Coyote, he would be one of them and might be able to help.  He had heard of those fleeing who lost everything to the Coyote.  He had heard stories of being abandoned on the road, of other bandits, other Coyotes.

                He was glad that Alejandro would help them.

                He was worried about what would come next.

               

 

Chapter 4

 

                Maria had been born into what would be considered a prosperous household.  She grew up with enough food and, healthy food at that.  Her parents provided her with clothing and the home was air and water tight.

                When their children grew ill they had enough to pay for the doctor to come and visit.  Because her father was an Indian and her mother of Spanish descent they might have had a problem if they lived elsewhere.  As it was the rural area in which they were in, though not cosmopolitan by any means operated with more or less of a sense of tolerance.

                There were Protestant as well as Catholic churches, there were also the religions of the local tribes which were still maintained and followed.  Many of the people in the area took what they needed or wanted from each of the religions presented and everyone, at least about religion and race, got along well with each other.

                The area was developing so there was a lot of work and it was varied.  It was possible just before Maria was born and all during the time that she was growing up that someone could make a good living.  In some cases even locals made what would be considered a fortune for their time and location.

                Forests were cut, land was cleared, crops were planted.  Because the rainforests were so thick local lumber and saw mills were set up.  These did very well for a while.  They were first reason that rail lines were run into the area. 

                Later the rail lines carried the produce out.

                Then the changes came.  Slowly at first then more rapidly.

                Even though there was fine wood in the forests and jungles it took a longer time to cut them, transport them to the mills, cut them, finish them off, age them, ship and then sell them.  The owners of the logging company started getting orders to just cut and deliver to the rail lines. 

                The local lumber mills were owned by locals.  They were bought up by the railway and the companies that were paying the loggers.  The wood was take and trussed up on the railcars and taken down to the coast.  It was transported as far away as North Carolina in the United States or to Europe or China where it was turned into paper.

                It was more than likely that lumber taken out the region to make paper thousands of miles away might be delivered back as finished paper on which quit deeds and evictions were written.

                This was before Maria’s adulthood however.

                Then the jungle and forests still afforded meat and produce that the Indians brought down to market.  They, themselves would trade for or buy finished goods like metal items, clothing and other things.

                Maria’s father would sometimes take him on his trading journeys into the hinterland.  She had become versed in other Indian languages and through lessons at school and books she had acquired, she became proficient at English.               

                The Indians had many remedies for the many ills that could settle on a person in that part of the world.  These remedies had been developed over centuries.  Some needed skill and patience to make.

                Maria’s family had not only traded in these notions and medicines, they had been saved from fevers and other sicknesses more than one.

                Her brother had once been bitten by a snake.  There was no antivenom in the local medical dispensary.  Her father took the boy into the interior where he was brought to a local chief who cared for the boy and administered a tonic and an antidote.  He recovered in three days.

                His name was Javier.

                Maria’s mother loved him very much and he was popular in the family, however, he had a cruel streak in him.  As he grew he took an interest in business but did not keep a job for long.

                He toyed with revolutionary ideas but after being mildly threatened by a local policeman and being shown the bodies of rebels that the local military captain brought in for identification he dropped that idea.

                He worked for a while at the lumber mills, going from one to another.  As they started to shut up he did his part working at the railroad.  He worked for a month as a supervisor at a lumber camp but didn’t care for living in the bush.

                He received religious instruction at a Catholic school and later attended a Protestant camp and changed his religion.  The family did not see him for two years.  When he returned he was a preacher.  He kept and developed that line of work becoming an itinerant preacher.  At first he went into the wilds and visited the Indians and the towns.  He turned again from living in the unsettled areas and concentrated on staying in the towns.

                He would travel with a small group of preachers and singers and they went from town to town.  They put on services until the number of attendees fell off.  It was an old formula.  Often they went to a town at the request of business owners or government personnel.  They would preach against too much liquor (but stopped short of telling the people not to drink any at all) and that they should work hard, stay married and obey God just as they obeyed their boss.

                The ideas weren’t all that appealing but the services included song, dance and a chance for everyone to meet together.  Often they took on a carnival atmosphere after they had been in a town for a couple of days.  On occasion they would work with a carnival which might have confused the people but made the preachers and carnival workers a great deal of money.      

                When Javier returned home to visit his family his father and mother were glad to see him.  He stayed for a few days, but, his work called him off again.  He was heading down to the coast.

                It was there that he began to receive a bit of a bad reputation.  He would preach one evening and the next day be seen at dog fights or some gambling den.  He took to drink.  He was going to get married at one point, according to his letters, but the woman was never mentioned again.

                Later in life he did marry.

                Just before Gilberto and Maria made their decision to leave.

                Gilberto and Maria went to attend the ceremony and took the children and Maria’s parents with them.  It was in a town towards the coast in the flatlands.

                The girl was nice.  Her parents seemed to be prosperous.  The father owned a hacienda.  He had many cattle.  He had invited Javier to work for him on the ranch, however, typical to his chosen lifestyle, that arrangement did not last.

                The bride’s parents did not seem to enthused about the marriage their daughter had made.  She was, it turned out, though she showed it little, pregnant and so the marriage was of necessity from the family’s point of view and for convenience from Javier’s.

                Maria made friends with the girl as well as she could.  The girl was old fashioned and had been raised that way.  Her father was proud of his Spanish heritage and their land had been in the family for over three hundred years, since Costa Rica had been a colony.

                The ranch did well.

                Javier’s father got along with the bride’s father.  Lucinda was her name.  The family was called Montoya.  Don Montoya had an imposing presence but he was quite short.  His wife, Dona Graciela, was tall and willowy.  Her blonde hair and fair skin seemed out of place in the bright light and dark moods of the jungle area where they lived.

                She was the daughter of a Danish trader who had done business with Don Montoya.  He had since passed away when Graciela was twenty-one.  She came to live on the ranch and Montoya married her two years later.

                After the wedding the family went home and left Javier to his new life with his new wife.

Chapter 5

                For several reasons Maria and Gilberto found out that Alejandro Ayala could not take them immediately north.

                He had come to their home the weekend before and sat down with them to explain more of what was going to happen.  Maria sent the children to her parents’ house and she and Gilberto waited. 

                Maria set the table with fresh fruit and meats.  Alejandro arrived right on time.

                He explained to them that he had wanted to take them on the next trip but something unexpected had happened.  He had this next trip all set up.  It was not the normal full number of people – which was thirty – which he took north.  There had been only nineteen.  He hadn’t foreseen the new arrivals that had come up from Colombia and Venezuela and his boss insisted that he add them to the trip.  Now he would be taking fifty north.  This was not the most he had taken but this was the most he had taken with people from different countries.  He also wasn’t entirely convinced that the newly added travelers from Colombia and Venezuela were going only for economic reasons.

                He had to do his job anyway, he explained.

                They sat down to eat.  Alejandro usually did not drink wine but this day he had as his boss plied him with drink and extra pay to take on this job.  He finally told him that he would, mentioning to Maria and Gilberto in passing that it was not possible for him to refuse the request.  It was a simple as that, he said.

                He also told them much else over the table full of food, which, by the way, strained the resources of Maria and Gilberto, but they knew they needed to keep Alejandro in good spirits.  He told them that it was best this way because they would able to more properly put their affairs in order.  He said that normally he would take all of their ownership papers at time of departure and they would not see any of the money from the sale of the land because that would have been part of the payment.

                He had prevailed on his boss to let them keep the proceeds of the sale, but it had to be done differently.  Alejandro would still take the papers for the land but, rather than that being the end of it money would be sent to wait for them in the United States to get when they arrived.

                This made Maria very happy but also very worried.  Gilberto was concerned but happy as well.  He hadn’t reckoned on this further complexity but he was thankful for it.

                Alejandro told them they would need to sign over the property to him.  The best way to do it, he said, was to give it to Maria’s father and have him turn the property over to Alejandro for the reason of farming.

                He told Gilberto he would need to continue to work on the land until Alejandro returned.  That way the process would not be so obvious to local law enforcement.  This is where Gilberto and Maria began to see even more complexity.

                Alejandro said that the local police, well, most of them, were involved in all of this.  They did not interfere with the Coyotes and in return they were given some small part of any proceeds.  Normally that was all handled by his boss but because it was for Gilberto and Maria, then Alejandro was going to do these favors.

                He spoke about the journey and how that would happen.  He would send word when he arrived back in town the next time, which should be at the end of September or the beginning of October.

                When he returned all of the real estate work would be done.  He also told them how much cash they should leave with Maria’s father.  What little was left in hand would be necessary for them to take with them on the trip.  The food and water and transportation, for the most part, would all be taken care of by Alejandro and the other Coyotes.

                Gilberto asked him, ‘What other Coyotes?’

                ‘I don’t work alone.  If all goes as usual you will come with me at the beginning.  Later I will send you along with another Coyote.  There may be three to four altogether.  Each one knows their trail best.’

                ‘Do we see you again?’, asked Maria.

                ‘When you are near the U.S. border I will be with you again.  I will take you across and then make sure you have everything you need.  After that, you will go on with your family.’

                He told them that the children would need clothes and so would they.

                ‘Do not bring too many.  Bring strong clothes.  Jeans, sweatshirts, even hoodies.  You will need socks, thick socks, and heavy shoes or boots.’

                He told them that they would want to start walking more.  Take strolls.  Take the family on walks into the village.  He told Gilberto that he should continue the farming not only to cover what he was about to do but to gain strength.  They would all find the crossing much easier if they were healthy and fit.

                Maria asked what dangers they might face.

                Gilberto looked at her briefly and then turned his eyes to Alejandro.

                Alejandro said, ‘The road will be hard.  We will have transportation when we will can get it.  There will be times when we will be crossing the country.  Except for one border we will need to cross away from roads and inspection points.  We will need to watch out for drug dealers, soldiers and the police.

                For the most part all them will have been taken care of and will either be a part of this or look the other way. 

                We will need to keep as clean as possible.  We will be going through wild and dangerous country.  We will have little if any medicine.  If you can get them bring bandages and some antiseptic, just in case.

                ‘Oh, Gilberto!’, said Maria.

                Gilberto asked, ‘Is there more to know?’

                Alejandro ate in silence for a few minutes.  Then he took a draught of wine and after setting down his cup he wiped his mouth.

                He said, ‘The crossings are very hard on the children.  We will be travelling hard roads.  Sometimes people die.  I can guarantee nothing.’

                Maria started to cry.

                Gilberto stood up and extended his hand to Alejandro.

                ‘Thank you.’, Gilberto said.

                Alejandro made his goodbyes and Gilberto saw him off.  He watched as the man drove his brand new Ford Ranger down the sloping, rutted lanes to the valley below.

                Maria came out to join him and stood next to him.

                ‘Maria…’, started Gilberto.

                Maria said, ‘It has to be done.  It has to be done.’

                Let us go and rest.  There will be much work tomorrow and the children will be back.  My parents will come to visit.  We can talk to them then.

                The two of them went back into the house and cleared the table and cleaned the dishes.  Then they went to bed.

                In the morning the sun rose.  Maria put the house in order and Gilberto went out to check the field.

                In a miracle a light rain had fallen overnight and a light mist was left on the land.  He could see some sprouts already rising.  He dreamed of staying and making a success there but as he looked out across the greater valley and took in the lights of the lumber mill, the rail tracks and the broken roadway lined with growling trucks and he knew that would not be the case.

                Recently he had to borrow a donkey in order to plough the land.  He still had it out in the back shed and he went to water and feed it.  He would take the creature out and plough what land he had left uncultivated.  If nothing else, as Alejandro said, it would give him exercise.  His mind, however, always on farming, dreamed of turning that leftover few acres into a garden.

                He decided that would be best.  They had plenty of vegetable seeds.  Even if the water needed to be transported then that would be done.  Perhaps he could keep the donkey longer.  He could trade the extra vegetables, though that might be a risk.  If he could not produce them he would need to pay out of the few funds they had for the donkey’s use.

                He decided it would be done and he brought the donkey out to the front and tied him to a post.  Maria brought him breakfast.

Chapter 6

The children come home the next day.  Maria’s Mother and Father brought them.

Maria spent most of the time in the house, yard and garden with her mother, Teresa, and the children.  They were all given new chores and told that more would come.

Gilberto spent his time with Maria’s father, Nicolas.  They walked the fields and Nicolas told him about the plans that they were making.

Nicolas said that he understood and would help them, of course.  He warned Gilberto that the crossing would be dangerous.  He wondered aloud, as he looked off at the horizon, whether it might be best if Gilberto goes first, or perhaps Gilberto and Maria.  The children could then stay with Teresa and Nicolas.  Gilberto declined.  He had spoken with Maria already.

At the house a similar conversation was had about the children.  Maria’s mother was more strident when they were talking but, she knew that it would be best.  There was, it was true, and she told this to Maria, that she saw a time soon when they would need to leave.  Whether then went to one of the cities or to El Norte they had not decided yet, but they had spoken about it.  It was clear things were going badly in the valley.

All the day and into the afternoon they worked and the children worked and played.

In the evening they had a dinner.  Maria invited her parents to stay the night and they accepted.  The children were very happy about this.

After supper they cleared away all the tables.  Some neighboring children came by and they all played up and down the road and along the edge of the forest.  Maria and Gilberto began to explain what was going to happen.

Nicolas was familiar with some parts of the business.  Teresa knew most of the rest.  Many families had already left from the other side of the valley.  When they departed their farms were seized or left to fall into disrepair.

                Nicolas said it was good they were leaving.  He would hate to see them go but there was no future there.  He spoke about a local plantation that was spreading at the other end of the valley where the river entered it.

                Because of the drought the plantation owners had begun to impound the water.  They flooded a great deal of land and then channeled irrigation furrows.  They were drawing off an enormous amount of water already.  Along with the capture of the water and groundwater draws by the local banana plantation and other businesses the ground had become hard and dry all the way to the middle of the valley.

Nicolas pointed to the ridges along both sides of the valley.  They were denuded of trees and only small weeds and scrub bushes grew there now.  Even in the sunset it was clear what damage had already been done.  Where the light of the sun had fallen on thick jungles and forests it now reflected off of bare red clay and sandy soils.

  Gilberto told them how his farm had turned.  That this season would be very difficult.  It was unlikely it would produce even enough for them to eat, let alone provide for a profit to buy shoes and clothes and healthy food and other things.  He talked about the plan to raise vegetables and move as much water as possible from down below.

                Nicolas said it might be better to bring it over the ridge from the spring that was still there.  Nicolas thought that a good idea and they would go look at the trail the next day.  The farms in that direction had mostly been abandoned already.  They were late in getting started to leave, it seemed.

                As the evening came to a close Nicolas and Teresa offered Maria and Gilberto some money to go with them.  Nicolas said it might not be best.  They would be covering open country.  He said, however, that he was not being proud.  If they would, when he and Maria and the children had arrived in the United States, if they could send money then to settle in that would help a great deal.

                Teresa protested but Maria said that they had everything ready.  They would talk again, Maria said, with the Coyote and determine if they needed more money.

                That did not please everyone but it was a solution.

                Maria called the children back and got them ready for bed.

                They went off to bed just after the sun set.

                In the morning everyone was up early.  Gilberto went into town with Nicolas.  They decided to let Nicolas buy the seed and a few new tools for the vegetable garden.  The men spent the time in the morning going through town.

                In the afternoon when they returned Maria and Teresa went to town with the children to get food and buy some clothes.

                They were lucky that Teresa and Nicolas had been doing well.  It was an advantage other emigrants did not have.

Costa Rica has been nicknamed by some, the, “Switzerland of the Americas.”  Some call it that because of the perceive stability of the government and the society.  However, the real reason that Costa Rica gained the nickname, “Switzerland of the Americas” was the rise and power of the banks.  The country offered good exchange rates and acted as market for other central American banks as well as for interests from other countries in South America, Europe, Asia and even Africa.

The army is very strong the restrictive laws the powerful families (who owned the banks) put into place kept the population cowed.

                What was referred to by foreigners as a peaceful atmosphere would be more properly described as a fearful way to live.

The stable democracy that foreigners point to has been filled with politicians and appointees from a small number of families and corporations for decades.  Though the country is hailed as having no standing army the country does maintain a quietly vicious National Police Force.  This Central American country of 4.8 million is sometimes called an “exception” to the model presented by the other nearby countries that are racked with conflict, violence and poverty.  The true face of life in Costa Rica is not presented and not encouraged by the ruling class. 

The Costa Rican government awards itself points for a working healthcare and education system.  The majority of citizens cannot access healthcare.  As for the education system the limited knowledge they are provided is meted out over a torturous eight to ten years.  The rich and middle class work very hard to send their children to school overseas.

Because of the reality of the pressures on Costa Ricans as they are confronted with entrenche social and crumbling economic challenges have become hostile to immigrants.  This might seem incredible to others as Costa Ricans flee their country others flood into it.  They seek the self-described ‘stability’.   The Costa Ricans are aware it does not exist.

The immigrants, many of them, are in the same situation as Gilberto and Maria.  They are moving towards the north, towards the United States, and Costa Rica is just a stopping over point as they progress.

                Even so, Costa Ricans are vocal against immigrants.  They, as in the United States, and all of the countries that are hosting or temporarily housing immigrants, have found pay rates to decrees, sudden unemployment and rising prices.

                A state politician made a speech in the central plaza in the capital and claimed that immigrants were to there to “come to kill our women; many of them come to rob our banks; to rob our sons and daughters in the streets.”  He spoke loudly against Nicaraguan immigrants and called to close the border and eject the immigrants.

                As a result of this attitude and behavior, fear and hatred against immigrants, the National Assembly made residency laws, increased the power of the National Police and forced immigrants into the background of society even as their labory and money were used to enrich the government and monied families.

                While this went other pressures came on Costa Ricans themselves.  As Nicaraguan farmers and businesspeople were being evicted from open land they had settled on the Costa Rican government turned its might and power against native Costa Ricans and in the flurry of evictions and violence turned their own citizens into paupers and took their land from them.

Since then, publicly, the Costa Rican government reduced their overt discriminatory behavior but the idea that it went away was mistaken.  It had become legitimatized.  Part of what was forcing Gilberto and Maria out was the pressure from so-called legitimate business interests as well as from outside pressure.

Gilberto and Maria were aware of what had been going on.  Immigrants had begun arriving for the past ten to fifteen years in the valley.  At first they stayed only a little while.  Perhaps the religious organizations would help them.  Then they started to take day jobs doing construction or on the farms.  Eventually they were able to keep busy.

There were a few business people who actually rounded them up and would deliver them to job sites.  Some of the immigrants stayed and others left.  Over time, however, they not only took day jobs, they began to be hired by local companies and farmers as regular workers.  There was very little oversight by the police or government at the time.  Even during the occasional crackdown where many immigrants were arrested the issues didn’t last.

The immigrants were either deported and they returned almost immediately, or, they were arrested and released with a warning.  Some left but most stayed.

Gilberto and Nicolas had been talking about the plantations and the oil companies.  They would come in with entire sets of workers already in tow.  They weren’t Costa Ricans.  It wasn’t clear what country they were from.  Some had been doing it so long they probably couldn’t return to their home country if they wanted to.

As of late workers from Asia and Africa had also been turning up from time to time.  The stories they told of their home countries were horrible.  It didn’t make up, of course, for the work being taken away from local workers who had no other recourse than to beg from the government, a charity or to leave.

 

 

Chapter 7

                The town, when Gilberto and Maria had been younger, was a bustling place.  It wasn’t crowded by any means but it was busy.

                Farmers would come into town daily to buy supplies or sell produce.  The dealers in the town also operated warehouses.  Weekly pickups came from large companies collecting produce and carrying it down to the coast for shipment out.  The produce was sorted again there and packed for ports in the United States, Mexico and China.  Some made its way to Europe.

                There were three banks.  One served primarily the local businesses and the other two were branches of larger banks.  All three of the banks were held by Costa Rican interests.

                Building was going on but much of it was upgrades, remodeling or additions.  There was a rail line that served the larger plantations in the interior.  There was a weekly passenger that passed through.

                As time went on the larger plantations and corporations in the area began to pay in scrip.

                Scrip is a substitute for money.  It comes several forms, like paper that looks like money but bearing the marks of the issuer.  Sometimes metal was used.  In this case the scrip was in paper.  It was originally used in the area by the fruit companies.  The scrip was limited to use on the plantation or at the fruit company store. 

                The fruit company found that they could open accounts with the local shops and promised to reimburse in cash any scrip presented for payment.

                The exchange rate offered was 1 for 1.  This was attractive to some merchants and businesses because they thought they would get contacts with the company that would come in handy later.  Others were attracted to not having to keep cash on hand and so accepted the scrip so they could be paid in cash and then make their deposits at one time.

                Both of those ideas were encouraged by the fruit company.  Both of those arrangements failed to produce the imagined advantages.  The contacts with the company were limited to exchanging the scrip for cash and the payment days were not set. 

                It became obvious that payments were not going to be made regularly.  In order to get the scrip exchanged the local merchants needed to travel to the plantation offices.  These offices were sometimes closed or their work office was moved without notice.

                The area became flooded with scrip for two reasons.  The fruit company stopped providing a lot of staples at the company store because they directed the workers to town to get them.  The other reason was a low level of counterfeiting, some which was carried out by unscrupulous fruit company employees.  Some companies tried to refuse the scrip but there was almost no free cash in the area.  Except for the locally operated bank cash was not readily available.  The larger banks had close ties with the fruit company and later the lumber companies so they had no advantage in getting involved, especially since they knew what was behind it.

                Some businesses went bankrupt.  Some abruptly closed up shop.  Some left for other towns or villages, often to find the same situation there.  Others decided to leave the country altogether.

                Prices began to rise and more scrip ended up buying less.  As the town was being abandoned the owners of the lumber mills and the plantations bought up the property and the businesses.  Soon they dominated the entire town both through employing nearly everyone and also owning all the real estate and businesses.

                At that time scrip became the de facto currency.  Problems continued, however, as the four or five companies providing scrip would only redeem their own scrip and the businesses they owned in town would only accept their own scrip.

                Independent store owners left.  Not soon afterward they were followed by skilled craftsmen and educated workers.

                There had been three doctors in the town.  One left early on for the United States and settled in Florida.  He was able to escape so easily because the United States offered special visas to trained doctors.  All he had to do was pass a test and he was provided his medical license.  As a result he had an active business in Miami and had become wealthy, especially to the standards of the village he had left.

                The second doctor left after two years.  His clientele had been among the well-to-do in the town.  When they began to leave his practice shrank.  He had very little business sense and he took to accepting scrip.  He accumulated quite a lot of it.  When he attempted to redeem it all at one time at one of the plantations the manager abandoned his office for a time.  The doctor got tired of waiting and headed home.  On his way back to town he was robbed of all the scrip he had accumulated.

                The third doctor did not want to leave but found an opportunity at a hospital in the capital and he left as well.  After that the nearest doctor was twenty miles away.  Government medical personnel stopped by irregularly but that was inadequate.

                The number of immigrants into the area outpaced the number of emigrants leaving.  Over a short period of time, about five years, the makeup of the local population changed dramatically.  Though they shared language and some religion the differences between the two groups were large enough to create friction.  Fights, crime and violence flared up in the town.  It was no longer a pleasant place to visit.  Where there had been grocers, small businesses and other attractions there were now company offices, shoddy goods, bars and drugs.

                Overall the arrival of the plantations, their expansion and the work of the lumber companies created a negative economic environment that took material wealth from the local area and returned nothing of even equal value.

                The schools began to suffer as well.  Prior to the change in population the schools had been adequate.  Some of the students went off to more advanced studies in college and university.  Currently, however, most of the children attending the schools were coming in with no skills.  Many were somewhat older and were illiterate.  Of those there were many with behavioral and mental problems.  They suffered from the tragedies they had witnessed and the homeless life they had to endure before arriving at the village.

                There was no guarantee for them that they would stay, either.  It might be at any time that their parents would want to move on or be driven out.

                The parents, unlike those who were leaving, could not provide support for the school or the children in their studies.  They also were overwhelmingly illiterate.  They were, in general, being forced to send their children to school by the remaining local law officials.  The law officials were acting more out of habit than of a real concern for what they were doing.  They could see that the schools were failing.  The fees they charged, however, were an enticement to keep up the charade of caring and operational government.

                The parents themselves would take the children from school whenever they had to because the companies they worked for would pay for the children to work as well.  If a father had five children and each one worked they would all earn more.  The mother often worked. 

                The benefits of the entire family working on the plantation, at the lumber mills or the slaughter houses were lost due to the low pay and undependable paydays and payouts.  The managers often cheated the workers.  The workers had little recourse as, because they had not attended school and were illiterate, could only vaguely understand the dishonest processes they were being abused by.

 

Chapter 8

                Maria and Gilberto were still getting ready to leave.  They were a little behind the wave.  Many others had already moved on.  They had gone several different places.  A few had headed south.  Mostly those that had family or known occupations and opportunities in other countries.  These were few and far between.  Most of the locals from the valley that had lived near Maria and Gilberto who had left went north. 

                A set of people did emigrate to other bordering countries.  Again – if they had relatives or known opportunities they might have done that.  In many cases after moving to one of the neighboring countries circumstances would ultimately lead them to head for El Norte – the other name for the United States, also called Los Estados Unidos.

                The people were vaguely aware of the resistance of citizens in the United States to their moving to that country.  Those messages and beliefs were drowned out by the frenetic activity of the Coyotes, of course, but more so because of the government of the country itself.

                Initially they were concerned with the outflow of workers.  They feared losing their working class.  Then, as land was abandoned and their banking interests and businesses began to claim for their own their wealth increased rapidly.  The reason was obvious.  As well as this boon there was suddenly a flow of even cheaper labor flowing up to them from the south.  It mattered little to the well-to-do and shrinking upper-middle class that they didn’t stay more than a few years.  This allowed them to save even more money on labor as well as to continue to consolidate their land holdings.

                To make matters even better for these idle rich, which, for generations had lived on land accumulation and banking schemes, large international firms started to appear that were willing to run the local businesses on ever larger parcels of land. Many of them measured in square miles or hectares.  Large forests and jungles would be taken up, all the logs removed and the land clear cut and burned.  Some of the lumber would be made into furniture or paper in the country but most of it was shipped out for processing elsewhere.

                After the land was cleared the large plantations would either expand or new ones were thrown up.  Because the commodities crops were easy to grow and spread the land was soon producing.  Sometimes it took only a year but normally after two years all expenses were covered and from then on the land produced ever increasing profit. 

                Coffee was a problematic crop because it thrived in the shade.  The problem was solved on each of the plantations after a couple of years as banana trees grow swiftly and provided the shade for the coffee plants.  After they had grown for some years the coffee trees could do well in the full sun as well.  This was the same for cacao – the chocolate plants.

                 Some plantations were able to, and did, produce bananas, coffee, cacao and pineapples.  Usually, however, due to the simplification of processes this was not the case.-

                The amount of profit to be had by pushing out the original landowners and Native Americans was so extraordinary and had gained such momentum that it became to seem like the natural state of affairs.

                In fact, after several years the government was put upon by the landowners to do something about the peasant population.  It was obvious that having an ever growing population that was shut out of the business dealing and profits of the large schemes would eventually be a problem.

                There was no sign that the government was going to use increased profits from taxation to provide services.  It was made quite clear by the ruling class that higher taxes would not be tolerated.

                In Costa Rica this was a problem just as it was in the other countries in Central America.  These include Costa Rica itself, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and to a lesser extent, Panama.

                Panama was the exception as the primary business in Panama was moving materials between the Pacific and the Atlantic.  Jobs were relatively plentiful at the Panama Canal, the pipelines, which carried crude oil and other materials between the ports on the Atlantic and Pacific.

                The pipelines were put in place because the transit time across the Isthmus of Panama, though short, still added time to the delivery of the cargo – whatever it was.  Any time it was feasible cargo, like oil, would be offloaded on one side of the Isthmus, say, the Atlantic, pumped through the pipeline, then loaded on to another ship in the Pacific.

                This had become big business in the last few years as new oil rigs were being set up in the Caribbean.  It was cheaper to collect the oil in barges and then tow the barges to the pipelines where they were directly loaded into the ships on the Pacific.  Most of the crude, for example, from the oil rigs off of Belize, Suriname and French Guiana was shipped like that directly to China.  It was not widely known that American oil companies were responsible for most of that crude oil shipping.

                Other ways that cargo was transported was by train and truck.  If the Panama Canal was too busy the rather short distance between the two oceans was traversed by trains a mile or two long and thousands of trucks.  The 40 mile distance across the Isthmus allowed the movement of much material in a short amount of time.

                Still, the problem of excess population, at least in the eyes of the rich and greedy developers remained.  A scheme developed first in Guatemala was used in the local countries.

                This involved a rather elaborate scheme, but, which worked well.

                Citizens were encouraged to move to the United States.  The idea was to send them to the United States where they would work and send money back home to their families to buy land and homes and start businesses.

                The reality of it was that the money transferred from the United States back to the home countries like Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala and the others was used to prepare to leave those countries.  As an example of how much money is taken out of the United States in one year by just one country, Mexico accepts more that $63 billion dollars per year in remittances from Mexican citizens living and working there.

                The scheme that Gilberto and Maria heard of, but, unfortunately for them, could take advantage of was to apply to the government for a travel visa.

                The governments of Honduras and Guatemala carried this out often.  Guatemala performed this activity the most.

                The rich people in Guatemala, who controlled the banks, also controlled all of the industry in the country as well as most of the land.  The people were valueless to them and they thought it best to encourage them to leave rather than having to drive them away.  That was too risky because there were too many of them.

                They offered, as mentioned, travel visas.  Along with the visas those who wanted to leave would also be given free plane tickets and all the documents they needed to get into the United States.  They were also provided with clothing, money and, in some cases, references for work and even work contacts when they arrived in the United States.

                You might be wondering why the rich people in the country would pay airlines to do this and that, of course, some airlines would not want to risk their licenses and ability to do business in the United States.  This problem was overcome with the fact that the airline used was the government airline.  It was owned by the banks and financed by the rich landowners.  It was the national airline.

                This process allowed the countries to shed millions of their citizens.  Guatemala, for example, was able to send half of its population to the United States before the issue of immigration started to be recognized in the United States.  By that time the deed was done.  Those millions of emigrants from Guatemala to the United States had no way to immigrate back to Guatemala.  They were stateless persons.  Being undocumented was no big problem either, as it was known in the countries like Honduras, Costa Rica, Guatemala and the others that aid organizations in the United States would help the people who arrived in this way. 

                Those who used this process to get out of their countries and who were ultimately victimized and cheated by their rich neighbors and their governments did not normally need assistance.  That is because they found jobs waiting for them when they arrived.

                Characterized as jobs that Americans would not want they were actually middle class jobs working in food packaging plants or manufacturing for large, multinational corporations.

                Large food producers dealing with chickens, beef, pork and other such meat products at one point employed almost no American workers at all.  Located in rural areas the locals were excluded from work as thousands of immigrants were brought into the area to work at the plants.

                They went to work for canning companies, bottling companies, construction companies and others.  Some international food companies worked to provide these jobs.  They were given tax breaks and tax incentives to build their factories on farmland or to destroy forests and raise up metal warehouse.  The workers arrived by air and were bussed and driven, or drove themselves, to their final destinations.

                The destinations included jobs and housing.  The jobs might not have paid what an American might expect but the income was much more than the people had experienced where they came from.  Even though the housing might seem substandard to Americans, and much of it was, and is, it was still preferable in many ways to where they had come from.        

 

 

Chapter 9

                After deciding to begin their plan Gilberto and Maria were happy.  They were united in their intentions.  As they took their first few steps towards their goal of leaving the area and heading north to the United States for better opportunity and for the safety, health and security of their children they felt together a calmness.  They felt once more they had opportunity and life before them.

                Gilberto began working very hard.  He borrowed a donkey so that he had a pair.  He would work one on the farm and take the other into town or on a trading mission.  There was always one donkey at home.  He had been lucky in getting the loan of the second donkey.  Another family was preparing to leave as well.  Their intentions were more well known in the area.  Gilberto and Maria did not know which Coyote they were working with or if they had contracted with one.

                Samuel Natal and his wife Sophia also had three children.  He worked at the lumber mills in town.  He was also a saw sharpener so he was able to make more money.  His wife did laundry in town and the two older children worked beside her.  The one was kept, most of the day, in a basket by the tubs.

                With no way to keep their farm up they had the spare donkey.  They spent most of their time in the town so did not need transportation.  In return for helping him haul loads and doing odd jobs Samuel presented the donkey as a loaner but, really, was transferring the animal to him.

                Samuel made it clear they were going to leave that Autumn.  Some time in September.  Gilberto and Maria had started taking the long view.  They might leave around Christmas time or in the early Spring.

                The donkeys worked hard and so did Gilberto, Maria and their children.  Maria’s father would come often and help.  He also started to do some of the trading route for Gilberto to relieve the work pressure and help bring more money to the young family.

                Strangely enough another opportunity was presented to them that they initially considered but declined.

                A man named Chino Faucus had come through to see the farmers on behalf of a Chinese buyer known only as Ling.

Ling had come through the valley and was offering to  purchase any donkeys on hand.  He was paying four times their normal worth.  If the farmer took the money the donkey was loaded up and taken away in a truck. 

From what Gilberto and his father-in-law had heard this had been done in the neighboring valleys.  At first the farmers and businesses and stores were glad to sell the donkeys at four times their normal price.  They would then go and buy another for what was the fair market price after Chino and Ling departed the area.

The problem was, they were told, that after Chino and Ling had bought up all the donkeys they could at the inflated price, over the next few weeks the remaining donkeys in the valley would disappear.  The thought that there were donkey rustlers in the area was foreign to the farmers.  The donkeys were a matter of life and death for the farmers and their families.

Only the most desperate and foolhardy bandits would every steal a donkey.  Though most of the farmers did not brand their beasts each farmer and their family knew their donkey by sight, even from a long way off.  The prided themselves on this especially during the season when the donkeys were foaling and breeding season was on.

It was so, however, that any donkeys left in a region after Chico and Ling wrapped up their buying were soon missing shortly thereafter.

The time needed to raise the successful crop for sale was so tight that Gilberto and Maria desperately needed their own donkey and the one that was lent to them.

Gilberto told him of the danger that Chico and Ling presented to him.  Even though they could not prove that Chico and Ling were tied up in it the idea that there were donkey rustlers in the area was enough to put them on alert.

Because there were two men on the farm they were able to keep watch over the donkeys at all time.  Immediately upon realizing what was up Gilberto’s father-in-law, Nicolas, built a wall in the stable.  They built a door in it that could not easily be seen.  Outside the wall they built two stalls and set up the area as if it were and active donkey barn.

Nicolas was helping Gilberto hide the donkeys.  At first they still worked the donkeys.  One day, however, Gilberto was in town and left his donkey outside while he went into to buy some rice at the local store.  When he came outside two men were touching the donkey and one looked as if he were going to unhitch it.

Gilberto grabbed the reins away and led the donkey straight back to the farm.  He told Nicolas what had happened and Nicolas built the wall and false stalls the very next day.

They worked the donkeys in the evening and at night if they had to.  Eventually they kept them hidden away altogether and planned to either use them on their way out or to sell them later after the harvest and sale of the produce.

Even though it was early in the season there were complaints from the neighboring valley and in their valley about the missing donkeys.  Work could not be done.  Water could not be gotten.  The fields could not be tilled and worked properly.

Nicolas made some inquiries and came home to tell Gilberto and Maria a strange story.  If Gilberto were to have decided to stay and last another year and he lost his donkey he would need to travel very far to borrow or buy another donkey for the work.  That is, if there were any left even that far away.

Nicolas told them that he has spoken to an Indian trader in the jungle in the valley to the west of them.  Chino and Ling had been there as well.  There were other traders with other guides along the western valley and in the valley to the east as well.  They had even taken up all the donkeys from a banana plantation that was being moved due to a plant virus.

In the case of all the donkey traders they were collecting the donkeys at a high price from the farmers but they earned far more from them when they sold them away.

Chino worked for Ling.

In the event that the donkeys in the area they were in could not be bought or traded for then bandits would return later to take them away.  They sold these to Ling or the other traders.  The bandits earned more than the farmers that sold them directly.

The reason that Ling and the other traders from the People’s Republic of China were buying the donkeys was a strange one.  The Chinese traders sent the animals to the coast.  They were gathered up into herds and then that is where they were slaughtered.

They were skinned and their carcasses, all the meat and bones and sinew were left in the sun to rot.  They did not dress the meat, make anything from the bones and did not use the sinews.  It was all wasted.

In fact no one was to eat the meat, or use the bones or sinews for anything good thing.  The skins were piled high and dried.  They were being loaded into a ship.  One the cavernous hold was filled with the hides it would sail to China.

Within a few days another ship would come to take its place and more skins would be loaded into it.  This has been going on for some months.

Gilberto said, ‘If this has been going on that long even a big part of the country must be affected.’

Nicolas said, ‘Yes.  Many farms are damaged.  The towns and villages are crippled.  Many people have had to leave for the cities or are heading away.’

After the skins were loaded into the ships they were taken to China where they were crushed.  Then they were burnt and crushed  in a process that extracted an oil called Eijao.

It is a common idea in many parts of China Eijao restores a man’s sexual drive and can even help people live for centuries. 

It is also used like vegetable oil to fry onions.

                Major firms sponsored the donkey collections.  The ships that came to port were a little aged but they were well financed.  The traders themselves made a lot of money from the one-sided deals.

                The Shandong Province in China was the driving force behind the traded.  There was even a company called the Shandong Ejiao Industry Association that facilitates the trade, processing, advertising, propaganda and sales of the Eijao oil and cakes.

                Nicolas and Gilberto did what they could to protect the donkeys.  As the year pressed on they used the animals to haul rocks, water and furrow the ground when weeding.

                Early in the Summer, though, thieves came and took the two animals on a Saturday night.  They drove up in two pickup trucks.  While the men the first truck talked to Gilberto about vegetables the other truck drove up and three men leaped out of the back.  The threw the donkeys into the truck.  Then both trucks abruptly left.

                Nicolas was saddened by the news but patted Gilberto on the back and said he was lucky they had the donkeys for so long.  Gilberto was worried about paying the farmer back who had loaned him the donkey.

                Nicolas said that was not a worry as his family had left the week before and might possibly have sold his donkey, and Gilberto’s, to the men that knew exactly where to go to get it.  They would just need to work a little harder, he said, the vegetables were already beginning to ripen and hunger was all around them.

               

 

 

 

Chapter 10

During this time the problems that Gilberto and Maria were having were complex and confusing but were not as involved and frenetic as what was going on in the town.

Over the decades prior to what had begun to occur which led to the people being forced off their land, into the towns and finally even out of their country the religious makeup began to change.

Historically the Catholic Church had played a large role in the local communities and even national actions in the Central American regions.

The Catholic Church, at the beginning of the colonization by the Spanish Empire had sometimes worked with the empire and sometimes acted as critic or even a bridge between the settlers and the indigenous people.  The relationships between the groups from the beginning had been active and fraught with danger.

Wars, plagues, general sickness, slavery, economic upheaval, all had taken place over centuries.  During the late 19^th century the attention of American adventurers came to the region.  American forces had either come to fight directly or sponsored the side they supported, depending on the business climate and the stories being told.

In the past eighty years or so, as the interest of the government of the United States became more pointed and direct, if not sophisticated, political upheaval was often accompanied by war.

During the revolutions that led to the independence of the countries in the region after the wars were done then there were still problems with the Indigenous people, decisions about slavery and infighting amongst the republics.

After World War 2 the United States began to see Central America not only as a rich land to do business with, some said to plunder, but as a danger as Communism seemed to be making inroads.  Direct attempts by socialists and communists were attempted and, in some cases, the Catholic Church had members involved in these attempts.

As in Vietnam the might and power of the American military made short work of priests and nuns who made speeches about patience, equality and advancement for all.

Things were made worse as adventurers and mercenaries from Cuba and other nations turned up in the region and stirred real strife and war.

The response from the republics was tepid at first.  The people were generally focused on mining, the plantations, fishing, lumber and general work.  This slow moving response to what was seen as an immediate threat by the United States led to coups, wars and even civil war. 

During all of this time the influence of the Catholic Church remained strong among the people and their practices of faith but, unlike in the past when Protestant churches sent missions to the area, the new Protestant churches made inroads.

They opened up schools, churches and even encouraged certain businesses.  Based mostly on donations from the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe the churches sometimes flourished and grew.

The actual work they achieved was not truly measurable.  In some locations they were successful and succeeded in helping the people.  In others they became just another encumbrance.  The children went to school.  At the best schools they learned something of English.  This became important to families looking to emigrate as the children could then be counted on to interpret when they arrived in the United States.

This did not always work out the way that is was planned.  On arrival in the United States these children often found themselves in an incomprehensible society just as their parents did.  Many times the families settled in poorer areas.  Their English might or might not come in handy.  For those who actually attended school it helped them a great deal.  For those who did not it enabled them to be easily absorbed into the local gangs and criminal life.

                In other ways all the churches did some good.  They were active in ensuring that vaccines were received, stored properly and generally distributed.  During times of disease this was lifesaving.  During times of famine or food shortages they often either provided food, or, in the case of the Catholic Church, arranged for changes in local food exchanges so that hunger might be reduced.  Depending on which country the people were in the governments might do these things or they might not.  If a region was deemed a troublemaker, then food and medicine might be withheld on purpose.

                During those times then the churches might find themselves at odds with the law and the military governments.

                Problems that came along were that some of the missions that were set up were run by people skilled in the bible and religion but not in skills necessary to live in the area.  Farming, medicine, nutrition and engineering were in short supply among the people and in short supply among the religious organizations that arrived to help.

Even when they had a little skill with farming they did not understand the underlying problems that the people were facing in the area.

There was more than one occasion where a religious group came into the valley where Gilberto and Maria lived specifically to build a well for the people to get fresh water.  In the case of this particular valley, however, fresh water had not been a problem.  More than one of the wells that was built ended up tapping deeper, tainted water.  Two of them brought up salty water from the deposits below the hills.  Others were tainted with iron.

In the case of the saltwater wells two things happened.  The local water table was spoiled by the saltwater.  Also, when it became apparent that there were large salt domes under that part of the valley oil prospectors appeared and soon they were pumping oil out of the ground.  This changed the water table in an even wider area.  That took place in the 1970’s and was the cause for the first large wave of displacement of people in the area.

Until the donkeys had been stolen away Gilberto and Nicolas saw great growth in the fields.  That was because they were able to transport the water to the area.  There was a circular pump that had been built by a successful engineering group that arrived with volunteers from an American university.  Gilberto and Nicolas would hook up the two donkeys to the pump, lay out the hose to the field and as the donkeys walked in a circle the water was brought up from the well and flooded the fields.

They had to carry much of it after the donkeys were taken but luckily they were having somewhat of a wet year.  After the plants got started they were rooted well and took care of themselves for the most part.  If the donkeys had been taken any earlier the crops would have failed.  The two men attempted to operate the pump on their own after the donkeys were gone and actually did it for two days though it was backbreaking labor.

On the third day they returned to water the crops and found that a neighboring farmer had attempted to run the well by attaching one of the arms that the donkeys had been connected with rope to the bumper of his pickup truck.  The well facility was destroyed.  Water continued to flow up out of the pipe and down the hill.  Over the course of one week that rather small flow created a ditch and then a large gash in the side of the hill.  Small landslides began and more water began to flow.  The road below the well was eventually covered with mud, sand and dirt.

The vegetables that grew in the shade of the trees die the best.  When ripe the two men started harvesting them and drove them to the far side of the valley where they sold them.  Over the course of two weeks they sold them closer and closer to their homes.  This was to avoid giving away the hidden bonanza they had created.  After the last of the vegetables was taken Gilberto reluctantly arranged to have the small wooded area near his home logged.

Nicolas took care of the arrangement and yet another small cache of money was put aside for the journey and relocation to the new land.

After the lumber was sold off they had only to wait quietly for Alejandro the Coyote to return.

 

Chapter 11

Alejandro the Coyote Alejandro returned at the end of Summer.

Gilberto and Maria heard about his arrival in town from Nicolas.  He was visiting the area.

Nicolas had heard of him being in town when he was talking to a customer from the far side of town.

Nicolas went right away to talk with Gilberto.

He told them it was good that Alejandro was back but it was not good that he had known of it so quickly.  He was also concerned that the person who told him was not a close acquaintance and just blurted it out.

Normally the activities and movements of a man like Alejandro would be kept quiet.  Naturally he would keep all of his plans close to his chest.  Nicolas said it did not make sense that it seemed he was there impudently.  Nicolas thought that perhaps Alejandro did not know that others were aware of his presence.

Gilberto was not concerned and said so to Nicolas.  Nicolas said, ‘Just be careful.  If such people are talking about him being here openly either he has become much more powerful than he was when he left a few months ago or it will just be a matter of time before the police hear of him.’

Alejandro spent his time meeting several families during the week that he was in the town.  He was making arrangements with some of them but mostly visiting friends and family.  His intentions were to contact the few families preparing to leave and then he himself would depart for a time. 

As Nicolas thought, he was unaware that he had become an object of interest.  He was aware that people knew he was about.  His normal sense of wariness was not as sharp as it should have been.  He had been worn thin over years of conducting business like this.  As of late he felt that he needed a break.  There was no vacation in his work, however.  It was constant movement.

It was difficult to eke a profit from poor farmers and guiding and arranging their journeys of more than 3000 miles past armed police, bandits, other Coyotes, armies and frightened locals.

Alejandro was part of a network of Coyotes and smugglers.  Obviously he didn’t know all of them.  He had seen evidence, however, that the network he was in transported people from the tip of Argentina all the way to Alaska and into Canada.  He had only dealt with smuggling once.  There were some gems, emeralds, that he took from a partner in Brazil.  In order to make that journey pay he had to carry the rocks all the way to the Mexican-US border himself.

Of all his trips that was the most terrifying for him.  He was nearly caught three times and at the end was hunted by the rivals of the gang he was delivering to.

For this trip he would be taking five families.  They would depart from this valley and meet him in the next.  The path would start north for them then.  That is, if he wasn’t caught before then.

He became aware of the problem when he left a bar late at night.  It was in the center of town.  Though it was late and the town was a backwater, they had been waiting for him.

He just happened to overhear a conversation between the bartender and a police officer.  Luckily for him the officer had been playing cards with him the night before and was in no mood to capture Alejandro.  It wasn’t exactly a warning.  Alejandro knew he was lucky and that he shouldn’t trust in luck because in his business, one day, luck always runs out.

He ran out of the bar through the side door and made his way through the dimly lit brush along the backs of the stores and buildings.  He was soon at the edge of town.

He only had the Martinez family left to visit and collect from.  He had, at least, planned his pattern of collection correctly though he had taken too long to go through it.  He promised himself no more of these visiting trips.  He also promised himself that this was the last time, though, by this time, he had no idea what other work he would do no matter how much money he had set aside.

He didn’t see much motion in the town so he figured that the officer was still in the bar.  Maybe drinking some free booze.

He eventually arrived at the Martinez house later that night.  He knocked quietly at the door.  Maria opened it up and motioned him inside.  The children were asleep.  Gilberto and Nicolas sat at the table to the right of the door.  They were just finishing dinner.

The table was cleared and a space made for Alejandro.

Alejandro said, ‘We will have to make this quick.  You must pay now and you will go tomorrow.’

Gilberto’s jaw dropped.  Nicolas stood up and went to the satchel he had hanging by the door.  He reached inside and took out a box wrapped in a cloth that could be slung across the shoulder.  He put it on the table in front of Alejandro.

Nicolas looked at Gilberto for a moment and then tapped his fingers on the wooden table top.  The sound echoed in the room.

Nicolas said, ‘Come, Alejandro, bring the package and give it to him quick.  He must go.’

For a moment a look of surprise and worry flitted across Alejandro’s face.  He put both hands on the table and said, ‘Yes, it is so.  It is time for me to go.  You must pay me now or you will not go.’

Maria hit Gilberto on the shoulder.

Gilberto sprung up and charged across the room.  He moved a pot and a pan next to the fireplace and brought out a small satchel.  He handed it to Alejandro.

Alejandro said, ‘I do not have time to count, it better be all there or you do not go.’

‘Ten thousand.’, said Gilberto.  ‘Eight here.’, and he pointed at the satchel he surrendered and then, ‘Two there.’, as he pointed at the box provided by Nicolas.

Alejandro looked at the two packages for a moment.

He swept them off the table and put them in his leather pack.

He stood up quickly.

Maria gave him a cup of water.  Nicolas handed him a canteen.  Alejandro took his gifts.  He drank from the cup as he went to the rear door.

He exited.

Gilberto stood in the light of the door and saw Alejandro hesitate in the darkness.

He hissed to Gilberto, ‘Tomorrow, you know where and when.  If you are not there I will keep this and not see you again.’

Gilberto put his hand up in farewell but Alejandro was already gone in the darkness.

Gilberto sat back at the table.

The growling sound of powerful engines came to his ears.

Maria looked in panic.  Nicolas sat down, reached for a whiskey jug and poured himself some.  He gave some to Gilberto.  He told Gilberto, ‘Only taste it.  Get the smell on you.’

He sprinkled some on Gilberto.

‘I, however, will drink.’

The engines whined and charged as they made their way up the ruined road and the muddy fields.

The sound grew louder and louder and now lights began zigzagging across the ceiling and walls.

True to his word Nicolas drank down two large cups of whiskey.  Then he spilled the bottle.  He got up and stumbling across the room knocked over a small table and chair.  He broke two plates and pulled down clothes hanging on pegs on the wall.

He swung the door open and stood in the light from the house.

Out in the darkness the threatening calls of the police told him not to move.

Within a moment heavily armed men were in the room.  They could  be heard outside.  There were sounds of metal on metal and men cursing as they moved through the muck and mud.  The searchlights on the cars swept back and forth.

Finally the police chief came into the house.

He saw the small family there.

He could hear the children crying.

He barked.

‘Search the place!’

A group of three other men entered and all the rest left.  They slowly and meticulously took everything out and turned everything upside down.  Maria stood next to Gilberto with her hand on his shoulder.  She was crying weakly.  Nicolas stood close to the wall.

The search did not take long in the house.  Soon the men were outside and going through barn and two other outbuildings.

Finally the call came that said, ‘There is no one here.’

Outside the sounds of the men trying to turn the vehicles around or turn them floated into the house.

The commander reached out for the whiskey jug.  He held it in his hand and held his other hand out for a cup.

Maria gave him one.

He filled it.

He drank it down in one gulp.

Gilberto, Maria and Nicolas could see now the fatigue on his face.  Still, below that fatigue were the signs of danger.

He put the cup and jug down.  He wiped his face.

‘Sergeant!’, he cried.

A voice replied from outside, ‘Yes, sir.’

‘Back to town!’

He turned and marched out the door.  Strangely, he closed the door carefully behind him.

The sounds of their departure roared for an hour.  Finally the voice of the Sergeant could be heard again, ‘Okay, okay!  Leave it!  We will come back for it tomorrow!’

One of the trucks had mired down deep and could not be turned.

 

Chapter 12

 

The next day, just before noon, some Police Officers arrived to move the police car that was mired in the now dry mud.  They spent the first hour waiting for a tow truck to come.  When they were radioed that the tow truck was busy working in one of the plantations and would not be available to next week they hooked chains to the vehicle, and using two others they dragged it out.

During the course of that work the axle was cracked so it had to be left there until the tow truck could come and get it.

Before they left two officers came to the Martinez house.  Maria offered them something to drink.  As they drank the fruit drink one told Gilberto that they had an order for the family to come down to the police station the next morning and speak to the Chief.

Gilberto thanked them and Maria went back into the house.

The police left and drove slowly back down into the town.

                That evening Alejandro returned and gave them instructions for what was going to happen the next week as they prepared to leave the area and start their journey.

                Gilberto told him what had happened with the police and that they wanted the whole family down to the station the next day.

                They were sitting in the brightly lit kitchen.  Two oil lamps and candles gave light.

                Alejandro leaned forward and put his head in his hands.  His arms were resting on his knees.

                He sat quietly like that for some time.  Then he slowly started to shake his head.  Then he stopped.

                Suddenly he stood up and said, ‘Okay.  You are going to have leave right now.’

                ‘What?’, Gilberto asked.

                Maria said, ‘Wait, Gilberto.’

                Alejandro said, ‘Do not go to the police station tomorrow.  Do not go.’

                ‘Can’t we go and see what they want?’, asked Gilberto.

                ‘They want you.  All of you.’, said Alejandro.  He stood up and looked out into the dark night through the glassless window.

                He ran his hands through his longish hair.

                ‘What do they want us for?’, asked Maria.

                ‘They will jail you and Gilberto.  The children will either be given over to one of the orphanages or loaned out to a plantation?’

                Maria held her hands together, ‘I don’t want them to work on a plantation!’

                Alejandro turned to both of them and said, ‘It would better for them.  If they go to the orphanage, except for one, I can’t tell you what would happen.’

                ‘What would happen in the one you mention?’, asked Maria.

                ‘They take care of their children. They actually do try to get the children adopted but, still, even with them, ultimately you can’t tell where they would end up.’

                ‘And the others?’, asked Gilberto.

                ‘Work at the plantations, perhaps, or the mills.  They might be adopted for money.  They could be sold outright.  They might be used as mules for drugs.’

                ‘What is a mule?’, aske Maria.

                Alejandro answered, ‘The drug dealers take the child and bring them to the border of the United States.  That is done quickly.  Then the children are sent across the border with packages of drugs.  After they drop the drugs off anything can happen.  They might be killed or sold.  It is all no good.’

                ‘Some are sold to the brothels and into the sex trade.  There is no telling where they go in the world.  To the United States maybe, Asia, Japan, England, Spain, Africa.  Even China.  The survival rate is low.  It is like old time slavery.’

                Maria said, ‘It sounds like modern slavery.’

                They were quiet.

                Alejandro said, ‘I am going to see Nicolas.  You stay here.’

                Gilberto said, ‘I can go.’

                ‘No,’, said Alejandro, ‘if you are seen they will take you.  I can travel faster.  He will bring some supplies for you.  Maria –‘

                ‘Yes?’

                ‘You must prepare clothing and food.  Take enough food for three days.  Same for clothing.  It is important to travel light.  Whatever money you have get ready for me.  Put it in a package I can fit into my satchel.’

                Alejandro looked at Gilberto and said, ‘I will be gone for two hours.  Nicolas may return with me.  You must leave tonight.’

                ‘What about things in the Police Car?’, asked Gilberto.

                ‘Don’t even touch the vehicle.  Stay away from it.  Do nothing with it.  You must prepare everything in one hour.  Then turn out all the lights and go to bed as you normally would.  Put your packages near the back door.  Remember, only what you need!  I will be back in two hours.  Be ready!’

                Alejandro moved slowly to the back door, took up a cup of water.  Began drinking it and he turned and walked slowly out into the night.

 

Chapter 13

                Before dawn, when the morning was still as dark as night, a knocking came at the back door.

                Gilberto slowly got up and taking a machete in hand moved towards the doorway.  He opened the door and Alejandro was there.  Outline in the dark with the jungle and the star studded sky behind him.

                Slowly his details came into view for Gilberto.  From the light spilling from one lone candle lit on the kitchen table.

                Alejandro asked, ‘Gilberto?’.

                ‘Yes, come in.’

                Gilberto stepped aside to let him in.

                He put down the machete.

                Alejandro asked, ‘So, ready already, eh?’, as he pointed at the machete.

                Gilberto smiled.

                Maria arose and put on an oil lamp.

                Alejandro stepped across and put it out.

                ‘Only two candles.  They are watching from below.  Bring your things to the back.’

                ‘Alejandro.’, said Maria as she pointed at the bags near the door.

                She went to get the children.

                In a couple of minutes Gilberto had everything out the door.

                Maria brought the children out rubbing their eyes.

                ‘They need to wake up quick.  Do you have coffee or tea for them?’, asked Alejandro.

                Maria disappeared back into the house and brought a jug.  She uncorked it and had each child drink from it.

                ‘Okay.  They are awake.’

                She gave the two older children a sack each.  She took one sack and picked up the youngest.

                Alejandro stepped across and took her sack.

                ‘Come Gilberto, let’s go!’

                Alejandro sheathed his machete and motioned to Maria.  She followed closely behind Alejandro, the children behind her and then Gilberto.

                They walked for an hour.

                Gilberto took the child from Maria and they carried on.

                After two hours the sun began to come up.  It was a rosy colored sky.  The dark jungle turned gray and then brighter and brighter green.

                They had been silent all this time.

                After an hour walking in the steadily lightening day Alejandro turned to them and said, ‘Wait here.  I will be back soon.’

                He left them behind low bushes and understory trees alongside a lumber road.  He ran across the road, leaping between ruts, up the other side and disappeared quickly into the jumbled forest on the other side.

                Maria gave the children water.  Gilberto sat down on a log and the waited.

                About fifteen minutes later they heard the sound of a droning engine from down the rutted road to their right.

                Gilberto stood in front of his family and Maria moved the children further back behind the bushes.

                In a couple of minutes Gilberto could see the top of a white truck moving towards them up the road.  He stepped back into the undergrowth and crouched down.

                Very quickly the truck was abreast of them and came to a swift jalt.  The door opened and Alejandro slid out.  He motioned to Gilberto.

                ‘Quickly!  Quickly!  Get in!’

                The truck was not new but it was in good condition.  It had an extended cab.  The young family jumped into the truck.

                Alejandro followed suit and put the pickup into gear and they shot off down the road.

                He reached over and turned on the air conditioning.  The quiet in the car and the cooling air soon put the children to sleep.             

                Gilberto asked, ‘What next?’

                ‘We are headed for Nicauragua.  We are going to cross near Nuevo Mundo.  We will drive for three hours.’

                The children became restless.  Maria quieted them and gave them some food.

                Alejandro said, ‘There is a plantation there.  When we arrive you will get in the back.  I will cover you with a tarp and put some sacks over you.  Be careful with the little one.’

                ‘After that I will drive you through the plantation to the border.  I will let you out and you will join three other families and another guide will take you along the west side of the Lago Cocibolca.  Then you will be taken near Managua.  Another guide will take you and you will spend a week there.’

                ‘What next?’

                ‘A truck will take you around the east of Lago Xolotlan.  You will go on to San Francisco Libre.  After a day a work truck will come and take you north to Esteli.  You will work for a few days and your family stay at a mission.  Then, you will begin to walk north to the Honduran border.  It will take two days.  Then three days walk to Choluteca.  I will meet you there.’

                They drove for three and a half hours more.  Then Alejandro pulled off to the side of the road.  He lowered the tailgate.  He put all of their goods along one side of the truck bed.  Then he fashioned a small area that looked like a tent.  It wasn’t very tall.  He put in water bottles and bread.

                He told them all to go to the bathroom.  After that was done and the children cleaned up they got into the bed of the truck.  He covered them carefully. Then, over the little frame he had made, placed the bags of fertilizer and pesticides he had there.  The odor from the manure was not a bother.  It was dried and the bags were sealed.  The pesticide bags, however, were covered with dust and smelled terribly.

                After the false load was completed and the family within, Alejandro returned to the cab and started up the truck.

                Twenty minutes later he arrived at the gates of the Natal Fruit Company Western Plantation.  He was greeted at the gate by an old acquaintance.  After a short conversation, some checking of papers, Alejandro was on his way to the rear of the plantation which butted up to the border between Costa Rica and Nicaraugua.

Chapter 14

                As Alejandro drove the truck towards the back of the plantation he watched the endless rows of bananas plants fly past.  The dust kicked up out the back of his tires.

                Unlike the other roads in the region the plantation roads were well maintained.  Often local government equipment was brought in along with workers to maintain the roadways.  They did other work as well.  Many of them had a job with the local or regional government as well as with the plantation or some other company operating on the plantation.

                Alejandro thought about what had been happening in his country.  He began to think about the retirees and expats that were taking up residents in ever larger communities along the coast and in the jungle.  He wondered how long they could last and continue to expand without actually creating anything as in farming or manufacturing.

                Unbeknownst to most Costa Ricans the country is offered alternatively as an exciting and exotic or relaxing and stable place to retire.  Europeans, Asians and Americans are often taken on whirlwind tours by financial and companies specializing in financial retirement and real estate.  The participants are kept away from the centers of poverty and all centers of industrial agriculture the seamier sides of the ports and the rough areas in the interior or avoided.

                The first step that the real estate and other professional agents due is to advise and help retirees find a place to live in Costa Rica.  Like most of the Central American countries, without much proof, it is characterized as the cheapest retirement destination from the United States.  Strangely enough a strong selling point for the country is not affordable land, food expert, reasonably priced medical care (of which only cheap land exists), is that it has unique panoramic views.

Highly skilled medical services are mentioned but not the dire state of availability nor the outrageous prices.  Unreliability of medication and medical assistance is also not mentioned.  Another important selling point which is innocuous as it is useful says that Costa Rica is warm all year round therefore it is a wonderful location to retire in.

                Expat is the term used for expatriates.  An expatriate is a person who lives outside their country.  Expats were, in the past, generally of a small number and for specific reasons.  Businesses send workers to other nations to live while they carry out the work of their company in the foreign land.  There are many advantages to that arrangement.  Someone is actually in the country representing the company.  In modern times this is necessary for many companies because they are not only doing business there with other companies they are operating businesses, own land and have direct employees.

                It is cheaper for countries to do this when the company working in another nation is from a more advanced country with great financial reserves.  This allows the company to take advantage of changing money rates, lack of laws governing employee insurance and other things.  Corporations engaged in this predatory behavior seek out countries where laws impacting worker safety and guaranteeing minimum pay or allow for unions are weak or nonexistent.

                In the early 20^th Century expats were famous for moving from the United States to places like London or Paris.  The idea was that they were seeking intellectual freedom.  From the results of their work, including painting, writing, theatrical items and even news articles, it is clear their reasons for abandoning their country while retaining their citizenship is much like those seeking a cheap place to live for retirement in the early 21^st Century.

                There is some convincing to do for people who are thinking about moving to a country where the national language is not their own.  Whirlwind tours and adventurous introductions to the areas are provided.  What looks like lavish spending by the marketing and real estate companies it is clear that even those efforts are not very costly considering they are also operating in an environment where costs are low.  They use this to their advantage to sell properties that they themselves purchased or took options on at very low rates. 

In this way local residents can be pushed off their land.  Some may be bought out for what they consider reasonable rates but what they sell for never matches what the realtors eventually sell for.  In certain areas if the local residents will not sell they may be subjected to eminent domain, foreclosure or worse.

As another example of how this displacement of local people with few economic opportunities or money is a certain of operation carried out by international corporations.

Labor is the highest cost in manufacturing.  It is to the obvious advantage of the companies to reduce their labor cost as much as possible.  Pay rates are held to strict limits.  Whenever possible labor rates may be reduced.  Unions are resisted or busted when possible.

In these times a company may look overseas to realize gains they never could in their home country.  For example, Japan, the United States, England, Germany, France, Spain, China, India and other cash rich nations might enter into a market like Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua or El Salvador and start up an operation known as a ‘Green Field’.

Green Field is a phrase that normally relates to farmland.  It has already been cleared and is essentially ready for development.  The reality in countries in Central America is that the land purchased may have been a well ordered farm which is now ready for the ‘next stage of development’, but, more often than not is empty land, may be jungle, forest or land that had previously been clearcut or is lying in waste.

In one case a Japanese corporation started up a Green Field project in an area still covered by jungle.  A large set of parcels were set aside and the area clear cut.  Modern construction equipment, operated by another foreign corporation from a second country and operated by foreign workers from a third country.  No local labor was involved other than taking away waste and trash.

During the construction of the project water lines were put in place, sewage treatment provided, a new roadway and a rail line.  As a result of this the local water supply for the nearby villages was disturbed and one village lost access to fresh water altogether and needed to expend money to get a water line extended.  One water spigot then became the sole source of local water for a village of thirty families.  The local road system, which had been dirt and clay and also included numerous footpaths was broken up by the new highway and rail line.  Erosion, difficulty to travers and other issues ensued.

Finally the construction was finished and the workers and equipment were taken away.  There was no net influx of capital into the area. 

Local workers were hired or were imported into the area from the cities.

Management was handled by the direct employees of the foreign company.  They were all foreigners except for manager.

Most of the workers were functionally illiterate.  Though they attended safety meetings they did not retain what was going on as the references in the training included vocabulary and behaviors they were unfamiliar with.  Their local ideas of who was actually in charge also impacted work flow in the factory.

A problem that occurred as a result of all this was that during the first year of operation there were several, regularly occurring digit amputations.  That is, many workers fingers were being chopped off in the machines.

At first the response from the foreign office of the subsidiary of the international corporation (neither of which were in the country) was that the workers needed to be trained more.

Then it was determined that new changes needed to be made to the machines to make them safer.

No matter what was done the amputations and injuries continued.

Finally production was stopped for two days and a Human Resources Specialist was sent from the subsidiary offices in the United States.  They examined the problem and approved the work to continue.  Before the next meeting where the Human Resources Representative was due to make a report about the problem another amputation took place.

At the meeting the Human Resources Representative made it clear that his investigation indicated that the problem that had been recorded earlier in the year was the cause of the amputations and that was that the workers were removing the safety guards in order to work faster.

The local company President in the United States ordered that the workers not be allowed to remove the guards.

The Human Resources Representative stated it was not the workers that were removing the guards but the local management.

The final decision was to install guards that could not be removed.

During the time it took to replace the guards three more amputations took place.

Also during the entire time of these incidents the company saw record profits from the location and paid out virtually nothing in medical benefits or costs.

                The attraction to retirees across the United States, Europe, Asia and elsewhere to countries like Costa Rica, Honduras and Guatemala center on cost.  It is the idea that they are getting something great for so little cost.  The reality is that they are getting something that used to belong to someone else but because they have more credit they push others off their land.

                At this time in Costa Rica, for instance, utilities and internet can be had for under $150 a month.  This is amazing to majority of residents in these countries who, if they are aware of the internet, cannot afford to access it.

Regarding the size and land on which the house purchased exists the retiree could put out between $330 and $2,000 per month to rent.  The current markets in the area, however, virtually guarantee that retirees could purchase a home for less than $200,000 and have access to modern homes that are comfortable to live in for an average of $120,000 with credit and financing readily available.

These credit schemes are not readily available to local residents who have been in the areas their entire lives.  There are also luxury communities arranged along beach front properties and others where homes and bungalows are suspended on stakes in areas that had previously been mangrove forests.  The problem with building in such areas is that when hurricanes or typhoons appear they may wipe out the area.  This is a direct loss to the retirees but offers the developers and opportunity to buy the land back, rebuild and start the process again.

                Medical care in the Central American countries is touted as being ‘not much of a problem’.  Because many of the countries outside of the United States have some sort of organized healthcare undergovernment oversite this is a departure for many.  In Costa Rica public healthcare has a cost of a percentage of income that amounts to about 7 to 11 percent of reported income.

These payments allow access universal healthcare those with residency in Costa Rica.

In the event that retirees, or other expats are seeking privatized healthcare there is health insurance that provides options similar to those found in the United States.  It should be kept in mind that just because you can get reimbursed for the costs of care the care itself might not be available in the country where the expat or retiree is living.  Incredibly in Costa Rica the average doctor’s visit cost may be fifty dollars while specialists charge approximately eighty dollars a visit.

                Alejandro brought slowed the truck as he approached an intersection.  The road could go no further ahead.  It was either to the left or the right.  He put his blinker on, though there was no other vehicle within five miles of where he was, and turned right.  He drove another mile and a half down this road and came to another intersection.  In this case, he could either go back, forward, to the right, down a well cared for road, or to the left, down a leafy trail with overhanging branches.

                The road to the left was nondescript.  If the driver didn’t know if was there it would be easy to miss.

                Alejandro looked to the right, saw no dust, he looked ahead of him and saw no other vehicles.  Finally he checked in his rear view and side mirrors and sighed with relief.  There was no one there.  He hadn’t been followed and there was no one working in the area as he had expected.

                ‘One never knows.’, he thought to himself.

                He quickly turned to the left and plunged into the bush.

                In another fifteen minutes the road got rough and hilly.  He slowed down.

                After another fifteen minutes he turned off into the dense bush and the trees and bushes and brush closed in behind the truck.  After another five minutes of driving he pulled to the right behind a hillock and stopped the truck.

                He leaped out and ran to the back of the truck.  He opened the gate and leaped inside.  He began removing all the bags and items he had on the Martinez family and their makeshift tent.

                He pulled off the canvas with a jerk.  They lay there sweating and gasping for air.  One of the boys appeared asleep.  The girl began to cry.

                He grabbed the boy and sat him and rubbed his back and chest.  The boy began to revive.

                Gilberto sat up.

                Alejandro said, ‘You must go now.  We are at the border.  You will meet Diego Estrella on the other side.  He will find you.  Come, I will show you the path.’

                Alejandro helped the family climb down out of the bed of the truck and sat them down.  He gave them all water and bread.

                After they had rested, Alejandro led them on a narrow path that seemed to grow thicker and thicker as they progressed.  They arrived at a sharply sloped wall of jungle.  Alejandro showed them the footfalls and led them up.  The children had difficulty but managed it.

                At the top of the hill Alejandro showed them the view.  On the Costa Rican side, from where they had just come, a banana plantation stretched out almost to the horizon.  They could see trucks in one area of the plantation and to the far left a small, aged steam engine was moving a load of bananas towards the front of the plantation.

                Turning forward to gaze into Nicaragua, in this area, the jungle proceeded on almost unbroken for as far as the banana plantation stretched behind them.

                Alejandro said, ‘Diego will meet you at the bottom of this hill.  He may be there when you get down, but he may not.  He may not come until tomorrow or the day after.  Take shelter close to the path and wait.  Do not light a fire.  It is time to go now.’

                Gilberto offered his hand to Alejandro who did not take it.

                Alejandro looked at him and said, ‘You’re Father-In-Law, Nicolas, has shaken my hand.  You and he have paid and paid well.  If you make it, it is your success, not mine.’

                Gilberto looked at his hand and was about to withdraw it when Alejandro’s hand shot out and took it and enclosed Gilberto’s in a strong grasp.

                ‘Be careful.  It will be dangerous all the way through here.  I will meet you in Honduras, but, if you get to El Salvador without me, it will be a little better there.  Just be sure to break no laws in El Salvador.  Keep to yourself and they will let you pass through.’

                ‘How about in Nicaragua?’, asked Gilberto.

                ‘Just keep out of sight and do everything that Diego tells you without hesitation.  He is busy and will speak only once.  I will see you again in Honduras.’

                With that, Alejandro turned on his heel, parted bushes before him, stepped forward and was gone.  They did not even hear his footsteps as he raced back down the hill, through the forest and to his truck.

 

Chapter 15

                Gilberto, Maria and the children reached the base of the opposite slope about three hours later.  It was late in the afternoon.

                The moved off the trail about fifty feet.  There was a large rock that Gilberto could sit or lean on and see the trail for some distance into the jungle ahead.

                Maria made them some cold food and everyone sat down to eat.  Gilberto maintained his vigil.  The air was warm and there were no breezes.  Mosquitoes started up and then faded away into a light breeze.

                As the afternoon grew into evening it was apparent that they would not be picked up that day.

                They prepared a small site for themselves and spread a nylon sheet they had for the ground and another to protect from rain, should it come in the night.

                As the sun went down the jungle changed its aspect.  The flowers and fruits in the area gave out a heavy perfume.  The family settled down.  The children went to sleep and their parents not long afterwards.

                In the morning Gilberto was the first awake.  He roused himself, drank a water bottle.  He tapped Maria on the shoulder and pointed with his finger.  She shook her head and held her daughter closer.

                Gilberto moved off to his lookout and took up his position.

                Later, Gilberto, Junior came with some bread and rice cakes and water.  He returned to his mother without saying anything.

                Gilberto kept watch all morning until noon.

                Then he went to their small camp.

                Gilberto, Junior was gazing out into the jungle.  The two other children were playing near Maria.  Maria was busily going through their packs and repacking everything.

                They spoke briefly.  Gilberto took another rice cake and walked down to the trail.  He examined where they had come down the day before.  It was more steep than he had realized.  He turned towards the trail where they waited for their new Coyote to come from.          

                He walked along it a few hundred feet.  He could see no other footprints.  Any broken branches or signs of recent use were not evident.  He felt a pang of concern for a moment.

                After all, even though he knew that Alejandro came with good references and a good reputation he also knew a lot of money was at stake.  Together with the money they had put up themselves as a family, Nicolas had put in more cash and the total was more than $10,000 American dollars.  It was closer to $11,000 dollars.  A fortune for a man like Gilberto in Costa Rica.

                What if they had been deceived?

                Certainly if someone deceived only a handful of families, he thought, that someone could earn riches beyond belief.

                He stopped going forward and turned back.  It was hard to make out the trail so he returned the way he had come.  When he came up about the area where they had split off to set camp he hurried back to Maria.

                They talked for a while and they all drank water.   Maria and the children continued to rest.  Gilberto returned to his lookout.

                For all the rest of the afternoon he noticed nothing strange in the jungle.  At one point Howler Monkeys had moved through the area.  They had set up a loud wailing and then fell eerily quiet.

                No humans came forward down the trail so Gilberto assumed the monkeys either had encountered another troop, found a jaguar or something else.

                He remained at his outlook that day until the sun began to set.

                He returned to their camp and they had a light dinner and drank water.   They settled down to rest.  The air was perfumed and sweet.

                As the sun set and the night came on there was a light patter of rain on the leaves far up in the canopy.  Thankfully, to Maria and Gilberto, it did not persist and a wind blew the clouds and fog off.  When all was dark they settled down to sleep.

                It was early in the morning when Gilberto was shaken awake by Gilberto, Junior.  The boy was holding a knife.  It was his mother’s knife.  Used to clean fish.

                ‘Papa,’, he said, ‘wake up!  There is something out there!’

                His voice sounded like a hiss.

                Gilberto sat up and put his hand on his son’s shoulder.

                They sat silent under the starlit jungle.

                Gilberto heard something as well.

                A soft padding.

                Like a bird walking on pond covered with lily pads.

                Only there was no pond here, no lily pads and it was not a bird he was hearing.

                He held on to his son’s shoulder and put his finder up to his lips for quiet.

                The padding came closer, then slowed and stopped.

                A few more steps and then there was a black outline darker than the ebony darkness of the jungle beyond.

                Gilberto realized, ‘It is a Jaguar!’.

                They sat, motionless and silent.  The two of them the only guard between the Jaguar and Maria and the children.

                The Jaguar looked first at the boy and then directly into the face of Gilberto.

                Their eyes met in mutual recognition.

                One hunting for food and one hunting for freedom.

                Whether out of respect or just for easier prey, the Jaguar shook his head as if throwing off water, made a quick short growl, almost too low to hear and walked off back into the night.  Farther away from their camp and the trail they hoped to follow the next day.

                The man and boy sat in stunned silence for some time.  Then they relaxed and sat waiting in the darkness until the light came.

                They both rested as the sky turned pink and the greens returned to the trees and bush around them.

                Maria woke Gilberto up two hours later.  He had a rice cake and water.  He began to move off to his lookout when he heard some twig snap far back in the forest and jungle.

                He hurried to his rock promontory.  He stood behind it like a man behind a lectern.  As if he might make some mighty speech.

                He saw far off, where the light was brighter along the line of the forest that edged a large meadow or some open area, that something or someone was moving quickly down the trail.

                He went back to his family and then moved himself closer to the trail.

                About an hour later he clearly heard someone approaching.  He steeled himself and stood up.  A man appeared around the bend in the trail.  As soon as he saw Gilberto he drew a pistol and faded into the brush on the side of the trail.

                The next thing Gilberto know a voice said from behind him, ‘Put up your hands and I may not kill you.’

                He threw his hands into the air.

                ‘Who are you?’, the voice asked.

                ‘Gilberto Martinez!’.  His heart was pounding in his chest.

                The man put down his gun.  ‘All right.  Turn around.’

                Gilberto did that.

                ‘Don’t ever show yourself again until you are called.  Anywhere along the route.  Do you understand?’

                Gilberto shook his head in assent.

                ‘There are others.  Where are they?’

                Gilberto pointed.

                ‘Get them.’

                The man faded into the bush again.

                Gilberto gathered his family and he and Maria made it to the trail.

                The man came back again when they were all on the trail.

                He said, ‘This is all of you, right?’

                Maria shook her head, ‘Yes.’, she said.

                ‘I am Diego Estrella, I will take you to Honduras and then quickly to the border of El Salvador.  Alejandro will meet you inside El Salvador.’

                ‘Well, you may make it.  I carry no children.  If they cannot walk you will have to carry them.  If you cannot keep up you will be left behind, whether it is one of you or all of you.  Do you understand?’

                Gilberto and Maria looked at each other.

                Maria shook her head and Gilberto said, ‘Yes.  We understand.’

                ‘Okay, you have everything?’

                Maria said, ‘Yes.’

                ‘Good then.  We go!’

                Diego turned abruptly and started moving down the trail.

 

                They followed Diego down the trail.  It was very hard going.  Rocky and filled with vegetation and wet places.

                The path gradually began to rise after about an hour and the line of sunlight that Gilberto had seen from his perch came into view between the trees more and more.  As they approached it became apparent that there was a field beyond the edge of the jungle.

                When they came out into the sunlight the light hurt their eyes and they covered them.  There was a yellow bus, it’s color swallowed up by the browns and yellows of  the thick grass all around.  They were on top of a high hill.  The only thing that could be seen was the jungle behind them and fields of wild grass before them.

                Diego took them over to the bus and told them to get in.  They got in right away.  Diego followed them.  He barked to the driver, ‘Okay, that’s all of them, close the door and let’s go.’

                He then turned to the riders in the bus.   “We are heading for Hidalgo.  It is 120 kilometers (75 miles) away.  When we arrive there it will be dark.  We will get off the bus and will go to a building where everyone will rest.  There will be water there.  We will stay there for one day or two and then go on.  You will all be given farm worker papers right now.  Keep them on you.  Keep your children with you.”

                He raised his voice, “Listen to me!  If we are stopped and searched no one says anything.  Give them your papers and that is all.  That is all!  Do you understand?”

                A lukewarm response was met with a strident, “Do you understand?  If you do not your journey will end right now!”

                The people shouted in assent that they understood.

                Diego extended his arms, ‘Okay, okay.  Well, good.  Now we will travel.  Get some rest.”

                The journey was bumpy and dusty.  At one point the old school bus got stuck in a rut and everyone had to get out.  The men pushed the bus back onto a higher part of the road.  They all had to work for a mile to get out of that area.

                When they were all back on the bus the sun began to set.

                Diego talked quietly with the driver.

                The passengers were nervous.  The children were cranky or sleepy.  After a time driving with Lake Cocibolca they came to clusters of houses and businesses.  There were some streetlights in small sections.

                Finally they pulled off the main road and started up into a neighborhood in an older settled town.  As Diego had said they pulled up to a building and the bus stopped.

                It was a whitewashed warehouse.  Two stories tall.  It was wide and so long that the back of it was lost in the darkness that crowded in on the light from lamps in front of it.

                The people disembarked from the bus and took all of their possessions.  As soon as the last one was off and the bus cleared of all possessions the driver leapt back in the bus and drove off in a cloud of dust.

                Eighty dusty, dirty, hungry, thirsty people filed into the warehouse through one door.  The main door remained closed.

                When they were all inside Diego closed the door.  He turned out all of the lights outside except for the one light above the door.

                He turned to the people and said, ‘Find a place and settled down.  I will be here for a couple of hours and then go out.  I will return or someone else will come for you.  The next trip is further north by another bus.  We must wait for it to be sent here.  It will be sent when it is available.’

                ‘Where is the water?’, Gilberto asked.

                Diego said, ‘There is a spigot in the back of the building.  Do not leave the door open.  Get one bucket at a time and pass it in with the light over there out.  Understand?’

                Gilberto shook his head in assent.  He went to the back of the building and motioned to two other men to join him.  His older son also came along.

                The people ate some food, washed and drank water and then settled down to sleep.  It was the only thing to do.

                Some prayed that the police would not come but others quieted them.  One man said, ‘If they come it is because God sent them.  If not, then because He kept them away.  Let us rest.’

 

Chapter 16

                The next day Diego returned early.  He had everyone gather up their materials and get ready to go.

                An old man next to Gilberto said, ‘Oh, this will take all day.  When they picked me up I had to wait two days.’

                The activity of that morning, however, was rapid.  Even before everyone was ready a modern, air conditioned bus was outside the building.  Everyone began loading immediately.

                Within an hour an half the bus had pulled out.

                A cloud of dust arose behind them.

                Maria and the children looked out the windows.

                The town was old.  It had mixed buildings.  Some left over still from the days of colonization.  Others were in that style.  There were rows of wooden buildings used for shops and warehouses.  The houses of the families, the homes, were of various types.  Very few traditional Spanish wood frame homes.  Many more in confused brick.   The majority was of native materials and flatboards.

                Most of the streets were unpaved and some seemed to lack sewage as the streets had a ditch running along the center.  There was a train depot that seemed unused.

                There was one small modern warehouse where trucks were moving about.  They carried lumber and sawdust.

                As the bus left the town the jungle closed in around the road.

                They traveled for four hours and came to a military post.  They all had to get out of the bus and line up.  They were ordered to hold out their papers.  A man in a white shirt with a brown tie went up and down the row stamping papers.  After that was done they were allowed to get back in the bus.  Diego went to speak to an officer.  They stepped behind a jeep and Gilberto happened to see an envelope pass between them, from Diego to the officer.

                They left immediately and travelled for another hour.

                They stopped in a town that was more traditional in Spanish style.

                There were many white buildings.   There was a city hall and a large, whitewashed church.

                The town was called La Dignidad.

                They were taken into a large, cool, metal building that was painted sky blue on the outside.

                About five families, thirty people or so, were left outside.  As the rest entered the building to settle down Maria saw two vans pull up and pick up the people.  After they were all loaded the vans drove out of town towards the mountains, away from the lake.

                They were now near the north end of Lago Cocibolca.

                Diego came and had one of his assistants tell everyone to rest.  They could go to church in the evening if they wanted to.  There would also be mass in the morning.

                Some of the older travelers went to mass in the evening.  The rest stayed in the building and slept or rested.  The children played.

                In the morning Diego was nowhere to be seen.  His assistant came and told everyone to stay in the building and be quiet.

                Gilberto and Maria were by the front and could see outside one of the windows.  They saw several police vehicles outside.  Some were local police and others were from the National Police.  There was one jeep with a machine gun on top.

                The men were arguing.

                There was another bus outside.  It was smaller than the one they had arrived on.  There were maybe forty-five people gathered outside of it.  Their possessions had been piled high away from the bus.

                The driver had his hands on top of his head.  A police officer was pointing his rifle at him.

                The arguments continued and finally another jeep pulled up.  There was an officer in it that seemed to have some rank.  He called the local Police Chief to him.  They talked.  The Police Chief threw up his hands, turned to his men and shouted something.  They all departed.

                The National Police kept the people in place.

                Two hours later two large trucks arrived.  The people were loaded on them and all of their possessions thrown in behind them in no order.

                The trucks left with the people.

                The truck driver had his papers checked and then was allowed to leave with the bus.  He departed in a cloud of rusty dust.

                Two National Police officers approached the building that Gilberto, Maria and their children were in, but was called back as they approached the door.  The high ranking officer pointed to City Hall and told them to go there.

                The rest of day in the warehouse was spent in restless silence.  No one knew what to do.  Diego’s assistant said nothing.  He sat in a chair looking out the window.  Sometimes looking at his fingers.

                The day wore on.

                Around four in the afternoon the National Police began to disperse.  After most of them were gone the ranking officer left as well.

                Diego returned about six o’clock in the evening.  He counted everyone and said they would all be leaving the next morning.  He had the bus parked behind the Church.

                Night came on and everyone had their simple meals and went to bed to rest as best they could.

                In the morning they awoke to a new day.  It was bright and sunny.  A rain had come in the night and put down all of the dust.  Some of the travelers went to the morning Church Service.

                Maria had Gilberto do some light work in the Church for the Priest, Father Reynaldo.  He was a rather young man as priests in that area go.  In his late forties or early fifties, it was hard to tell.

                He had been active in the community for some time.  He had started out as a rising star in the capitol city but he proved to be free with his words and worked for social justice.  As the government presented itself as a distributor and guarantor of social justice it did not take kindly to criticism about its actual activities.

                The Father had been generally quiet.  However, it was clear that the town he had settled in was a crossroads for immigrants heading north or south or escaping from the country.  He wasn’t viewed in a friendly manner.

                Gilberto finished his work and sat in the knave.

                Santiago was a man of about fifty years old.  He was a simple man.  He assisted at the church.  Unable to read or process numbers he carried out simple duties.  He did minor repairs, kept the place clean, cooked on occasion and helped as a server when the children did not come for Mass, which was most of the weekdays.

                This particular day was no different.

                Father Reynaldo entered the Church.  He blessed all of those who sought it.  He stopped and turned to Gilberto.  Gilberto saw his eyes were old.  Older, he thought, than the old Church they were in.  Father Reynaldo blessed him and went on to prepare for Mass.

                In the Church pews were two or three of the travelers.  Most of the rest were outside waiting to get on the bus to get out of there before the police returned.  There was no one left in the warehouse.

                Santiago laid out the cloth on the altar.  He lit the votive light and the oil lamp.  He lit the incense.  He broomed down the aisle and all over the altar.

                Then he went to the back to put on a white robe to help Father Santiago serve the Mass.

                Gilberto sat waiting for Maria to come get him when it was time to go.  He could see the entire Church.  He though, was not visible to any by the Priest and Santiago.

                The Mass began.  Gilberto sang along when he knew the hymn and recited all the psalms and responses.

                In the square in front of the church a police officer wandered out of one of the buildings.  He walked across the square and sent the children playing there away.  He motioned to some men that were sitting outside and they left their chairs or the place where they were standing and either went into the store or building they were in front or passed around to the back.  The women running a small market likewise took the cue and without closing up their market stalls altogether, gently covered the produce and textiles and melted away into the farther part of the town where children could still be seen.  Dogs ran to and fro.

                In a few minutes the square was empty except for the finely dressed police officer.  He lifted up his left boot and tapped it with his stick.  He then finished crossing the square and disappeared into another building.  He closed the door behind him.  A moment later a curtain could be seen being drawn across the window.

                The square was silent.  The square was empty.

                Inside the Church the celebration of the Mass continued.

                The Homily had been concluded and the Priest was approaching the blessing of the gifts.

                In the distance, from the direction their bus had come, from the south, came the drone of an engine.  It grew louder as the Mass continued.

                Within a few minutes an Army Jeep pulled up into the square.  Another stopped at the entrance.  They both had heavy machine guns in the back.  They were tied down.

                The first Jeep drove around the edge of the square and then stopped in front of the Church.

                There were three soldiers in the Jeep.  All of the soldiers wore sunglasses.  The driver sat erect.  The passenger and the one riding in the back both had submachine guns. The quickly exited the vehicle.  Without looking anywhere else they mounted the steps to the Church and each one opened one half of the massive double doors.

                Father Reynaldo was just raising the Host above his head when the entered the Church.

                At the sound of the doors, all eyes, except those of Father Reynaldo and Santiago, turned to look at who was coming in.

                One woman screamed and threw herself to the floor.

                An old man made the sign on the cross.

                The soldiers aimed and fired quick bursts at the Priest.

                Father Reynaldo stumbled backwards and fell, laying between the Altar and his seat.  As he fell he laid the host on the altar.  His outstretched arm brushed the cup and it tipped over and spilled.

                Santiago looked at the Cup of Wine.

                The soldiers checked their weapons, turned and left.

                A minute later both Jeeps were on the way out of the plaza.

                Santiago stepped forward and righted the cup.

                He began to clean up the altar.

                Some of the people ran from the Church.

                The doctor was summoned.

                Gilberto stood and went towards the prostrate body of the Priest.

                Maria opened the door near him.  Diego strode in, took Gilberto by the upper arm and led him out into the sun.

                Santiago continued to clean the Altar as the doctor declared Father Reynaldo dead.

                Maria let the door close behind her.

                She walked beside Gilberto.  He stepped up into the bus and she led him to their seats.  He sat down.

                He said to Maria, ‘I cleared out the back of the Church and straightened the hymnals.’

                ‘Yes, yes,’, she said, ‘you did good.  Good my husband, sleep now.  We are going.’

                The bus started and they sped north away from La Dignidad.

 

Chapter 17

                It was late in the evening when they arrived at the crossing between Nicaragua and Honduras.

                As they had travelled along the devastation of the forests and farmlands became obvious.  It worsened as they headed north.  When crossing from Costa Rica to Nicaragua it was clear where the border was.  If it wasn’t for the well lit border shacks it would not be so clear at the Nicaraguan and Honduran border.

                Both sides featured a mix of short trees and bushes.  In the darkening distance the denuded hills could be made out.  The fields on both sides of the road were brownish dirt, red clay or tinged with green weeds, small plants and wildflowers.

                The crossing took an hour.  It would have been sooner but a truck leaving Nicaragua was searched on both sides of the border.  The Nicaraguan guards searched the truck and so did the Hondurans.

                When the bus got to the border a Nicaraguan guard boarded, looked at the drivers license and papers, and without even turning to look at the people in the bus, leapt out and waved them along.

                It seemed like they couldn’t wait to get them out of there.

                On the Honduran side the situation was slightly different.  Diego got out and went into the office.  Meanwhile three guards boarded.  Two men and one woman.  One man checked the driver’s papers while the other man and the woman slowly moved up and down the aisle checking everyone’s papers.

                Some of the children were asleep and the guards made an attempt to keep things quiet.  After about fifteen minutes that work was done and the guards exited the bus.  The busdriver closed the door and idled the bus with the air conditioning running.

                Diego exited the office after another fifteen minutes had passed.  He made a beeline to the bus and the driver opened the door.  Diego climbed up the stairs and threw himself down into a seat at the front.  He made a curt gesture to the driver indicating they should drive off.

                Diego did not look happy and put his elbows on his knees and rested his head in his hands.

                The bus slowly moved out of the border area into the night.

                They drove along for about an hour in the dark when they came upon another guard shack.  There was blockade across the road.  The bus slowed down.  Diego stood up and said, ‘Listen to me.  If we get separated here, you will walk north and find Santa Teresa.  There is a warehouse that stores paper rolls.  Wait there if we are separated.  Someone will come for you.’

                The bus stop and Diego got off.  He went to the office.

                He was back out again in a moment with a furious looking officer following him.   The guards here were not dressed well.  They had rifles, handguns and two carried machine guns.

                The officer following Diego looked a little drunk.

                He ordered another man to enter the bus.

                He did so and pushed Diego up the stairs and out of the way.

                The man then demanded money.  Twenty American dollars from everyone on board.

                Some people had the money and quickly produced it.  Others did not.  Diego made no move.  The soldier motioned to two others to come on the bus.

                Maria nudged Gilberto.  “Ask them how much more they need.”

                Gilberto asked, “How much more do you need?”

                The soldier asked, “What?”

                The drunken officer demanded to know what was going on in the bus.

                Not minding the garbled response he got from the soldier in the bus the officer pushed his was up the stairs into the bus.  Three others followed him so now there were six heavily armed men standing at the front of the bus.

                The Officer shouted, “What is going on here?”

                Gilberto asked again, looking at the floor, “How much more do you need?”

                The Officer stopped.  Suddenly temporarily sober.

                “Get off!”, he yelled and threw his men out of the bus.

                He turned to the driver, “Close the door.”

                The door was closed.

                The Officer walked down the aisle and leaned over to Gilberto.  He took his pistol from his belt and it hang down along his side.

                He hissed at Gilberto, “Five hundred American dollars.”

                Gilberto’s shoulders drooped.

                The Officer smiled and began to stand.

                Maria quickly shoved an envelope into Gilberto’s hand.

                He looked at it briefly and slowly showed it to the Officer who had been raising his pistol.

                He saw the envelope, quickly took it and then turned as if nothing had happened and walked to the front of the bus.

                Cramming the envelope into his pocket he put his pistol away and turned to the people and said, ‘Welcome to Honduras!’.

                The driver opened the door and the Officer got out.  He said something to a soldier and the barrier was removed.  The driver moved slowly along at first but at the first curve began drive very fast.  After a few minutes Diego told him to slow down, that they would be pulling off in an hour or so and everyone could get out.

                After an hour had passed Diego, now back to himself, stood up at the front of the bus and watched as the forest flew by.  He told the driver to slow.  They went on like that for about two miles when he said, ‘Okay, we will turn right at the next break.  Go slow.  The opening is not wide.’

                They came to a location where a small road exited the woods on their right.  The driver turned and headed down it.  At first it was heavily rutted and the people were jostled about and several children awoke.  Then, after a short distance the road smoothed out.

                In another thirty minutes they had pulled into Santa Teresa.  The bus drove on through town and behind a warehouse close to the railroad tracks.  The people got off and went into the warehouse.  This time the bus did not leave.  The drive pulled it into a nearby building and closed it up.

                Diego brought them all into the warehouse.  He said, ‘You will be here a couple.  I will be back or one of my friends, to take you on.  If you get separated here or have to leave head north to Montenegro and wait there near the Church.’

                Then he left.

                The people settled in and had something to eat.  Then they lay down to rest.

                The next day Diego did not appear.

                They waited all day but no one arrived.

                Around one o’clock in the afternoon Gilberto started to watch out the front office window.  There was no activity until about two o’clock when Gilberto noticed a police officer saunter up and take a seat in the shade across the street.

                Gilberto went back to Maria and told her what he had seen.

                She asked, ‘What do you think we should do?’

                ‘Well, Diego is not here, none of his assistants.  None of them.  I think we should go now to Montenegro.’

                Maria immediately gathered up the children and packed up their materials.  Their neighbors on the floor asked what they were doing.  Maria was quiet.  Gilberto said, ‘We are going.’

                The man asked him why and Gilberto nodded his head to the window.  He put a quick finger over his lips.

                Maria took the children and headed them towards the back door.  Another woman asked what she was doing and Maria said, ‘I am taking the children outside.  It is too close in here.’

                Gilberto followed with the baggage.

                The man he had spoken to walked slowly over to the front office.  As he gazed out the window Gilberto exited the back door.  He shared out the bags to Maria and the children.  He then led them to the outbuilding where the bus was parked.  He turned to the right and walked around behind it.

                Back in the warehouse, Mr. Romero, who has spoken with Gilberto, then noticed the police officer in the shade of the palms across the street.  He probably would still not have noticed him through the dingy window panes but the officer was smoking a cigarette and the red light outlined his tanned face as he inhaled.

                Mr. Romero jumped back in surprise and then, bending low, as if that would help conceal him more behind a warehouse wall he quickly went out to his family and gathered them up.  They began to move towards the back door as well.

                They were soon there.  Someone called out, ‘Where are you going?’

                His wife cried out, ‘Look out the front window!  The policia are here!’

                Cries rose up among the forty-five or so people left in the.  ‘Policia!’, ‘Let’s go!’.  ‘We have to get out of here!’.

                Panic set in as Mr. Romero’s family made their exit.  They quickly turned to the left and went away from the warehouse back towards the town.  People in the alleys along the way watched them go and then slowly turned away back into their own homes and closed the doors behind them.

                Gilberto and Maria led the children behind the outbuilding.  It was quiet back there.  There was a large open field that had been tilled some time ago.  It was filled with low weeds.  The ground was packed well.  It was easy walking.  They walked in a straight line away from the buildings and the town.

                Back at the warehouse people were in a rush to get out of the building.

                After the third family had gotten out of the back door someone at the front of the warehouse noticed a police vehicle show up.  Then another and another.

                One drove around behind the warehouse and closed the door.

                The families that were already outside were told to wait.  One family ran and made it into the forested area to the right of the outbuilding where the bus was parked.

                Two other families froze where they were and dropped their possessions.  They put their hands above their heads without being told.

                Suddenly a young man who had been travelling by himself burst out through the door out of the warehouse and to the left.  One of the police officers there shouted at him to stop.

                He continued to run towards the town.

                The other officer stood in the jeep and aimed his pistol at the man who was running.  The officer fired his weapon and the man fell headlong into the dust.  The officer fired twice more and then holstered his gun.

                Inside the warehouse the police captain had arrived.  He had all the people lined up against the wall.  Then he had two of the captives open all of the packages and divide up the possessions.  All of their money was taken.

                They were then rounded up and taken outside to the front of the warehouse.  A truck pulled up and they were all ordered into the back of the truck.  After everyone was inside the truck pulled away.

                Two police officers in the warehouse collected any of the goods that had any value and put them in their vehicle.  The money was turned over to the Captain who had a Sergeant go through it.  Small portions were given to the other officers and then they were all dispersed.

                Later two men and a woman came to take up the rest of the abandoned possessions and the clean out the warehouse.

                As all this took place Gilberto and Maria and the children made their slowly across the peaceful and sunlit field towards the line of trees beyond.  The sweet smell of Earth, grasses, herbs and the few other living things that had managed to hang on in the burned over soil that had been exhausted with cotton, tobacco and loads of chemicals from pesticides, fungicides, herbicides and manufactured fertilizers.

                Small birds rose up before them and darted back and forth catching the few insects that remained.

                When they reached the tree line they sat down and drank water and had some things to eat.

                Gilberto reckoned their directions and worked out which way was north.

                They then began the long walk to Montenegro which was somewhere thirty miles away.  It would probably take them two or three days to get there.  They would need to stop and find directions.  Hopefully they might be able to get a ride, though Gilberto and Maria decided it would be safer to walk.

                They travelled by foot the rest of the evening and by nightfall had come within site of a small village.  One or two lights twinkled in the dim evening.

                Maria and Gilberto found an even area on the forest floor and gathered the children together.  They drank water and had some bread to eat along with sausages.

                Then they lay down to rest.

                Back at the warehouse the body of the young man who had been shot was dragged away by two men wearing stars on their shirts.  They pulled the body out of the open area and into the shadows.  It was loaded onto the back of a pickup truck.  They heaved the body into the bed of the pickup truck and then slammed the tailgate up.

                They drove off in a cloud of dust.  They took the body outside of town.  As they drove they drank from a shared bottle of liquor.  They did not speak to each other.  They did not look at each other.  They did not laugh.  They did not cry.  They had expressions on their face of great rage but within they were empty.  They were the type of men who would do anything they had to or anything they were told to do as long as they were paid and they did not need to change the way they lived their lives.

                After an hour’s drive they arrived at cutoff in the road.  They turned to the left and made their way down a dusty track in the dark.  At the end of the track the road opened up and in the wide clearing there was a bulldozer in the lights of the pickup.  There were other trucks parked around.  There were abandoned appliances, cars, and other detritus from farming and construction.  Small fires smoked, burned and sputtered in a ravine just beyond the bulldozer.

                The driver pulled perilously close to the edge of the ravine and turned sharply at the last moment.  Most people would have taken fright and showed great concern at that, however, his companion was busy drinking liquor and took no notice of it.

                The drive shifted gears and backed up abruptly.  He pulled up to the brink of the ravine and put the truck in park.  He pulled out the keys and reached over for the bottle.  He took a deep pull and then, putting the cap back on leapt out of the cab.  His partner jumped out too.  He then pulled himself up into the bed of the truck.  The driver put the gate down.

                The man in the bed of the truck took the body under the arms and pulled up.  Soon the dead man was standing in the bed of the truck in front of the man holding him.

                The driver said, ‘Okay, go ahead.’

                The man holding the cadaver pushed it forward.  The body slowly leaned forward and then, reaching parallel with the truck bed pitched forward into the darkness.  The men could hear it bouncing and rolling down the hill for about seconds until it hid something hard.  The thud marked the end of the journey for that particular migrant.

                The two men went back into the cab, each taking a drink of liquor, and then pulled away into the darkness.

                Behind them the sound of a nightbird and a rising chorus of insects rose up into the starry night sky.

                Gilberto, Maria, Gilberto, Jr., Anna and Jose all woke up the next morning.

                They were laying in a wide field with high grass all around.

                Gilberto was up first and took a look around.  He could see very far as they had stopped on top of a hill overlooking the entire area.  This part of the world has many ‘sugar loaf’ shaped hills and small mountains.  They were formed from volcanic action and other unknown geologic forces.

                The family had a cold breakfast and drank some of their water.  They would need to find a water source by the end of the day or do without.

                Gilberto could make out a small stream or creek below to the northeast.  It headed directly towards a town he was hoping would be Montenegro, though it seemed too close to be.

                In any case, they started on their way.  They made their way down the hillside.  In many places the topsoil had been worn away.  First by deforestation, then by farming and finally by neglect.  What once had been unspoiled wilderness, and before that, verdant fields, was now exposed brown rock, some volcanic and some large chunks of basalt.

                When they reached the bottom of the hill they were thirsty already.

                The took water from what turned out to be a deep creek.  The water was clear, but, still uncertain of its quality, Gilberto started a fire, so that Maria could boil the water and make them a hot lunch.  It was the smoke from that fire that brought them unwelcome attention.  The fire that was supposed to protect them inadvertently attracted danger to them.

                Just as they were finishing eating and preparing to rest in the heat of the day Jose pointed out into the heavy brush and trees.

                Gilberto did not notice him, so, Jose approached his sister, Anna, and pulled on her blouse.  She took no notice.  Jose approached Gilberto, Jr., who quickly avoided him.  Finally, Jose turned to his mother who faced him and asked him, ‘What, Jose?’

                Jose pointed to the brush.

                Maria could make some bushes trembling and she thought she heard footsteps.

                She hurried to gather their things.

                She said, ‘Gilberto!’

                He turned, ‘What, Maria?’

                She put her finger to her lips, then, with her other hand, pointed to the brush.

                Gilberto could already make out someone approaching.  He told the rest, ‘Pack up!’, but it was too late.

                Three men emerged from the edge of the forest, one after the other.

                They were dirty, sweaty and appeared tired.  Two of them had furious looks on their faces.  The third man looked bewildered and not very bright.

                They all wore dirty camouflage pants and white t-shirts.  The bewildered one had been bitten by many ticks and was visibly uncomfortable.

                All three of them carried brand new automatic rifles and had war knives and grenades at their waist.

                The leader, who was a little smaller than the rest rushed up to the family.  With a quick gesture he motioned with his hands.  The second man said, ‘Get down!’

                Gilberto looked surprised.  The dull looking man, with one hand, then seized Gilberto by the upper arm and threw him down face first into the dusty ground.

                Maria cried out.

                The leader shouted, ‘Quiet!’

                As soon as he said that, he looked around quickly and a shot of fear crossed his face.

                The second man said, ‘Papers!’

                Maria produced them immediately.

                The second man gave them to the leader who began looking at them. He appeared to be pretending to read as the papers were upside down.

                Gilberto started to raise up.

                The dull man thudded him back into the Earth by pressing down with his boot.  The man absently mindedly fingered the trigger on his rifle.

                The leader saw what happened and said, ‘Silvio!  Enough!’

                Silvio looked back at the leader with a blank expression.

                The leader handed the papers back to Maria and made a slashing motion across his throat towards Silvio.

                Mario cried out, imagining that they would kill her husband.

                The leader looked at her then glanced quickly to Silvio and he said, ‘Quiet!’

                Silvio looked up and then over to the forest from which they had come.  He stepped back from Gilberto and squatted down facing the forest.

                The leader had the second man help Gilberto up.

                He said, ‘Money?’

                Gilberto said, ‘Just a little.  Here it is!’

                He took money his chest pocket and handed it to the leader.  The second man grabbed it and handed it to the leader.

                The leader looked at it.  ‘American dollars.  How did you get them?’

                ‘I had a farm and a shop in Costa Rica.’

                ‘Shhhh!  I do not want to know where you come from.  I already know where you are going.  Listen, some men will come by here soon.  They will see you as I have seen you.  Be careful of them.  You are crossing through drug farms.’

                ‘Who are you?’

                ‘Revolutionaries!’, the leader said, then nervously looked to the forest.

                ‘Water!’, he said.

                He took a container of water and they turned to go.

                They splashed across the creek and went up the hill that Gilberto and his family had just come down from.

                The family gathered their possessions and began walking north along the creek.  There was a path there that looked well worn.

                After an hour or so they heard sounds behind them.

                The quickened their pace but Gilberto and Maria knew the would soon be overtaken.

                They sat the children down at the side of the path and waited.

                After waiting nearly a half an hour as sounds rose and fell down the path finally heavily armed men appeared around the bend south of them.

                They walked slowly and confidently ahead.  Unlike the three revolutionaries who had fled these men were dressed well in camouflage uniforms and helmets.  Their weapons were modern and looked expensive and well kept.  The both had a great deal of ammunition on them.

                They approached the family and flanked them.   They didn’t say anything.  Apparently everyone was to wait.

                About an hour later a larger group of men arrived, one riding in a Jeep.  The family was gathered up and put in the Jeep with an officer.  All of their goods were carried by the armed men.  The Jeep sped off.

                They were all in a plaza of the town they had seen earlier.  It was not Montenegro.

                The officer helped them all of the Jeep and pointed into the town.

                Gilberto asked, ‘Do you want to see our papers?’

                The officer, behind mirrored sunglasses laughed.

                He said, ‘Your things will be brought to you at that store there.  We will find work for you tomorrow.  Do not wander away.’

                The Jeep, the officer and the men departed back into the jungle behind them.

                Gilberto and Maria took the children to the store.  They told the owner that they were sent there to wait by the soldiers.

                The man at the store said, ‘Those are not soldiers of the country, they are soldiers of the Cartel.  They are dangerous.  They will be back for you later.  Go to that door and sit at the table under the tree.   I will bring things for you.’

                ‘What is this town?’, asked Gilberto.

                ‘Ascencion.’

                Maria asked, as they walked to the back door of the poorly equipped general store, ‘Is Montenegro far away?’

                The shopkeeper said, ‘It is just down the road here, ten kilometers.  When we had a bus it would take just a little while to get here.  Now there is an Army blockade.  We wait each day to see who will attack who.  The cartel from Ascencion or the Army from Montenegro.’

                ‘How can you tell if they will fight?’, asked Gilberto, Jr.’

                The old man turned to the boy and then said to the father, ‘It depends on where the money is coming from that week.’

                The family went to the shade of the tree and sat at the table.  They were brought food and drink.  As they waited the two soldiers they had first seen pulled up around the store in a Jeep.  They had their clothing and other items with them.  There was new food and water.  There were shoes for the children.

                ‘From El Jefe.’, said one man.

                They put the materials on some shelves nearby, remounted the Jeep and drove off in a cloud of dust.

                Early in the evening there was shouting in the town.

                Gilberto went with Gilberto, Jr. to see what was happening.  They stayed well away but could see in the plaza something similar to what they had seen earlier when the Army confronted them off the bus. 

                This time, however, the violent men were not dressed in uniform.  They had no uniforms.  There were six or seven of them in the plaza with many more on the side streets.  They were armed with machetes and long knives.  Some of them had pistols and others with rifles.   One had a machine gun.

                They had dragged some shopkeepers into the plaza and were berating them.  The violent men appeared drunk or on drugs.  They were erratice.

                The man with the machine gun fired it into the air.

                Three others ran over to him and brandished their machetes at him.  They looked even angrier and upset than they had been.

                It was too late to quiet their friend, however.

                The soldiers of the Cartel had just been told they were in the village and now they knew where.

                Gilberto and Gilberto, Jr, shrunk away from the street as they heard the sound of high powered engines and trucks coming from two directions.

                From their right jeeps come flying down the roadway.  They stopped at the entrance to the plaza and Cartel soldiers jumped out.  They displayed their guns to the gang members.

                The gang members, their body and face tattoos clearly seen in the lights of the newly arrived Jeeps and trucks, massed in a line.

                The shopkeepers and others the gangs had been having their fun with ran away to their homes and shops.  Some left town altogether.

                A man with a bullhorn spoke from a Jeep and told the gang to go and not return.  The gang just moved forward even more menacingly.

                The Cartel soldiers prepared to fire.

                Just then, as the man with the bullhorn was about to order the soldiers to fire, a shot rang out and he was struck in the chest by a bullet.  He fell out of the Jeep and his bullhorn rolled away.

                It was then that lights and spotlights appeared from the other side of the plaza.  There were police cars and trucks there.  Local and national police.  They were firing at the cartel soldiers.  The cartel soldiers returned fire.  In between them the gang members didn’t know which way to attack.  They milled about in confusion.  During this time the soldiers and police began firing on the gang members.  Only three escaped. One badly wounded crawled away into he dark to die.  Two others dropped their weapons and ran into the forest in the opposite direction.

                Without their east targets the fight became more complex.  At first the Cartel soldiers were driven back, but it turned out to be a fake retreat.  They turned up at two other locations in the plaza and started destroying the police vehicles and killing the police themselves.

                Gilberto took this opportunity to pull Gilberto, Jr. along with him.  They fled back to the store and ran through it.  The storekeeper was sheltering by the wood’s edge.  Maria, Anna and Jose were nowhere to be found.

                The shopkeeper motioned to Gilberto frantically.  He and the boy ran to him.

                ‘Your family, is there, down by the creek.  Go.  Follow the creek tonight for five miles.  Then turn north.  There will be Montenegro.  Do not come back here.  This will not be good.’

                Gilberto and his son ran down the bank and found Maria and the children.  They had their baggage.  They picked up everything and moved quickly along the creek bank in the direction that the shopkeeper had indicated.

                It was thirty minutes before they could no longer hear the sounds of gun battle behind them.

                Just as they prepared to turn north Jose say lightning bugs over the water of the creek.

                He pulled his hand away from his mother and youthful exuberance reached out for one that seemed tantalizingly close.  He took a step out and began to fall.  He had overstepped and plunged down the bank of the creek into the water below.

                Maria screamed.  She grabbed at Anna.

                Gilberto asked, ‘What happened?’

                ‘Jose!  Jose!  He went into the water!  He is in the creek!  Save him!’

                Gilberto could not see beyond Maria.  He reached for a flashlight he kept on a chain in his pocket.

                Just as he grasped it and stepped forward to look down the bank, Gilberto, Jr. rushed past and himself plunged down the bank into the darkness.

                Gilberto shone his light down the embankment.  He could see the light reflecting off the surface.  Maria was wailing.

                He turned to her.  ‘Shhhh!  Be quiet!  We have to listen!’

                She gathered her strength and turned away.  She quited Anna who had become upset.

                Gilberto listened for a moment, then took a step, hesitated, listened again, then took a step to the right, listening again then he also leapt down into the water.

                It was waist deep.  There was mud and sand at the bottom.  It pulled at his feet as he moved through it.  He heard sounds ahead of him.

                He moved swiftly ahead and found Gilberto, Jr. holding on to Jose.  He was lodged in the cleft of a large branch or downed tree top.

                Gilberto said, ‘Hold him.’

                Jose was crying.

                Gilberto dove under the water and came up next to Jose on the other side of the tree.

                He took hold of the boy under the water under his arms and lifted him up and away from the tree.  Something got caught on his left leg.  Gilberto’s arm came down strongly and swiftly and broke of the branch that was holding his son.

                He held Jose closely and turned to Gilberto, Jr. and said, ‘Are you okay?’

                Gilberto, Jr. shook his head in the affirmative.

                ‘Good, good.  Here, take my hand and go to that bank.’

                Gilberto, Jr. lunged forward and grabbed his father’s hand.   The bed of the creek was deeper there and Gilberto, Jr.’s head went below the water for a moment before his father pulled him up.

                He made it to the opposite side of the creek and started climbing up.  Half way up Gilberto started to follow him with Jose on his side.

                Gilberto, Jr. climbed to the top.  He disappeared for a moment before appearing again above Gilberto.

                ‘Here!  Give Jose to me!  Then you can come up!’

                Gilberto held tight to a branch and told Jose to go to his brother.  The boy scrambled up the embankment like a squirrel.

                ‘Take him to his mother!’, said Gilberto.

                ‘We will wait for you, Father!’

                Jose echoed, ‘We will wait for you!’

                Gilberto climbed to the top, and breathless, hugged both of his sons.  In a moment they were up and head towards Maria.

                When the family was reunited they took time to calm down.  The boys changed clothes and Gilberto changed his shirt.

                They continued on walking away from the creek and then settled down for the night under the full moon.

                In the morning they ate a light breakfast and prayed.

                They walked on and as the day turned warm they made it to the outskirts of Montenegro.

                Tired, they worked their way to the Church directly.

                The caretaker of the rectory came to the door.  She told them to go behind the Church and wait.

                The Monsignor came out about thirty minutes later and quietly took them to a room beneath the Church.

                As the caretaker helped them get into clean clothing and gave them food and beds the Monsignor told them that their guide would be with them in the evening or the next day.

                He said they had arrived early. 

               

 

 

Chapter 18

 

Diego did, indeed, meet up with them the next day.  Unlike in the past he seemed happy and genuinely glad to see them.

He came to them early in the morning and Gilberto and Maria were both still sleepy.

‘You are the first here!  That is good.  There will be some time before the others arrive.  I have some good news for you.  I will tell you about it this evening.’  He went away as fast as he had come, shutting the door behind him.

Maria adjusted the curtains over the windows and checked on the children.  They lay down to sleep some more.

Later in the morning Gilberto arose and went to seek out the Monsignor.  The caretaker of the Church told him that the Monsignor had gone off.  He went into the back of the Church and brought back a package and handed it to Gilberto. 

‘Here, this is for you.’, he said.

Gilberto asked, ‘What is it?’

The man said, ‘Open it.  Look inside.  It is from my wife and myself and some others.  We only have a little but these small gifts are for the Travellers like yourself.’

Gilberto placed it on the seat of one of the pews and opened the package to look inside.  There were packages of food including some things in cans.  There were two loaves of bread, some sugar, coffee and fruits.

Gilberto looked at the man, who was dressed in rags and wore no shoes.

‘Thank you very much.  This means a lot to myself and my family.’

‘Think nothing of it.  Think nothing of it.  I am sure you would do the same for me.’

They went out from the Church and Gilberto went to rejoin his family.

The children were awake.  Maria let them outside into the courtyard to play on the side of the church.  Other local children came by and they played together.

Maria called to Gilberto, Jr., Anna and Jose and told them not talk about their journey.

Anna said, ‘It is okay.  They know we are not from here and not staying.  They call us ‘Travellers’ and they said they see many come here and go.’

Maria allowed them to return to their play.

They spent a rather normal day there in that small town.  Maria washed their clothing and Gilberto went over their materials, the food and clothing, for the rest of the journey.

That evening, Diego the Coyote returned.

He met them in the courtyard.

He said, ‘You are the only ones here now.  I have a deal for you if you are interested. If you say ‘Yes’, you can get some work and earn money to go on.  You will also get some rest and live in a clean place with sheets, hot food and water.’

Gilberto asked, ‘What do we need to do?  What will be done for the children while we work?’

‘They can either work as well, which I recommend, or go to school.’

Maria and Gilberto discussed and decided to hear what Diego had to say.

‘I could take you to the border with El Salvador, but they are not ready for you, with a family there.  It is very difficult at that border now.  Instead, because I know where you two can work, I can take you to Tegucigalpa, capitol of Honduras and you can have work cleaning homes and hotel rooms.  It is good work and pays well.’

They talked again, both Gilberto and Maria and agreed to go.

‘Good, get the children!  We leave now!’

‘Now?’, Maria asked.

‘Unless you say, ‘No.’’, said Diego.

Gilberto looked at her.  Maria said, ‘Okay, good.  We will go.’

Then both Gilberto and Maria gathered their things and called the children.

Diego said, ‘I will be back soon.’  He departed.

The family gathered their things and sat in the room waiting.

Within a half an hour there was the sound of an engine in the courtyard and then a knock at the door.  When Gilberto opened the door Diego was already back at the SUV and had opened the rear hatch.

The family brought their things and Diego quickly loaded the back of the vehicle.  In a few minutes everyone was in the truck.

Along the sides of the courtyard, where the bushes were trimmed neatly and tropical flowers grew in abundance, some children hung back in the shaded areas and watched as their new friends left, like so many others before.

After packing up they got into the SUV and Diego jumped into the driver’s seat.  With the air conditioning turned up high they started out of the courtyard in a cloud of dust.

As they drove out onto the dusty street and turned to head east and north Gilberto saw the Monsignor walking slowly along.  He glanced at them just they rushed past.

Maria looked back and saw him raise his arms in frustration, as if he had wanted to say something to them.  Then, one armed dropped and with the other he waved.  As he turned his head dipped and she saw him put his hands to his head and continued on.  The dust obscured the rest.

Back at the Church the Monsignor called to the children in the courtyard.

He asked, ‘Is there any new ones here?’

One boy stood forward and said, ‘No.  They all went.’

‘Aye, that is good.’, said the old man.

The boy asked, ‘Is there any news from my parents, Monsignor?’

‘No, no.  Not yet.  But we can always hope.  Get everyone inside for dinner now.  That’s a good boy.’

The Monsignor went inside the Rectory and there the Church Assistant and his wife set out the food on the table.  The children came in from outside and crowded around as they ate the food at the Orphanage of San Miguel.

The Church Assistant’s wife asked, ‘Did they leave the children?’

Her husband said, ‘No.  No new ones.’

She crossed herself and then busied herself feeding the children around the table.

Back in the truck, it was only 40 miles to Tegucigalpa.  The roads were not bad and they were there in 90 minutes.  The sun was setting.

Diego took them to a large group of manufactured homes, also known as trailers, that were grouped into a neighborhood.

He stopped in front of one of them and they all got out of the truck.

He said, ‘You will stay here.  Tomorrow I will come and take you to work.  The children will be able to go to school or come with you.  I suggest they come with you but you let me know tomorrow.’

He opened the trailer with a key and gave it to Gilberto.

‘We will talk about rent and other things tomorrow.  Do you have food?’

Gilberto said they had enough food to last until the next day.

‘Good, then.  I will see you in the morning.’

Then he left.

The family settled down for the night.

Good to his word Diego returned in the morning.  This first day the parents decided to take the children with them.

Diego took them to an area where there were a number of hotels.

They met Jaimie.

Diego explained Jaimie was the boss.  He would take them home later.  He also said Jaimie would collect the rent for the motor home.  The charge seemed high but neither Gilberto nor Maria made any complaint.

                They began work almost immediately collecting and washing textiles, like curtains, sheets and other items, from the hotel.  They worked in the laundry area.  There was a lot of laundry to do.  The one location they were at, they were told, processed the cloths from the neighboring hotels as well.

                The family worked at this for three months and everything seemed to go well.  After that other migrants and immigrants and travellers appeared in the area.  The work hours for Maria and Gilberto shrank and so did their paychecks.  They had to dip into their savings just to stay where they were.

                Gilberto took a second job and things stabilized.  Maria and Gilberto were satisfied for the time being because the children at least were attending a local parochial school.   They could not afford to buy the uniforms but Maria used her art and skill to uniforms for Gilberto, Jr, Anna and Jose that were indistinguishable from the store bought items.

                When Spring ended and Summer came on the school year came to a close.  There was little for the children to do.  There was even less for the adults.

                Diego was still not to be seen.

                Another Coyote by the name of Sancho Santos came and spoke to the assembled people staying in the service rooms.

                There were seventy people there when Gilberto and Maria arrived at the meeting.

                The Coyote explained that work would be harder to come by as there were more and more people coming to the city to work.

                He said they could not all get work in the city.

                The people at the meeting became visibly upset.  Some didn’t know what to do.  There were tears.  When the shouts started Sancho told them that they could get work elsewhere until it could be arranged for them to go north or wherever it was they were headed.

                There was a general clamoring for more information.  Sancho had his helpers, who were little more than henchmen, calm the people in the room.  It came very close to a shoving match when Sancho commanded them all to be quiet.

                He said that for those who stayed there was no guarantee for work.  The police and soldiers might come at any time.  The mention of the police and soldiers cast a wave of fright through this captive audience.  They became deathly still.

                He continued and told them that the best choice was to be farm workers for a while.  At least until later in the year when they could be more assured to get a way out of the area.

                Maria and Gilberto exchanged long glances.  They were not keen on working on a farm.  There was no one to leave the children with.  If they left them at an orphanage or wayward child home while they were off working they might never see them again.

                They could not separate.

                If one went all would have to go.

                No talk of salary came up.  No details at all.  No directions and no descriptions.

                They were offered an opportunity to sign up for the work.

                Having no real alternative as they could not get a hold of Diego and their money was dwindling Gilberto and Maria decided to sign up.

                They signed the paper and were given five blue, plastic chips.  They were told to be ready at five in the morning outside the apartment complex they were staying.  A bus would be there to pick them up.

                They left the meeting and went to pack.  They told the children they were moving along.  The children were relieved for the change but they were concerned at the lack of detail about where they were going.

                Gilberto and Maria put the children to bed.

                They did not get much sleep and awoke at four in the morning.  They took all of their things and left the hotel room.  Maria was relieved to depart.

                They went to the front of the complex as instructed.  There were already many people there.  At exactly five o’clock in the morning two busses pulled up.   Everyone was put in line and had to show their chip to get on board.  At one point Anna dropped hers in the darkness and there was a mad dash to find it.  The people behind the family were getting upset just as Jose picked it up out the mud.

                They all boarded the bus.  There was still no talk of where they were going.

                As the final traveller boarded Sancho appeared and waved them all off.

                The busses pulled out and they watched as Sancho disappeared into the shadows of the long morning and lit a cigarette.  His grin extending across his face and lit in dull red by the burning end of his cigarette.

                The busses travelled for two hours and headed towards the west and north.

                Finally they turned off the highway and went down a dirt track.  Then again they turned and the road became worse.  Finally they crossed a railroad track and descended onto an even worse road.

                They finally pulled up to an ultramodern set of offices and buildings.  Everyone got off the busses.

                When Gilberto and Maria looked around all they could see were banana trees all the way to the horizon in every direction.

                They were lined up and their chips were taken.  They were given papers to sign.  They were taken in a long line to a set of carts attached to a large tractor.  They rode out away from the modern area into the banana plantation.  About thirty minutes later they arrived at a group of old shacks.  There were no windows and only one or two had doors.

                There was a single water pump in the center of the clustered buildings.

                The people were ushered off the wagons and taken to their assigned quarters.

                In the shack that Gilberto and Maria and the children got there was sparse furniture.  There were cracks in the walls.  Gilberto tapped on the wall and said, ‘At least the roof looks good.’

                As he tapped they heard a high-pitched squealing from above.

                They looked up and Gilberto, Jr. said, ‘Bats!’

                Maria said, ‘Maybe then we will not have many mosquitoes.  They will need to be sent out or closed off if they will stay.’

                ‘Don’t touch them!’, Maria told the children.

                Gilberto said, ‘I will see what I can do.’

                The family settled in as best they could.  They spent the next six months on the banana plantation.  Luckily both Gilberto and Maria had experience with farming.  The children were similarly fortunate.  In fact, in a stroke of luck, one of the other families had a teacher among them.  She started classes each evening for the children so they would get some knowledge.

                They were often so tired and exhausted that they dreamed through parts of it but at least there was some normalcy.

                Most of the adults at the camp knew the dangers of leaving children unattended and without learning.  It lead to sadness and pain.

                During the work at the camp one family came down with Dengue Fever.  As there was only inadequate medicine and no medical care they were taken away and back to the town and dropped off at the government clinic there.

                Their house was left vacant for a week and then a new family arrived.

                There was one area in the banana plantation that was infested with Tarantulas.  Gilberto, Jr. liked to grab them and throw them down from the trees.  He  stopped doing this when he threw one down and it landed on a guard.

                The guard was half drunk already from drinking in the morning and hungover from the night before.  He pulled out his gun and shot up into the trees and narrowly missed shooting Gilberto, Jr.

                The family worked hard.  Six days a week.  A priest came out every two weeks to say Mass.  There were two nuns who came along from time to time as well.  They brought books and toys and toiletries for the families and the children.

                The twelve hour days took a toll on the family.  Especially on the parents.  They were exhausted each day.  They considered despair but they knew they would not stay there.

                They had saved a small amount of money, just a little more than they had when they had stopped at the hotels.  It still wasn’t much.  All of their money had gone for the trip and it wasn’t even half done.

                Gilberto and Maria decided that they would depart after six months one way or the other.

                As time wore on the food became worse.

                Finally, after six months, they decided it was time to move on.

                Coincidentally, about two weeks before they had planned to leave a Jeep arrived.

                Diego the Coyote was riding in the passenger seat.

               

Chapter 19

                The family worked for four months at the banana plantation.  Life there was bearable but was not something anyone would want to do for an extended period of time.

                Anna developed a fever at one point and though her temperature was very high and topped one hundred and two degrees a doctor did not arrive until after she was already in recovery.

                All during the time she was sick the foreman would stop by their shack to see if Maria could still go to work, even though that would have meant leaving Anna behind.

                Maria refused to do this.  The foreman wasn’t happy about this.  He claimed that if they left every child in bed every day just because they said they were sick then adults might starting do that.  He ranted about how a banana plantation cannot be run with people laying around on their backs eating bananas.

                Gilberto needed to hold Maria back as her anger grew at the words of the foreman.  There was no one else in the area at the time otherwise the foreman might have ended up in a very dangerous situation for himself as the other workers might have taken action against him.

                Even in cases where workers did fight, stand up for their rights or rebel the backlash was quick and overwhelming.  In one incident near the village they were in the people felt they were being cheated out of their pay.

                They began to complain about it and refused to work.

                After two weeks of argument and spotty work coverage the foreman did not return.  The small group of families was left on their own for two days.  One family, convinced something had gone wrong and that the company had let them go decided to leave.

                It was good that they did.

                They gathered their things together and started off among the endless rows of banana trees.

                That evening the people in the village heard the sound of engines.  They stopped somewhere away from the houses.

                That night the place was surrounded by trucks and jeeps and a couple of automobiles.  Company men, armed with clubs, went from house to house rousting the people out.  They had them all take into the makeshift square, which was really just an open area where trucks could turn around when they came to take the workers to work or bring them back in the evening.

                Out of the darkness stepped two policemen and arrested three of the men immediately.  Their wives and children began screaming and crying out.  The others tried to hold them back.  One of the wives ended up being arrested as well.  They were thrown into the back of a police and taken away.

                After this episode the rest of the people, some with their belongings, most without, were forced into the back of two army trucks.

                Soldiers then came out of the darkness.  They entered each of the houses and threw the belongings out into the dirt.

                The people at first started to cry out when a police officer climbed up into the back of the truck and struck a man across the face with his baton.  The man fell to the floor of the truck bed, blood flowing from his mouth.  He was unconscious.

                The others looked on in horror as their belongings were piled up and then set on fire.

                The flames and light climbing into the sky were the last thing they saw of the houses they had lived in for nearly a year.  The trucks drove them to the edge of the plantation and they were dragged out of the trucks and thrown into the road.

                After they were all out and standing in the road they were encircled by soldiers holding machine guns.  An Officer appeared in front of the group of workers.  He pointed up the road and said, ‘Go that way and do not return.’

                The people started moving off up the road.  Some began to run.

                As the families disappeared into the inky blackness the officer motioned to the men to get into the trucks.  As the last man got up into the truck and sit down the officer reached up and took his machine gun.

                He fired three bursts into the starlit sky.

                As the smoke cleared the soldiers could hear the patter of retreating footsteps up the road and the sound of frightened men and women ushering their children away from the truck.

                The officer returned the truck to the man and sent the trucks back to their camp.  He got into his car and was driven to his quarters in the well lit and relatively modern company town on the edge of the plantation to the south.

                Quiet settled over the roadway.  The sound of trucks and feet faded away.

                About two weeks after Anna had recovered Maria and Gilberto decided to continue their journey no matter what may occur.  They knew they might not survive where they were.

                They told one of the working supervisors that they wanted to leave.

                He told them it was good they had spoken to him because soon the small work crew would be broken up and the families sent on their way.  The work in that part of the plantation was being wrapped up and there would be no activity there for a couple of months.  Therefore all the workers would be released.  He said, however, there was still work to be done on a coffee plantation to the west.

                Gilberto asked if it were for the same company.

                The boss told him that it was not.  It was a large plantation that was rather new.  It had been planted after the local banana crop had started to develop signs of a virus.  The older plantation area had been burned over.

                That is the acceptable way of dealing with the introduction of virus and disease in the banana plantations.  Fire is used to clear the land in the first place and then fire used again after the plantation is played out and the banana trees start to die off.

                The problem with that is that the viruses and other pathogens are often spread even farther by the smoke during the burning and by the dry and dusty winds after the plantation has been burned over.

                The family gathered their materials.

                The boss they worked with had someone come that evening with a pickup truck.  They were taken away from the banana plantation to a road opposite the one they had come in on.

                At the end of the plantation there was no vegetation.  It had all been eliminated by a combination of burning and the heavy application of herbicides.

                Outside the plantation there were fields filled with other crops.  There were hemp fields, rice and other staples.

                Around midnight they were dropped at a small depot.  The driver told them that in the evening another truck would come get them to take them to the coffee plantation.

                They settled down for the evening behind the building.

                In the morning they could see it was a store of some kind.  The owner of the store came to them and offered them some water.  Gilberto and Maria took it with thanks.  They then went into the store to spend some of their small amount of money.  They needed some food and other items like soap and such things.

                When they entered the store it became obvious that the outside belied what was within.  On the outside the building looked like a rundown place.  It was windblown and sun blasted.  Inside, however, there had been a lot of remodeling.

                The place had a small grocery store within it but the bulk of the place was dedicated to chemical storage and sale.  They had buckets and barrels of herbicides, pesticides, fungicides and fertilizers of various types.  There was another building nearby behind where the family had rested.

                It was a gigantic warehouse and had even larger containers of the chemicals.

                There was a small airport across the road from the building.  There were four or five airplanes there that were used as crop dusters.

                Banana plantations are heavily treated with chemicals.

                One disease the banana plantations try to keep down is called Black Sigatoka.  It is caused by a fungicide which forms leaf spots.  These spots expand and finally kill the leaves.  Left alone the disease can greatly reduce banana yields and even kill the plants completely.

                Fungicides are used to reduce the impact of the fungus.  It is never completely eradicated.  Even when delivered by air and by individual workers in the fields using hand or tractor sprayers, inevitably some is missed.  When in spore form after a time it will start again which requires further applications of the chemicals.

                The planes were covered in various colored dusts.  Along the airport runway there were empty barrels and stacks of paper containers that had been abandoned their after emptying into the tanks and sprayers of the planes.  There were trucks loaded with the barrels and bags as well.  The trucks would pick up the materials and deliver them across the area to the farms and plantations that used them.

                As the mist cleared in the morning Gilberto could see the men preparing to go on their flights.  They gassed up the airplanes and filled their tanks with chemicals.

                None of the workers were wearing masks.  The only special clothing that was obvious were the jump suits that the flyers wore.  They seemed to wear them more out of a sense of  personal taste than safety.  They were brightly colored and covered with tags and badges from the chemical companies, fruit companies and plantations.  They looked, for all intents and purposes, like race car drivers getting ready for a race.

                In the distance and at the nearby warehouse, a trail of trucks arrived and picked up additional barrels of chemicals as well as large bags and other mixtures to carry out off to the plantations and farms where they would be used by tractors and other mechanical devices to spread the materials.

                There were no special safety equipment evident anywhere.  No masks, gloves or other outfits.  Some of them men worked with no shirts and already, just as with the pilots, after working for more than fifteen minutes they were covered with various colored powders and white dusts.

                In places there was at least a half inch of chemicals mixed on the ground.  As the workers walked by and through it their steps would stir up the materials and the microdust would rise up into the air sparkling in the early morning light.

                Within a short time the planes were on the wing.  Some began spraying liquids and spread powders in the nearby fields.  Others flew off into the distance.  Some passed directly over the place where the Martinez family were resting.  Those planes flew deep into the banana plantations Gilberto and Maria were now leading their family away from.

                In the late afternoon, before dinner, a red pickup truck drove up.  There was a man driving by the name of Antonio.  He went into the store and got a soft drink.  He then went back to his truck and then went around behind the building.  He found the Martinez family resting there.

                He introduced himself.  He told them he was there to take them to the Coffee Plantation.

                They gathered up all their materials and put them into the red pickup truck.  They were soon on their way.

                As the truck made its way along the wide valley road, just as they started to drive up into the low hills, they passed by where a crop duster was operating.

                The family was in the open bed of the back of the truck.

                They heard the drone of a plane that gradually grew louder until it was almost deafening.

                Gilberto looked to the left and saw the plane approaching low across the fields.  He gestured to Maria and they quickly began grabbing the empty canvas coffee sacks laying in the bed of the truck.  They threw them over the children and tucked them up against the cab of the truck.  Gilberto and Mario then covered themselves.  Maria shouted to the children to hold their breath.

                As the sound of the roaring airplane engine reached its crescendo the drive increased his speed to try and avoid what was becoming more likely every moment.

                The plane had dusting the area.  From the white and orange dust on the road it was obvious he didn’t stop when crossing the road.  The amount of the chemicals he lost was no concern to him.  The plane crossed the road just at the point where the pickup truck was heading into the hills.  The dust hissed down out of the planes nozzles and jets and fell in front of, all over, and behind the truck.

                The truck was covered with the chemicals.

                As they drive further on the dust from the material on the road rose up into the air.  Finally they passed out from that field and treatment area.

                The dust was blowing off of the truck.

                Gilberto and Maria began throwing the sacks off and many of them were caught by the wind and fluttered up into the sky.  They released their load of dust in great exploding clouds.

                After clearing out the bed of the truck they uncovered the children.

                The truck continued on its way and late at night they arrived at the Coffee Plantation.

                They got down off the bed of the truck, were taken to a small house, that was in better condition than the one at the Banana Plantation.  They made their beds and went to sleep.

                In the morning they were taken to their work.  The children were sent off to a school building.  It was harvesting time, but, even so, children were not allowed to work on the plantation.

                It was also an organic plantation and though they did use chemicals they used greatly reduced amounts of them.   

                Gilberto went to picking and worked with a team each day.  Maria worked in sorting and packing.  Later, as their talents in bookkeeping and other work were discovered both of them were promoted to office work.  Gilberto worked with shipping and receiving and Maria took on some office work which was similar to what she had done for her father, though, at the plantation, on a much bigger scale.

                They stayed then for the next six months at the coffee plantation.  It was obvious that they could not stay.  The children got some basics in learning but they had gone through three teachers in six months.  The classes were not regular.  The children learned some but not much.  It was a second full time job to keep Gilberto, Jr., Anna and Jose busy rather than having them run wild with the children who were allowed to behave that way, either through negligence of the parents or their inability to function in the strange society clustered around coffee bean production.

                At the end of the six months after they had left the banana plantation, almost to the day, Diego returned.

                He had brought another set of families from the banana plantation to the coffee plantation.

                He sought out Gilberto and Maria as he knew they had left and gone on to this location.  He offered to take them further as Alejandro had sent word he would meet them in El Salvador to help them continue their journey north.

                They readily agreed and he told them he would return in three days to take them away.

                They took this time to let the plantation company know they were leaving.  The told them they were heading into the city.  This wasn’t required as no questions were asked.  Their duties were exchanged with others.  Though the people running the place were sorry to see them go they knew themselves that life on a modern coffee plantation was no place to raise a family.

                They were given all sorts of materials from the coffee company which included hats, shoes, shirts and other items, all boldly emblazoned with the company’s logo.

                They were ready to go in two days rather than three days so on the third day they rested.

                Diego came to get them at the end of the day on third day.

                He drove them into the night.  They stopped at another village and picked up two other families.  They stopped at one other location not far from the border and picked up two men.

                The journey to the border ended around eleven o’clock at night.

                Their materials were inspected and a border guard, under the half watchful eye of a supervisor, glanced at their papers and stamped them quickly.

                They passed on into El Salvador.

 

 

Chapter 20                                                                             

                The relative calm and efficiency of the crossing into El Salvador descended quickly into a low level chaos.

                They stopped at a hotel area about five miles from the border.  They were all allowed off the bus but were not allowed to head into any of the rooms available at the hotel.  They were taken to a large building across from the hotel.  It was set back from the roadway and lit brightly on the front by three mercury lamp lights attached to the face of the building.

                The blue-white light spilled over the light blue aluminum siding.  Once inside they were greeted with the sight of cots arranged in rows.  There were no bedclothes.  They fanned out into the room with each family or individuals selecting their own small area.  Once settled in the lights were reduced so only two of the overhead lights were on in the large room.

                Surrounded by the yellow gloom the Martinez family sat on their cots and spoke in low tones to each other.  Maria put Anna and Jose to sleep in one cot.  Gilberto and Maria lay down to rest.  Gilberto, Jr. sat up, sleepless, in an attitude of constant listening.

                Low voices came from the front of the building where the office was.

                Gilberto, Jr. heard snatches of conversation.  The men there were talking with a woman who had followed along behind them from the hotel.  She was one of the owners of the hotel and they were talking about how much the Coyotes would be charged for the night’s lodging in the building.

                They argued over the cost of each of the cots.  The woman wanted them to pay for all the cots while the Coyotes want to pay just for those in use.

                After wrangling and low toned arguing they struck a bargain and the woman left with her money.

                Gilberto, Jr. finally lay down to rest and fell asleep.

                In the morning they were brought back out into the light.  The sun had just risen.  They were rushed across the road, now busy with truck traffic.  They mounted the steps into the bus and waited to depart.  They had a long time to wait.  They boarded the bus at 6 AM but did not get started until just after 11 AM.  The driver had gone off on a drinking binge and when he returned later in the morning he was so bad off he could not drive.  He was put into a seat and he fell into a stupor and slept.

                There was conversation among the Coyotes as to getting a new driver and, finally, in desperation, one of them by the name of Marcos said he would drive.

                He took the seat and they drove off.

                As they drove along Gilberto and Maria watched over their children.  Gilberto, Jr. looked out the window.  They passed row after row of crops stretching off into the distance.   There were large areas of forested area filled with scrub trees and bushes that had returned after the are being clearcut for lumber.

                It was time in this area for the farms to be dusted.  The crop dusting planes were busy all around.  Gilberto, Jr. counted five of them.  Four of them were brightly colored in Orange, Green and White.  They were large, powerful planes that came down low at high speed.  Clouds of dust or spray burst out of their nozzles.  As they passed these clouds covered the land as the powders and mists settled.  There was a white haze settling over all.

                The fifth plane was older.  It was painted gray.  It also sprayed but in narrow bands.  Otherwise the work was simpler.  Gilberto, Jr. could just make out the name on the side of the plane.  ‘Ramirez’.

                He could not see any written markings on the others besides the license numbers printed on the tails.

                He also noticed men, women and children in the fields.  Some of them had white or colored cloths wrapped around their faces as they worked.  They were bent and stooped picking and weeding or walking along to some other job.

                The clouds of powder and mists settled slowly over them as they walked in the fields.  They came into view and then were obscured as they were lost in the swirling eddies of chemicals pouring down on them from the crop dusting planes.

                They travelled on for another two hours.

                The bus slowed as traffic ahead was congested. 

                They were still close to the border.

                As they moved slowly along through the traffic Gilberto, Jr. saw a burnt out military jeep in the ditch on the side of the road.

                In this part of the area the forests were still close to the road.  They moved forward slowly but regularly.

                It turned out that the delay was caused by a roadblock set up by rebels.  It wasn’t manned very efficiently, so that, even though traffic was slow, they weren’t searching every vehicle.  They were allowing most of the traffic through and for others they pulled over, searched, and confiscated anything they found that they could use.

                As the turn came for the bus Gilberto took down their packages and put them in the aisle.

                Maria asked, ‘What are you doing?’

                ‘If they want to take them we will get rid of them more quickly that way.’

                Others in the bus saw what Gilberto did and overheard his short exchange with Maria.

                They all took their poor packages and put them on the floor.

                When it came time for them to be searched three men came on board.  One of them told another to start searching the packages.  Time went on.  He found mostly clothing and small objects dear to the people carrying them – like holy statues, relics, combs and other things.

                After about ten minutes someone who looked like they were in charge surged on board and started asking what was taking so long.  The man searching told him what was going on and that he was told to search everything.

                The leader looked over the items on the floor and around at the people.  With a grimace he turned away from them and growled to the rebel soldiers to stop and get off the bus.

                ‘There is nothing here we need.  We have to move along, there are helicopters coming.’

                The men rushed off the bus and left.  The blockade was quickly dismantled and two groups of armed rebels disappeared into the forest on both sides of the road.  In a few minutes it seemed like no one had been there.

                The driver of the bus, who had been standing outside jumped up the steps and into his seat.  He turned on the engine and the bus roared ahead.  Some of the passengers had gotten up to gather their materials.  They were thrown around like spindles in a sewing basket.  Their possessions were scattered.  Children foundered under sacks of clothing and personal belongings.

                An older woman cried out telling the driver to be careful.

                One of the Coyotes told her they were being careful and that the army was coming and they needed to leave now.

                The bus roared on along the road.

                Gilberto, Jr. looked back as the road took a long curve to the left.

                He could see three helicopters flying in fast from the low hills to the west.  They landed.  Two other smaller ones came up behind them and went in two different directions.  He could see bursts of fire and flame from the turrets of their machine guns. 

                The larger helicopters discharged contingents of soldiers.  He could see them running and firing their weapons.   It seemed to him that the soldiers were attacking the cars and trucks that were in the traffic jam but he couldn’t be sure.

                Smoke and flames piled up behind them as the forest also caught on fire in that space.

                The road curved again and the madness was quickly out of Gilberto, Jr.’s sight.

               

Chapter 21

                They had to drive one hundred miles from the border to San Salvador, the capitol of El Salvador.

                The landscape changed markedly.

                The land near their original home in Costa Rica was failing.  The hills had been browned and beaten down.  The same was seen throughout Nicaragua as they made their way through.  Similar things had begun to happen in Honduras.

                None of it compared the destruction of the land in El Salvador.  Where there was still the possibility, though ever more unlikely, that a small farmer might be able to eke out a living in Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Honduras, this was not the case in El Salvador.

                Most of the small landholdings had been consolidated over time by a small group of families that controlled most of the banking and manufacturing in the country.

                El Salvador is the smallest of the Central American countries.  It is also the most densely populated.  At one time it had the largest percentage of population among the Central American countries still living in rural areas.  This changed over a period of thirty years as land consolidation accelerated.

                El Salvador still ranks among the lowest in individual and family income in all of South and Central America.  Gilberto and Maria were not aware of this.  They did not expect to stay long in El Salvador but circumstances encountered in El Salvador by migrants can cause them to stay longer than anticipated or lead to unexpected and tragic events.

                As it was they arrived in the capitol later in the evening.  They were taken to a ramshackle building to rest with the rest of the migrants in the bus.  When they arrived they found that nearly every room in the building had already been taken.  It was difficult to find one open.  The Coyotes left with the bus with no word on when they, or any individual one of them, would return.

                Maria had the children gathered up at the end of the parking lot and sitting at a cement curb meant for the automobiles that obviously didn’t frequent the place anymore.

                Set up as a hotel to provide secondary accommodations for business visitors and others wishing to avoid the high cost of staying in the resort areas while still exploring El Salvador, the building had seen better times.  Almost immediately after construction it had started to have problems.  It had been built with inferior materials at a high rate of speed.  It was approved for habitation even before it was finished.

                It sat empty and uncared for over the period of a year and a half.  Then the war started and a portion of it was destroyed with the rest of it being damaged.  Nearly no part of the building and grounds had been spared from the scars of war as battles had shifted around the building because of its height and general size.

                There were still pockmarks on the walls from bullets and shrapnel.

                The interiors of the rooms had been generally remodeled after the fighting subsided but now had evidence of poor maintenance and use by the cartels and other criminals.

                Gilberto finally located a room on the third floor.  It smelled heavily of tobacco smoke and alcohol.  There was some drug paraphernalia in the ash trays.  Luckily someone had recently straightened the room and the beds were in good order and the water worked.  There were towels.

                The family took up residence and began to wait.  The children were put to bed that night in fresh beds so Gilberto and Maria were content.

                Because newspapers and news in general, even on the radio is limited or nonexistent throughout Central America and even though they had lived less than five hundred miles from San Salvador the Martinez parents were unaware of the reality of the society in El Salvador.

                The health of the general population was not good.  The majority of Salvadorans were hungry from inadequate food supplies, illiterate, infested with various parasites, malnourished, had inadequate housing, were underemployed and were generally locked out of any sort of self-improvement.

                The general society, where wealth is concentrated among a few that bar all sorts of internal competition or even allows for general opportunities to succeed economically or otherwise, was a magnet for criminal enterprises or individuals and corporations with lots of loose cash that needed to be put to use in some way.  As a result of this situation fanciful types of financial arrangements made their way into the structure of the country.

                One of these is known as Cryptocurrency.

                Cryptocurrency is a computerized and automated digital payment system.  In its various incarnations and uses it uses a network of computers that can be any of a few units to thousands, to hundreds of thousands or larger supercomputers.  The cost associated with running the machines is very hight.

The system uses encryption techniques, which are ways to hide information, in order to accept deposits, secure the transactions and ultimately to make new units of the currency, which, are usually based on previous forms of Cryptocurrency.  The operations do not rely on banks or governments to verify, control or ensure that the payments and processes are in order and fair.

Within a mile of the decrepit hotel the Martinez family were staying there was a new Cryptocurrency facility operating.  It was equipped with all the devices necessary to support what is called blockchain or currency mining, of course, along with that there was a four star hotel, restaurants, luxury homes and apartment buildings and all sort of amenities for workers and visitors to the location.  The site was touted as being great for the local economy. 

Ironically there were only a handful of locals employed at the place and most them were in the service industry, making food, cleaning and doing janitorial work.  All of the food was imported, even vegetables that were grown nearby.  In some cases vegetables and fruits that had been grown in El Salvador and exported by large commercial farms surrounded by poverty stricken Salvadorans and small, failing, private farms, were reimported for use at the Cryptocurrency facility.

In the fields that would have been familiar to Gilberto and Maria there was widespread unemployment and small freeholders had idle land or raised only enough for personal use.

Even though the economy still produced a large amount of agricultural materials most of it was coming from large corporate owned farms.  These large farms had access to capital that smaller farmers did not.  This was because the families controlling the banking industry also controlled the lands and owned most of the large farming operations.  The rest of the large farming operations were held by foreign interests.

These large farms, unlike the smaller landholders, were able to buy machinery, chemicals and other materials to operate their large holdings while the smaller landowners could not.  As a result in El Salvador farmers, and farmworkers, had to deal with the highest percentage of agricultural worker underutilization than in any other country in the Western Hemisphere.

The same day the Martinez family arrived at their decrepit hotel accommodations a group of environmental experts and political visitors from the United States, Brazil, Colombia, England, Canada and Denmark arrived.  They were meeting for a low level mission to discuss environmental problems in Central America.

They stayed at a luxury hotel in the downtown area of San Salvador.  They enjoyed top flight accommodations and were taken on whirlwind tours of the city and sample farms in the countryside.  They visited two wildlife preserves that were under construction.  They were under construction because the original wild areas had been destroyed nearly forty years before as the City of San Salvador annexed lands far into the countryside that it ultimately never needed to grow into.

Those expansions, however, allowed all the hills and valleys of the region to be denuded of forest and nearly all plant life.

Across the country similar problems were still underway and had been for decades.  Along with the frozen social structure and onesided economic footing of the country El Salvador had other detractions.  Nearly the entire country had been deforested and was still in that state when the Martinez family arrived.

                The deforestation started a nationwide process of gigantic areas suffering from soil erosion.  Large gulleys formed where there were once small streams or creeks.  Fissures opened up all over the countryside.  Sometimes under towns and villages where proper water movement had been interrupted for decades.  In other locations it happened as the ground dried out, or alternately, as water rushed underground where it had previously percolated through the soil in its long, slow journey to the sea.

                For the smaller farm operators they had been impacted in an insidious manner.  The fertility of the soil, no longer refreshed in a natural water cycle, plunged.  The fertility of the soil was also impacted by the government sponsored application of pesticides, insecticides, fungicides and in some cases fertilizers.  In the strange case of the fertilizers, they might raise, and had raised, the potential fertility of the soil to a very high point.  This ultimately burned the soil out.  All the living material in it that helped to grow the crops was killed by the constant and ongoing application of these chemicals. 

                The pesticides, insecticides, fungicides and fertilizers in use contained contaminants also.  They often contained heavy metals including lead and cadmium, enough to register in the foodstuffs grown on the land.  The chemicals also contained on occasion organochlorines like DDT, which is used heavily in the non-food production of cotton.  Some of the insecticides worked for a while but many species of insects evolve quickly and were soon resistant to the chemicals used against then.  In response the corporate farmers merely increased the rate of application which increased the rate of pollution of Earth, air and water in the surrounding areas and ultimately into the riverine systems around the country.

                In some cases international aid was provided to the government or banking systems in order to distribute monies to the smaller farms.  Often the money was taken, invested in other securities and financial paper, while allowing some to be loaned out, rather than granted to, the struggling farmers.  The result of this aid was that farmers, rather than being relieved of unnecessary burden were shouldered with even more debt.  Many were driven out of business sooner than later.

                As the Martinez family waited under the dim lights of their one room living abode the result of billions of dollars in aid and questionable engineering products intended to increase hydropower in the country threatened towns and villages in the hills and mountains.

                Many of the dams were built of earth and sand embankments.  Others were built with concrete and cement.  Because of the nature of the soils in the country and the deforestation that had happened across the whole nation silt flowed down the rivers at high levels.  Almost upon completion of a dam the ability of it to generate power, or even guarantee it would remain standing very long, came into question as silt built up behind the dam.

                With little regulation and the flow of international capitol unimpeded with the encouragement of large financial and industrial interests the people of El Salvador were living through several extinctions.

                In the morning the Martinez family went out on the balcony.  They could see the slums reaching out in every direction around them.  In the distance were the large grey and silvery, glass and metal buildings of the central district of San Salvador.

                A butterfly landed on the metal bar before Anna’s face.  She reached out to it slowly and it walked on to her finger.

                ‘Look, Mama!’

                The beautiful creature had golden wings.  It climbed to the tip of Anna’s finger.  Maria looked on with wonderment.

                Jose leapt forward and tried to grab the butterfly.  It flew off into the day.

                The family stayed in the room for the rest of the day and that evening spent time trying to keep everyone busy.  Gilberto, Jr. ended up drawing on paper from a pad he found in a drawer.  Anna read through the two books she had.  Jose leapt and ran around the room to the displeasure of his parents until he became tired and fell asleep in a large chair lined with leather that sat by the window.  The water from the faucet was not completely bad but it had a slight odor and was tinged brown.

                The country, through what was called its rapid modernization, suffered through a rapid and radical process of destruction.  What had occurred as a result of the methodical cutting up of the land and taking away the forests broke up a myriad of natural relationships.   This led to large scale extinctions of animals and plants.  Some of them found no place else on Earth.  All of this took place over a very short period of time.

                The way these extinctions and ruination of the natural water cycles in the country was by the extensive, but not intensive use of the lion’s share of land across El Salvador by the wealthy minority.  They decided, almost as a group, to log off and clear the land at breakneck speed.  At one time forests filled with a myriad of creatures, plants and trees covered over ninety percent of the country.

                By the time the Martinez family arrived in El Salvador less than fifteen percent of that renewable resource remained.  Less than two percent of the forests and jungles in the country are believed to be remnants of the ancient forests that had stood there for hundreds of thousands of years.

                As a result of this destruction and disturbance of habitat a very real modern economic disaster has taken place.

                Commercial logging no longer exists in El Salvador.

                Most of the destruction of the forest was done by indiscriminate felling and slash and burn techniques.  In the case of El Salvador, there was less slash and more burning.  Sometimes vast hardwood and softwood stands were burned where they were.  They weren’t even felled or logged or sold.

                Just wasted.

                The practice was encouraged by a strange brew of cultural traditions that married together the behavior of earlier colonists, small slash and burn activities and leftovers from escaped captives and criminals.  Incorrectly applied land tenure laws allowed rich landowners, or those who wanted to be rich landowners, to enter an area and burn everything to the ground on the idea that the people living there, because they had not consumed the forest, had been interfering with the profitable use of the land.  A complicate process that seems to have always played out for the landed gentry and banking interests used tenure laws, that says that who can hold land and for how long and which uses.  Under those laws the owner or tiller of the land, or a forester using the land, is the holder of the land but does not legally own it.  In cases like that someone who can secure legal rights to the land can drive anyone off, even those who have held the land for hundreds of years and used it profitably.

                This is what happened in El Salvador as outdated behaviors from the Middle Ages of Europe were used to consolidate gigantic land tracts owned by people who never saw them and took steps to develop the land that eventually ruined it all across Central and South America.

                Arable soils over large sections of the norther mountains have been removed by accelerated erosion.  Soil loss has also occurred in wide areas of the volcanic coastal plains and highlands.  As Gilberto and Maria saw in Costa Rica the deforestation and short term switch over to other uses the rivers became polluted, groundwater became poisoned or dried up and other water difficulties occurred.  In El Salvador, however, the process was already in advanced stages of degradation.

                The agricultural development of El Salvador would not be strange to Gilberto and Maria as their experience in Costa Rica was similar.  What was strange and which they sensed more than understood is that logical end that would be caused by relentless destruction and mismanagement of the land had been nearly achieved in El Salvador.  The place was on the verge of being uninhabitable though it had been a verdant and rich land to start out with.

                The concentration of land and finances in the hands of a few privileged families that had developed over the past eighty to one hundred years had put in motion their model of modernity that was not very complex but complete.  It had one goal and that was extraction, year after year, of the highest possible profit from the operations on the land and through banking.  The mismanagement was obvious at street level and in the fields but either never grasped, ignored or considered normal by those controlling and operating the businesses that consumed the land and hurt the people.

                The economy of El Salvador even before colonization was centered on agriculture.

                Over the hundreds of years of settlement and activity the agricultural economy became concentrated.  It became concentrated in ownership, land, means of production, financing and product.  The problems presented by this mass agricultural operation are clear when viewed from outside.  Cotton, for example, grew in a large almost contiguous area.  Field after field, mile after mile, kilometer after kilometer was dedicated to growing cotton only.  With two crops a year, year after year, the fields became exhausted.  This called for more fertilizer which sometimes helped for a time but eventually built up in the soil and started to cause problems.  Constant irrigation with ground water and taken from local waterways reduced the overall availability of water and also started to ruin the field because of the deposit of salts.

                Meanwhile, across other parts of the country, uniculture of other agricultural products, mostly commodities, the soil was depleted.  Just as in banana culture in Costa Rica and Guatemala and other banana producing countries, where the land that was fouled by chemicals or infected with virus and disease, the fields were abandoned.  The corporate farm was simply moved.  There was no attempt to resuscitate the fields or correct the problems that had been caused by overfarming.  The landscape went from heavy jungle, forest, verdant plains and hillsides to dusty, broken clay fields filled with small plants or none at all.  Water dried up or went deep into the ground.  If the land that the larger farm owner wanted to move to was owned by someone else that was dealt with through forced sales or the small landowners simply ‘disappeared’.

                Where indigo and coffee used to lead the list of commodity exports from El Salvador they have been replaced by cotton, sugarcane, new types of coffee and beef cattle.

                During all of this land changing hands the production of foodstuffs to be consumed in the country by Salvadorans dropped precipitously.  Where the country once easily subsisted on agricultural items grown in the country it was now necessary to import food and in many cases have it donated by foreign governments to feed the landless and unemployed people that had been pushed off of their land.  It was terrible to see that the same countries that sent aid to El Salvador were the same ones, largely, which hosted the companies that caused the shift in land ownership and left families homeless and hungry.

                On that first day Gilberto and Maria followed three other families to a point in the city where boxes of food were given out.  There was rice, water, some bread, small box of meat, noodles and small pieces of candy and a packet of salt.  There was no coffee nor bananas or other fruits or vegetables in the box.

                When the family returned to the room Maria worried that they would ever get out of there.  She told Gilberto that a woman she had spoken to said that her family had been there for two years working in a textile mill.

                Gilberto told her that something would be done.  They would leave when they could.

                That evening as they ate their simple meal given out by the aid society, which was joined with the food the Martinez family had been carrying, Gilberto stood on the balcony and looked out over the dark of the slums and say the brightly lit city in the central horizon with the mountains at its back.

                He thought he could make out someone setting off fireworks along the border of some bushes about two blocks away from the hotel.  It was long before he connected the cracks and explosions he heard along with the bright lights shining along the roadway below with gunfire and not fireworks.

                He stepped back and leaned against the wall.  He didn’t know what to do.  What if they turned their weapons to the hotel?  There was nothing that protected him.  The only thing between the firefight in the night below and his family was a pane of glass and a fiberglass curtain.

                He saw green and yellow tracer bullets in the darkness.  He couldn’t tell if the army were there or the police of if it was two gangs.  He thought he saw a black van so he assumed the police were fighting someone.

                The battle became more active and he could just make out the two sides joining in hand fighting.  Some men were thrown to the ground.  It was far away but he could still see some were tied up and others just shot when they hit the ground.

                Gilberto crouched down.  Maria opened the door and he grabber her by her hand and drew her to him.  He pointed.

                She looked on in horror.

                The battle was over in another fifteen minutes or so.  There was one last burst of gunfire and an explosion and then the men returned to the black trucks and left.  Shortly thereafter some ambulances came and took away other bodies.  Gilberto and Maria went into the room and spent a sleepless night there.

                The next day everyone was cold and sleepy.  They spent the day in the room and did not go out.  A neighbor stopped by and the woman spoke with Maria for a while on the balcony.  When Maria came back in she told Gilberto that the Coyotes might be back in a couple of days.  Nothing for sure.

                The next day Gilberto got a newspaper with the idea that he would go looking for a job.  There were many jobs in the newspaper but they were all for computer work.  Some was engineering work at a new facility being built on the other side of the city.  There was also general calls for laborers also for the same site.

                He decided to go there and try to get a job.  He couldn’t rely on the Coyotes returning, and anyway, it was better to have money than have not.

                As it turned out it was a good idea for Gilberto to go off to find work.  He took a bus downtown to the address listed in the newspaper.

                It was a small office facing out on to a busy main street.  He could see the city center closer but he was still some distance away.  The office had many jobs.  He was told that most of the work was walk-on for the day and there were other jobs for people with skills.    

                Gilberto asked what skills they were looking for and the man he was talking to said, ‘Reading. Can you read?’

                Gilberto told him, ‘Yes.’

                ‘Math, can you do adding and subtracing?’

                ‘Yes.’

                ‘You know, if you are lying and you make a mistake you will never get another chance at a job here.’

                ‘I am not lying, I assure you.’, said Gilberto.

                The man led him into his office.

                The conversation was wide ranging.  Finally, Gilberto was given forms to fill out.

                When he got to the part where he needed to fill out the address he asked for a telephone book.

                ‘What for?’

                ‘I don’t know the address of the place I am staying at.  I just know the name.’

                ‘What is the name?’

                Gilberto told him and said, ‘Just write down, “Central San Salvador”.  That will be enough.’

                The man said, ‘If you know what’s good for you then you better get out of that place.  It is not good to stay there.’

                Gilberto thanked him for the advice.

                The man told him to return the next day at nine o’clock.

                Gilberto returned to the hotel and told Maria about his good fortune.  He also told her that he had been cautioned to leave the hotel.  She was glad of that advice but neither of them knew how to get in touch with the Coyotes.  They decided to wait but it was obvious it was not good for the children.

                The next day Gilberto went off to work.

                He again walked to the office.

                Along the way he bought a newspaper.

                As he walked he saw along the boulevard the bodegas, small shops and tent markets.  They sold from there clothing, sacks of flour, radios and all the goods that you could have.  Some of them were in good condition and others not.  There were guards walking around some of the shops.  Generally, however, there was no police presence.

                The streets were dirty and unkempt.  Older trucks and cars of every make and model were in the streets.  Most of them were American models but there were cars and trucks form all over the world represented there in the streets.

                Most of the homes had bars and barriers in front of the windows.  The doors were secured in a similar fashion. 

                A familiar mode of transportation around the city were motorcycles.  Sometimes they filled the lanes as they roared down the streets and avenues and boulevards.

                When he arrived at the office he saw busses pulling out.  Gilberto wondered if he had missed his chance.  He went into the office and there were six other men there and one woman.

                The man he had met yesterday came out of the back and motioned to them, ‘Come with me.’, he said.

                They went out the back door and got into a modern van.  It was air conditioned and cool.  They drove for about thirty minutes when they arrived at a fancy and newly built office building.

                All along the ride over they could see very poor people standing along the roads or up the side streets.  Some of them were buying and selling things and others were just waiting.  Waiting for work that may never come.

                The office building that Gilberto was sent to was part of a large project being sponsored by the government.  The government had worked with national banking interests to raise over one billion dollars in investment capital from international partners.  Gilberto read more about in the newspaper he had.  The newspaper looked like one that would be published in any leading city in the Americas or Europe.  However, there was no mention of poverty or any trouble at all, not even as a distraction as the articles might be in the larger countries.

                From the stories in the newspaper the people in the streets did not exist.  There were no problems.  Everything was expanding and growing.  There were large and healthy crops bringing in lots of money and opportunity, but, Gilberto could not see any of those things outside of the windows of the van.

                The van moved through more constricted streets that were now lined with well kept homes that looked more well to do and wealthier than where they had come from and recently passed through.

                Then the area opened out and they passed through a small valley between two hills.  On the other side of the hills was a gigantic construction site.

                It was called ‘El Volcan’.

                Gilberto was taken into the main offices and his work was to be alphabetizing files and documents.  There was a lot of work to do.

                The location was called ‘El Volcan’, the Volcano, for a very good reason.  The entire operation was a cryptocurrency operation.  Gilberto had never heard about it before.  He knew more than he expected he would by the end of the day.

                In this case the building and entire operation was a closely related business operation between the government and the landed and banking class.

                The government made the deals and lent credence to what was happening while the landed and banking class provided the startup capital and other connections that would allow whatever profits were gained from the electronic creation of cash to be spent out into the world.  The intention was to use the electrically created currency to buy hard assets to increase wealth and power.  This was necessary, it was generally agreed among the landed, banking and government official classes in El Salvador to be necessary because it was clear to them that the country was not only on the verge ruin it was in ruins.

                The President of the country was a foreign born national who had arrived in the country with many of his countrymen from another nation on the verge of collapse.  They along with millions of others who had emigrated from their country of origin just about guaranteed that it would fall because they took all of the wealth and cash that they could out and brought it to their new settlement.

                The President’s countrymen had scattered over the world in a large diaspora with the largest and richest of them landing in El Salvador.  With a long tradition of strong arm government behind them they began by reorganizing the police forces of the country.  The army was very small so their steps were not impeded in any way when they nationalized the police force.

                They then systematically began to break up the criminal enterprises in the country.  Those that were too big and powerful to destroy, and those that were most profitable, were absorbed into the government.  In those areas one day the thugs and criminals were dressed in rags and carrying modern weapons and the next day they might find themselves wearing National Police uniforms and still carrying modern weapons.

                Gilberto found the organization at the company to be very rigid.  El Volcan was built on a stoic and harsh reality.  They were going to succeed no matter what they needed to do.

                They took over a small cryptocurrency company and gave it national eminence by recognizing it as a bank, financial institution and the backbone of the economy.

                The government then started taking tax monies and plowing it into the operation of the new National Cryptocurrency Bank.  The farms continued to fail.  The metal and coal mines continued to close.  The cryptocurrency farms continued to mine cryptocurrency using an obscure and secretive set of software programs that involved an even more obscure and secretive operation known as blockchain.

                The endeavor was successful.  It expanded. 

                The mining of cryptocurrency, in order to be profitable, requires the use of a lot of computer processing power.  The immediate reality is that anyone or any business or government, or all three combined together, seeking to make money from cryptocurrency mining and creation needed to expend a lot of money on power.

                In other countries like the United States, Denmark, France, the United Arab Emirates, India and other locations the power companies appreciated and welcomed the cryptocurrency farms.  Those power companies didn’t care what their customers were doing as long as they got paid.  They appreciated the higher and higher bills that the cryptocurrency farms were generating.

                In El Salvador, however, with little or no petroleum and gas projects developed and with sliding water power lost to silting and totally ignoring solar power they had little recourse except to import fuel.  Even in the best of all worlds the amount of money that El Salvador would need to spend to import fuels of all kinds, or build a nuclear plant, was out of reach.

                That is when el Presidente pointed to the ground and said, ‘We will build from the ground up!’

                His plan required extracting steam power from a volcano to run the millions of computers and processors that would be running computer programs to create blockchains which then produced a result that was transmuted from electrical charges on a magnetic disk to digital currency and then cash.

                Gilberto, at lunch, stared at the brochure he had been given in shock.

                “A volcano?”, he thought.

                “To run computers?”

                “What are these people doing?”, and he put the brochure aside.

                Gilberto recalled the over one hundred miles of dark countryside they had passed through as they drove the border of Guatemala to the city of San Salvador.

                He looked around the cafeteria.

                There was very little talk.  There were no smiles.  National Police officers were near the doors.

                Gilberto finished his lunch and went back to work.

                At the end of the day he returned to the hotel, checked on whether or not the Coyotes had been in touch and then took the children out to a park while Maria sat with some of her new friends outside the hotel and talked together.

                That evening, when he returned to the hotel from the park with the children he saw another bus pull up.  The people got out.  Tired and weary.  They were obviously farmers.

                He learned later that the people in that bus were farmers from the interior.  They were emigrating because the place where they lived was not fit for habitation anymore.   The water was bad, there was no work.  The ground was sterile.  There was no money.  No doctors.  No schools.  No future.

                The people of El Salvador who had lived there for generations were being forced to emigrate while the rich became richer and the national economy became balanced on digital money, that the people could never use, was being created by power from a volcano with most of the enterprise being financed by powerful and wealthy foreign interests.

                There simply was no room in their home anymore just as Gilberto and Maria had found.

                Maria saw the children as the bus pulled out.  She and her friends gathered food together to feed them.  Some of  them looked emaciated.  They were hungry to the point of being dizzy.  The women fed them and the men helped the families find rooms.

                For the night the criminals, national police, soldiers and cartels stood to the side as the children and their weary parents were cared for.

                Gilberto spoke to two of the men who told him that they had decided to leave and sell out after a pair of elders had died from starvation a month before.

                While at work the next day there was a woman at the gate of the building.  She was crying out for justice.  She was joined by two other men.  The driver of their van had them wait before going up the steps into the offices.

                After a few minutes five members of the National Police arrived and stood near the doors.  Then a black armored truck pulled up with two jeeps.

                The doors of the armored truck opened up and six heavily armed men came out and snatched up the woman and her companions.  She was waving a book in one hand and a notebook in the other.

                They were loaded into the armored truck.

                As she was pushed into the dark closeness of the truck she was banged against the side of the ramp as it was closing.  Her head hit the metal and a loud sound rang out.  The notebook fell from her hand with the pen she had also had.

                The armored truck and jeeps departed quickly.

                The National Police officers went into the building laughing and joking.

                As Gilberto and the others walked up the steps he bent down to pick up the notebook and put in his canvas bag.

                The man behind him saw him do it but said nothing.

                They went into work and worked the day.  It was an otherwise unremarkable day.

                They ended the day without incident.  As they drove back to the office to go home the man who had seen Gilberto pick up the notebook sat next to him.

                Just as they were about to get off the man leaned over to Gilberto and said, ‘I will tell no one you took that book.  It is good.  Whatever you do, read it.  I would not keep it after that.  Perhaps someone else would like to see it.’

                Gilberto quickly motioned a finger at the man and raised his eyebrows.

                The man said, ‘No, not me.  Someone else.  Someone far away maybe, so that they will understand.  Be careful.’

                They came to a stop and everyone got out of the van.

                Gilberto walked back to the hotel.

                Later that evening he told Maria about the notebook.

                She knew it was as dangerous to her as to the children but she also wanted to see it.

                She told Gilberto, ‘I don’t know if that was brave or foolish to pick it up but now I will be brave or foolish to read it with you.’

                He kissed her and hugged her.

                The put the children to bed and, after checking the empty parking lot and dark sky through the dirty window, they closed the curtains and began to read.

 

Chapter 22

               

                The notebook was beaten and old.

                It had scribbles on the back of it where it was lined with thin cardboard.

                The front was thin red cardboard.  It was bound with a spiraling wire.

                Gilberto opened the book and Maria, thereafter, turned the pages as each of them finished it.

                On the inside of the cover of the notebook was the phrase, ‘This Book Is The Property Of Ximena Guttierez’.

                The book began simply :

I recently read a book entitled : ‘Los ricos mas ricos de El Salvador’ by Maria Dolores Albiac.  It was printed in 1998 by ‘Fundacion Heinrich Boll’.  It does not appear to have a United States Library of Congress number attached to it, however, it is available through the ‘World Catalog’ and can be had at local and university libraries.  I got my copy from the University of Michigan via my local library.

Background :

The book describes the ‘richest of the rich’ families in El Salvador.  Apparently there is some idea that a small group of families controls the economic activity in El Salvador.  According to the book there may be something to that but that is neither here nor there.  I am not writing to you about that.  I am writing to you about the fact that in the book it very clearly states that the national airline of El Salvador at one point was charging very high rates and with some sort of assistance was able to maintain these rates.  That also, is neither here nor there – what is further related is that the nation of El Salvador was using emigration as a ‘pressure valve’ to reduce what they termed as overpopulation.  As a result, according to the book, nearly 1/5 of the then population of El Salvador emigrated – many of them via the airways to the United States.  That’s a lot of people.

                All three of the countries in question – Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador have encouraged emigration from their nations.  The governments, large corporations and private interests have taken up land after the people depart.  The remaining population, as you may know, is constricted with ever smaller areas in which to live.  The educational systems in all three nations are abysmal and the people there are apparently not aware of the greater processes that are going on around them.

                In any case – without further to-do – here are some quotes following.  These items appear to be true and are corroborated by what I have read and seen from other sources.  The main point I am getting from this material is that there should be no reason that people should be leaving those countries and that their governments, corporations and private interests are exploiting the laws and people of the United States in order to drive out the poor for personal reasons of greed and incompetence.

                I am writing this because I saw an article about difficulties with asylum seekers from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.  Though this book is apparently 21 years old it seems to contain pertinent information that is still valid in today’s world.  I will include some quotes from the book so you can determine if it will be of use to you and your staff.

                I was not able to find a copy in English so I translated it.  The quotes will need to be confirmed by your staff.

                Concerning the airline in El Salvador :

                “The most spectacular case is the TACA airline company whose former president, Enrique Borgo is now the country's vice president and the current president of the company. Fidel Chavez Mena, was the main figure of the Christian Democrats party and former minister. During the regional conflict, the airlines of the countries of the area entered into crisis, in the case of Nicaraguan Aeronica and the Honduran SAHSA, they went bankrupt, but not the Salvadoran TACA that due to emigration tolerated to the US - 1 / 5 part of the population, approximately one million residing in the US, managed to expand.”

                Remarks on Drug Trafficking :

                “In a recent report on drug trafficking it is pointed out that “the business” has had from the beginning “a military component”, “the big question for these countries (Guatemala and Honduras) and in some ways for El Salvador, is to what extent they can there are groups of drug traffickers, whose development and consolidation may be the starting point of a militaristic reversion that becomes narco-dictatorships as in Paraguay and Bolivia ”. The sources say that it is not so much.”

                “At first, there were a few soldiers related to the issue of the counter, a phenomenon extended to others judging by the high assets entered by some retired in the financial Finsepro and Insepro. The same report points out: “the increase in real estate investments and some hypertrophy of the banking-financial system, formal and informal, are the clear signs that narcodolars are being introduced in the economic circuits of our countries (..) say of the proliferation of shopping centers and large buildings ”.”

                On “Over Population”

                “With the only exception of the Cigarreria of original English capital, the absence of foreign capital has been a constant. When the developmental model based on the Central American Common Market collapsed in the War between El Salvador and Honduras (1969), the difficulty of accessing a larger market and the impossibility of that escape valve to excess population, led in the 70 to negotiates the instillation of some multinationals (Texas Instruments) since the capital itself was extended extraregionally and allied with external partners.”

                “Undoubtedly, the most damaging feature for the national interest is the traditional character of the exploiter of the workforce of this model and its “expeller” character of population. Already in the studies of the 70s and after the 80s, all economists insisted on the reduced alteration of salaries - even in the bonanza or growth - as an explosive factor that also maintained a great pressure on the exploitation of natural resources, given that Most households required extra income only to reproduce their workforce.”

                “All this has always abounded in the deterioration of health - there is no preventive health without drinking water, education, et., Which results in higher rates of disease and high costs in medicines - and reduced access to housing and basic services. Even in these years with stable macroeconomic indices, only in the last one the economic growth exceeded that of the population.”

Further Notes on El Salvador :

                AeroTool is an Banco Total company that is based in Agave, El Salvador.  Established in 1993, it operates the largest aircraft maintenance center in Latin America.

                AeroTool is an industry leader in providing airframe heavy maintenance, modification, and paint for some of the world’s top aircraft owners and operators.  In addition to AeroTool, Banco Total operates two other aircraft maintenance centers.  They are Winged Aircraft Services in Texas, USA, and Technom, which is located in the city of Guadalajara, Mexico.

                Table of Contents

                AeroTool opened its sixth hangar in El Salvador in 2019

The largest aircraft maintenance center in Latin America  can handle the latest in aviation technology

In 2020, the company expanded the largest aircraft maintenance center in Latin America by investing US $45 million in the construction of a sixth hangar.  With this increased capacity, the firm is now able to provide air maintenance services to 35 aircraft simultaneously.

                AeroTool employs approximately 2,929 Salvadoran workers and has had a significant economic multiplier effect on the country’s economy in terms of the creation of thousands of indirect jobs. 

                Most of the maintenance and repair manuals are in English.  The technicians must rely on translators to read the instructions to them from time to time when doing non-routine work.  New trainees are provided training not at first by other technicians or engineers but by people who have a rudimentary understanding of English.

The business continues to expand and is planning to receive and service the new international airliners from around the world.

                They will have a specialized area that will include workshop space for cleaning, sanding, and painting plastics and seats.”

                Maria closed the book.

                Gilberto asked, ‘Why would they take her away for a book like this?’

                ‘What did she ask you to do with it?’

                ‘Nothing.  She hit her head as they pulled her into the armored truck.  She dropped it.  And this pen.’

                He held it up to the light.

                Along its side was imprinted the word ‘Libertad’.

                ‘Well, we will do with the book what you want, Gilberto.’

                ‘The man on the bus, he told me to take it to the north but I don’t know what good that will do.’

                ‘Fine then.  I will sew into the lining of one of the bags.  If it makes it there that will be that.  If not.  That will be that.’

                Gilberto agreed and they went to bed to sleep.

                In the morning, good to her word, Maria sewed the book into one of the sacks.  Anyone looking for it would need to tear the bag at an exact location.

                Gilberto went to work and for the next two weeks things went on like that with no change.

                Then one night as Gilberto walked into the plaza outside the hotel, he saw a bus parked and Daniel with a paper in his right hand looking up at the hotel and scanning the terraces with his eyes.

                Gilberto said to him, ‘Hello, Daniel.  Are you looking for us?’

                Daniel, for once, smiled and then quickly took Gilberto by the upper arm.  ‘Yes, I am.  Get your family and things.  We need to leave immediately.’

                Gilberto turned to go but Daniel grasped his arm tighter for a moment and moved closer to him.  He whispered in his ear, ‘Do not tell anyone you are leaving.  Come down with your things a little at a time and go there.’

                Daniel pointed to the bushes and shadowy area near an abandoned park behind the hotel.

                ‘After everything is down just sit down and wait.   I will come around to pick you up.’

                Gilberto shook his head in acknowledgement, and with eyes down, went to the room where he and his family were staying.  He told Maria what had transpired and they began to gather their things.

                The children were very sleepy at this point but they were soon somewhat awake and loaded down with their possessions.

                The family went out of the room in two moves.  First Gilberto went out with Jose and walked towards the front of the hotel which faced the highway.

                Maria went out after another ten minutes and took Gilberto, Jr., who walked in front of her and Anna with her.  They pretended to be taking out the trash.  There were some hotel residents who watched them go but no one spoke to them.

                It was quiet in the evening.  Tobacco and marijuana smoke filled the air.  Drunken laughter reached up to them from the lower floors.  The family made their way slowly down the stairs.

                When Maria, Gilberto, Jr. and Anna reached the bottom they walked towards the back of the building and slowed their pace when they reached the parking lot.

                Maria could see Gilberto walking along with Jose.  He was playing with the boy and laughing.  He was simply walking towards the playground.  He glanced once at Maria and quickly pointed out his direction.  After he had gone into the bushes Maria took Gilberto, Jr. and Anna in the opposite direction and they also entered among the branches of the large and overgrown bushes.  There was trash strewn all about and they made their way slowly across broken glass, bags, paper, piles of plastic and discarded furniture.

                Finally they exited to a more open area on the other side of the bushes.  They had to step through a low ditch with ankle deep, filthy water in it.

                When they got to the other side they could see Gilberto and Jose playing amongst the broken and abandoned playground equipment.

                When they all rejoined Maria had Gilberto, Jr. and Anna take off their shoes and she cleaned their shoes with water.  Then she took her own shoes off and did the same.

                Then they waited until later in the night.

                As dawn begin to peak other families approached the same area and took up their own positions around the dismembered playground.

                Just as the sun broke over the horizon the low rumble of a bus engine reached their ears.  At the same time a pickup truck and a large van approached from the opposite direction.

                The bus came to a halt and the doors opened.  Daniel came down and motioned to the people.

                A man stepped out of the passenger side of the pickup truck.

                Daniel did not see him at once but the bus driver whistled to him and pointed.  Daniel’s hand went immediately to his belt, but then, he stopped, shook his head and became calm.  He walked towards the man approaching.

                By this time many of the families were on the bus.  Maria and Gilberto and their family were going to be among the last to mount the steps into the bus.

                The stranger came to Daniel and they spoke briefly.

                Daniel shook his head in a negative manner and began to walk away.   The man turned to the truck and motioned with his hand and two men armed with rifles jumped down and walked towards them.

                Daniel heard this and turned around.  He motioned to the people to continue getting on the bus.

                The first man who had approached, who was older with thick, grey hair and a wiry, full moustache said that he wanted to buy some of the people to take with him to his farm.

                Daniel told the man that everyone was already paid for.

                Gilberto and Maria looked at each other when this was said.

                The conversation between Danial and the man, who appeared to be a farmer who was a large landholder and seeking new workers, started to increase in volume and heat.

                Daniel was being evasive and continued to load people.

                At one point he motioned to the driver and two other men stepped out of the back door of the bus.  They had guns as well.

                Gilberto, Maria, and their family were essentially trapped between the two armed groups.

                Suddenly, one of the men in the back of the pickup truck jumped down, put his own rifle and handgun into the bed of the truck and walked with determination towards the ever more tense situation.

                He walked over to the rancher and said, ‘Senor, these people.’

                He motioned with his hand to the family.

                ‘Yes?’, asked the rancher.

                The man from the truck leaned over and whispered into the older man’s ear.

                The farmer asked, ‘Do you know Nicolas and Theresa Perez?’

                Maria jumped a little and looked at Gilberto in fear.

                Gilberto breathed a sigh of relief and said, ‘Yes, yes.  We do.  I used to work for him as a trader.’

                The old man looked at him for a moment and then at Maria and at the children.

                ‘Okay then.  Go with God.’

                He turned to Daniel and said, ‘This is a good man, a good family.  Good bye to you.  We have work to do.’

                He turned and his men followed him back to the truck and van.  They drove off.

                After they had gotten into the bus and settled and the bus started off slowly towards the highway entrance Daniel walked slowly down the aisle and leaned over to the Gilberto and Maria and asked, ‘What was that all about?  You know they were about to take you from us.  It would have been very bad because we would not have let them.’

                Gilberto said, ‘I worked for Maria’s father as a trader in the forests.  The man from the back of the truck who came over to speak to the farmer, I cannot remember his name but I recall where I saw him.  He was also a trader from the far valleys.  He came down to the trading post one day with a child who had been bitten by a poisonous snake.  Nicolas, my father-in-law, he healed the boy.  That man there from the truck who put his gun down, he was the boy’s father.’

                Daniel stood up and leaned back and let out a low whistle, ‘Okay, then.  That is something to know and remember.’

                As Daniel turned to return to his seat Maria asked, ‘What did you mean when you said, ‘Everyone is already paid for?’’

                Gilberto ejaculated, ‘Maria!’

                Maria glanced at him.  The others around them ceased talking and all movement as they waited for Daniel to reply.

                Too crafty and experienced to have looked around at all the eyes upon him he knew that even more ears were listening.  He relaxed his shoulders and said in all honesty, ‘Everyone has paid their fare and will be taken to their destination.  I cannot sell what has already been paid for.  In the other case, they intended to buy you, not to pay for your transportation.  It would have been very bad.  Very bad.’

                He turned to go, now with what appeared to be a weight on his shoulders.

                Maria said, ‘Thank you for my family, Daniel.’

                Someone slapped Daniel on the back.

                He smiled briefly then walked back to his seat.  He gestured to his men in the back of the bus.

                They continued on their way in a quieter mood as the rumbling of the bus moved them along the newly built highway out towards the mountains and down towards the coast.

                The next step in the plan was to leave El Salvador from the small port of El Zapote.  They would take a ferry boat or some other cargo ship or large fish trawler up the Pacific coast to the port at Monterrico in Guatemala and this step in their journey would end and the next one would begin.

 

Chapter 23

The bus ride down to El Zapote was unremarkable.  Still the landscape did not change much.  The hills seemed scoured of all life.  There were some patches of forest but the jungles were gone.  Giant gullies had opened up in some of the hills and they looked as if they had been struck by a huge cleaver.  The mountains and volcano cones stood out now that they were cleared of their living carpet of greenery.

The town was deceptively quiet.  There were many small boats in the harbor.  Even more on the beach.  When the bus stopped they were near the waterfront.  The people exited the bus and stood around in a small group while Daniel went into a nearby store or office to go and speak to someone.

There were fisherman sitting in an open area across the street from where they people had gathered.  The bus left quickly after all of the people were off and the luggage unloaded.

Anna and Jose took an interest in the nets so Maria walked over to the small park with the children.  Anna asked the fishermen what they were doing.

They told her they were mending the nets that they used to catch fish.

                Anna said, ‘These are very big nets, Mother, they must catch lots of fish.’

                One of the old men snorted and another said, ‘Now, now, she is a little girl, Senor.  They look like they come from far away.  They would not know what is happening here.’

                Maria reached out to take the children back to the group but Anna followed up with, ‘What is happening here, Senor?’

                The old man stopped his mending and said to her, ‘Well, we have big nets.  We used to catch big fish.  Many big fish.  We would go in the morning in our boats and let our nets down, and just like the story of Jesus, when he told the men to go fishing and down their nets, we would bring up so many that our nets were near breaking.’

                ‘Is that what happened here with your nets?  These nets?’, Anna continued.

                Gilberto and Gilberto, Jr. wandered over as well and were listening as the old man replied, ‘No, those days are no more.  We are repairing these nets because men came to destroy them.  We had them hung up on the posts over there to dry so we could work with them.’

                He pointed over to a group of posts, many of which were smashed and broken down, that had been set up like horse posts, where one would tie a horse or a donkey.

                They were all broken and the splintered and cut logs, some cut with chain saws, lay scattered about.

                ‘Then we came down yesterday and saw the nets all cut up and scattered.  So, we know not what else to do so we are mending them.’

                Gilberto became concerned and asked, ‘What is happening here, then, Senor?’

                A younger man standing under the shade of some Yaupon trees nearby said, ‘They are coming to take the land here.  This is a pleasant place, they say, for a resort.  They want to build hotels here and use the bay for marinas.’

                ‘How is that possible?’, asked Gilberto.  ‘I mean not insult but there doesn’t seem to be much money here, where would the people come from to use the marinas?’

                ‘Oh, well,’, continued the man under the trees, ‘there is much money from the Volcano Bonds.  The rich in San Salvador and the banks have plenty of money to do this.’

                ‘So, why don’t they buy it?  Why destroy these things?’

                ‘They tried to buy.  No one would sell.  Where would these people go?  They know nothing else.  The town and port has been here for nearly three hundred years growing slowly.  There was no plan to just sell it someone else and leave.  It has been a good place to these people but now it turns bad.’

                ‘How is that?’, asked Gilberto, Jr.

                ‘Well,’, said another old man holding on to his net mending tools, ‘we used to catch many fish here.  Many fish.  Then the big boats came.  Big boats dragging big nets.  Each one more bigger than all these nets.’

                Another man said, ‘Big enough to catch up this whole town and empty the bay at one time.’

                The other man continued, ‘Yes, that is so.  Gigantic, huge nets.  At first, there was enough for everyone.  Then, we noticed the big fish were gone.  No more.  The foreign ships came and netted all day and all night.  Back and forth.  Their great lights lit up the ocean in the darkest of nights.  Even when it was storming they would fish.’

                The man under the trees said, ‘The Chinese came here with trawlers.  Sometimes the Russians and others.  There are few laws for commercial fishing in these waters.  What laws there are they are not enforced.  The ships they are talking about with their nets are called trawlers.  They pull gigantic nets behind them made of nylon and steel cables.  Nearly unbreakable.  If they do break, they cut them loose.  There are now nets moving around in the surf and just off the coast that are hazards and so big that the small boats of these men may be caught in them and sink and the men may drown.’

                Another voice spoke up, ‘That happened just last week with Manuel and his son.  Luckily his other son got away and came to the beach and we saved him.’

                The man under the trees, ‘Luckily!  See this Senor and Senora?’, he addressed Gilberto and Maria.  ‘They think it is luck that these senseless barbarians come here and scrape the very ocean floor clean.  With these nets they tear up the very land beneath the ocean.  Nothing survives!  There is nothing for the fish that remain to eat.  They take and take and take.  Even when the fish are breeding in stormy or calm weather.  Now it is so bad there is hardly even for these machine ships to take.  They have stolen the lives of these people but they don’t know it is all gone yet.  They still fish and try.  These land barons will come again and again to drive them off.  First, the nets, then violence.  If they have to they will burn the place to the ground and start building.’

                ‘All of this from San Salvador?  The government does nothing about this?’

                ‘The government?  Senor, look at how they are making money.  They are taking electricity from a volcano to make electronic money.  Do you think they care what is happening here?’

                Daniel’s voice came to them.

                ‘Gilberto!  Maria!  Time to go.  We have a boat!’

                The man under the trees walked away.

                The fishermen wished them well and went back to mending their nets.

                Maria and Gilberto took the children back to the group and they picked up their things and followed along to the docks.

                There was a small trawler there.  It was a shrimpboat.  Though a small trawler it was big enough to carry all of them with plenty of room.

                They would be leaving almost immediately.

                The plan was to head north and in the next day or two enter into the port at Monterrico.  It was important they did not appear to be carrying migrants, even though the laws were lax and enforcement even more so.  The captain did not want to lose his boat but he also did not want to lose the money he would make from the trip. 

                The people were put in the forward hatch close to each other.  They had very little room to move.   At this point the cramped busses seemed spacious.  The place was heavy with the odor of fish and salt.  There were large drums and bags of salt nearby.  The trawler also had an ice maker.

                After the first few hours heading up the coast the boat headed out to sea.  That evening the captain had the men drop their nets.

                Daniel was concerned about this as he had a strict schedule to follow.  He talked to the Captain who’s name was Morales.  He told Daniel they would be in the port at the prescribed time.  That he needed to make a show of it out there.  It may seem like no one was watching but there were shore patrols on boats and planes that passed by.  Other trawlers and ships and boats would also report them, if they could, for any reward money.

                Daniel let it go but he was uneasy.

                All night long they fished.  They brought in loads of all kinds of fish and dumped them on the deck.  Five men and two women picked through the catch and tossed the shrimp into containers.  Out of the entire pile of fish and other creatures brought on board there were not many shrimp to show for it.

                The rest of the catch was pushed back into the sea with shovels and then the nets were put out again.

                All during the night seabirds, attracted by the light and dead fish, followed along.  It was clear there were sharks behind the trawler as well.  For each pound of shrimp caught and made ready for packaging anywhere between six and twenty pounds of bycatch would be taken and thrown back, much of it dead.

                Bycatch is a phrase used in commercial fishing to label all the things the nets catch that the particular fishing boat is not looking for.  So, in this case, bycatch referred to everything that was not a marketable shrimp.  Obviously, in other cases, say, where the boat was fishing for something other than shrimp and shrimp was taken the shrimp would be returned to the sea.  Alive or dead.  Mostly dead.

                The waste on this boat was incredible, however, it was nothing compared to what they saw in the morning.  They happened upon a group of Chinese trawlers that were working the area.

                As soon as Captain Morales saw them he pulled up his nets.  Daniel roused himself from his seat behind the Captain and asked him why he was pulling up his nets.

                ‘Oh, those commercial trawlers there.  They scrape the bottom with steel and nylon nets.  They take everything, even the rocks.  The sand gets turned over.  All the seaweed is broken and scattered.  The corals are destroyed.  They take everything in their nets.  They sort everything.   They are like us, they look for the most valuable fish, but they take much else as well.’

                ‘Why is that?  What do they do?’

                ‘Well,’, said Captain Morales, ‘you know the ‘Why?’, that is for money.  As for what they do with the rest they might process it into things that look like more valuable fish, like imitation crab.  Those things are made from minced fish.  They just chop them up, put  them through a grinder and spray orange food coloring on them.  Crab meat!’

                ‘That’s it?’

                ‘Well, the Chinese don’t stop there, they use it all.  They squeeze oils and separate them out for vitamin concoctions or liquids.  They grind up all the rest in the end, whatever is left over, into fertilizer.  From the largest to the smallest fish.   When they are done with this portion of the coast there will nothing left for commercial fishermen for at least three to five years.  Very little for the fishermen from the coast just fishing for themselves.’

                ‘Where do they ship it all to?’

                ‘These fleets, see?  See how many ships?  They all move together.  They are a real fishing fleet.  There are many of them around the world fishing waters like these.  Waters that are not protected.  They fish in protected waters too – a little money goes a long way.’

                ‘How do they do this?’

                ‘They are fast.  I heard stories that the fishing grounds off the East Coast of the United States, places like North Carolina, Virginia and South Carolina – they scraped the bottom clean.  Not even the Americans could stop them.’

                ‘Well, the Americans are having trouble stopping anyone these days.’

                ‘Is that a joke, Sir?’, the Captain asked.

                ‘No, no joke.  How much longer to port.’

                ‘We will be there tomorrow.  They will know the Chinese fishing fleet is here and there will be few questions as to why we are coming in light.  This is so bad.  So bad.  I don’t know if I can keep this trawler in the end.   So bad.’

                Daniel left the Captain to his work.

                He checked on the migrants and the lay down in his own bunk.

                The evening came on slowly.  Daniel fell asleep and was awakened in the morning by the calling of seabirds.

                He went on deck.  It was still yet dark but the sky was lightening.  He could see the port before them.

                He checked his watch and in a rush hurried below to wake the migrants.

                ‘Wake up!  Wake up!  We will soon be off the boat!  When we get off follow me!  Quick, quick!  Get ready!’

                He went back to the deck and made a call on his phone.

                He spoke to the Captain who told him it would still be two hours to get into port.  Everything was well, he said, but they had to go past the entry to the harbor to make a safe transit.

                Two hours later they were tying up to a dock.

                Daniel could see bus waiting in the shadows.  He called to the people below.  They stood ready at the opening to the hold.

                As soon as the boat was being tied up the Captain had the plank thrown down.

                ‘Go!  Now!’

                Daniel leaped across the distance between the boat and the pierhead and sprinted to the bus.  He put his hand on the door and the drive opened it.

                He turned and could see the people coming down the gangway.

                He ran back and pointed them to the bus.

                ‘Go! Go! Go!’, he said in a low voice.

                They began to move along.

                He said, a little louder, ‘Run!’

                They started to trot across the pier to the bus.

                They were soon all off the boat.  He went down into the hold to check and found a doll that Anna had left.  He picked it up and was back off the boat in an instant.  Only half of them were in the bus by the time he arrived.  He hurried them along and got all the people safely in the bus.

                Then he climbed in and motioned to the driver to go.  He walked crisply down the aisle directly to Gilberto and handed him the doll.

                Gilberto, still half asleep and looking fearful, looked down at the doll.

                Maria took it from his hand and nestled it in Anna’s arms.

                Daniel returned to the front of the bus and sat down.

                The darkened bus moved slowly along until outside the shipyard.  Turning slowly to the left towards the city the driver put the outside lights on and they were on their way.  They had arrived, unceremoniously, at the port of Monterrico in Guatemala.

               

 

Chapter 24

                They were taken to a hotel on the other side of the town.  It was not as rundown as the one they had left behind in El Salvador.

                The place they were to live was behind the hotel.  It was a group of smaller buildings where the workers would stay.  Out of the many small bungalows that were there only two were currently occupied.  The current manager lived in one with his family and his assistant in the other.

                They would be working at the hotel, they were told, and, on occasion, taken to other places to work.

                Daniel released his men and the three of them drove off in their own car.

                He talked to all the people there and explained to them what was going to happen.  They would work at the hotel and other places where needed.  Either himself or another contact will come for all of them or some of them.  He had no date.

                He turned to leave.  He got in a small jeep parked under flowering shrubs and left.

                Hermano and Gustavo came out of their bungalows.  Hermano was the manager and introduced himself and Gustavo.

                Gustavo had a clipboard and took the families to their bungalows.  They were told they would have their work orders the next day.

                The bungalow the Martinez family was clean and tidy.  It seemed someone had just departed.  They settled in and had a little something to eat from their dwindling stores.  The place had hot and cold running water, electricity, a bathroom but only one main room and one bedroom.

                Maria declared it was good enough.

                The rest of the day was given over to settling in and talking with the other families.

                The next day they were all taken off to a flower farm in the countryside.

                The spent most of the day packing flowers into cardboard boxes in an assembly line.  The boxes were then loaded into trucks which roared off to the airport.  The flowers were flown to the Atlantic Coast and joining other shipments were then flown primarily to Europe.  Some went to the United States but most of the flowers from the region they were in made their way by air to Europe.

                During lunch they were given bowls of cold rice to eat with some sauces.  The children were each given rice and a piece of candy from one of the matrons who was cooking.

                The work recommenced throughout the afternoon.

                About two in the afternoon the packing was completed and the last truck rolled out.

                The migrants were then led into the fields to learn about the work that needed to be done there.

                While walking out into the fields Gilberto heard a familiar drone in the air.  About a half a mile away from them there were about one hundred farm workers.  They were cutting flowers and  stacking them on tables.  Others were binding them up.  There was weeding being done and other farm work.

                For the one hundred workers there was one water barrel.  There were no bathroom facilities.  The one safety precaution that all seemed to have available to them was to wear a hat.

                Gilberto looked around as the drone grew louder.  He saw then a plane coming from his left.  It was larger than the ones he had seen before.  It appeared to be brand new and was shining in the sun as it flew along.  It came down lower and lower.  The drone of the powerful dual engines became a roar.

                The pilot shifted a lever and the plane began to release part of its load.  Clouds of white blossomed down upon the blooms below the plane.  Gilberto watched as the plane, unimpeded and not slowing, dropped curtains of white dust on the flowers plants below.  There was no interruption as the dust fell down upon and among the workers.  Some, covered in white dust, continued their work as if nothing had happened.  Others dropped to the ground.  Others danced and stomped and jumped around to shake the dust of their clothing and skin.

                All of them had been exposed to a powerful combination of insect poisons, known as insecticides, other pest poisons (for small mammals and other insects and creatures) called pesticides.  Fungus poisons and inhibitors were called fungicides and had been applied the day before.  Plant poisons called herbicides were applied at the beginning of the season and after cutting in order to clear the fields for replanting.

                Chemicals intended to rush the growing life span of the flowers and other crops were sprayed from large cones and booms attached to tractors which pulled gigantic containers made of thick plastic.  The chemicals were referred to as fertilizers.  Some were made from materials mined from the mountains in Bolivia and Ecuador.   Those phosphates were mixed with other chemicals and petroleum distillates to form potent materials that forced the flowers into early and fuller blooms.

                After being picked and taken to the packing rooms they were heavily sprayed and lightly dusted with materials that would then slow their growth and degradation so they would last longer after arriving at their air trip.

                None of the workers were provided information on what was in the chemicals sprayed and poured on them and that they handled and touched.  All of the training and warning materials, except for one word, ‘Peligro’, which means danger, was printed in English and other languages.

                As it was, even if the materials were all printed in Spanish and other local Native American languages, the people could not read them.  Most of them were illiterate.

                Some of them lived in the area.  These people were the working leads.  Often they had bad teeth, the skin was like leather and their eyes sunken and red.  What was told about  them looking like this was a conglomeration of racist attitudes that the owners and salaried workers of the company had learned and repeated.

                The real reason was the long term exposure to dangerous chemicals.

                Often many of the salaried workers and even the office workers looked no less unhealthy than the people worked in the fields from sunrise to sunset.

                They were given more rice as the sun set and then taken back to the bungalows.

                After another day out in the fields Gilberto and Maria were approached by the manager for more work if they wanted it.

                They said they would go along.

                The danger with refusing an offer of more work was that all the work might be taken away as well as their bungalow.  It wasn’t said at this location but they had already seen it happen.

                That night, and each night after as well as on weekends, when there was work they were taken down to the wharves.  There was a seafood processing plant there.

                Their job was to work with shrimp.

                Even though offshore the foreign national fleets from China and even the United States were scouring the ocean bottom and destroying the marine fisheries, on land, there were huge shrimp culture operations.

                The shrimp were regularly collected each day.  Some were processed into food immediately and frozen.  Other was shipped out chilled.

                Some needed to be shelled and that is the work that Gilberto and Maria were given.  The children could not go with them.  Thankfully their work at the plant normally only lasted four hours, but, still, it was tedious and hard.

                During the first week, even though their hands had been toughened by the work in the flower fields they suffered cuts from the shrimp themselves.  There was always a constant danger from the knives and large sorting and shipping equipment.

                Even though they were working up to fifteen hours a day some days they made very little money.  Some days they might, together, after working until their arms and legs were bruised, make the equivalent of four American dollars each.

                 They saved what they could and the rest went for food.  They had to pay for the food provided at the hotel.  Even though they picked exotic flowers that sold in Bern Switzerland for about forty two dollars a bouquet or cleaning a pound of shrimp worth fifteen dollars the food choices at their living location were rice, bread, water, some eggs and occasional fish.

                One night Gilberto saw a man walking away from the shrimp fishery.  A small satchel fell out of his shirt.  He picked it up quickly but not quickly enough to avoid the attention of a guard.

                The guard who had been in conversation with another leapt down from the loading dock and ran after the man.  The man saw him coming too late.

                The guard reached up under the man’s shirt and pulled out the bag.

                The other guard appeared in the man’s path.

                A police sergeant was suddenly with them.

                The guard gave the bag to the sargeant.

                He opened it and pulled out one shrimp and held it up.  He made a show of looking at it deeply.

                Gilberto thought at that moment that the whole thing could be an act for everyone to be warned from stealing shrimp.

                It was not theater.

                The sergeant tilted his head to the guards and turned with the bag.  As he walked past a trash can he tossed the bag in.  A rat stirred below and grabbing some leapt out of the can and under the pilings of the fish processing plant.

                The guards began to beat the man with their rifle butts and then clubs.

                When they were done they dragged him outside the fenced area and dropped him to the side of the gate.

                As they walked back to their station by the garbage can the man slowly dragged himself off into the darkness.  A rat ran past his feet.  They were both out of side in a few minutes.

                Gilberto, Maria and the rest were taken back to the hotel and bungalows.

                Out of all of the national production of flowers in Guatemala which includes ornamental plants and foliage used for various purposes, eighty percent is sent out the country to the international market.

                Often the companies that operate these farms and export operations are foreign.  They own the land, processing stations, transport and even the airplanes used to fly the flowers around the world.

                The market in cut flowers alone out of Guatemala is valued at more than one hundred and twenty million dollars a year.

                Taking a look at the situation to clearly set out before them in Guatemala, Gilberto and Maria began to understand some of the things that the Priest, the Reporter, the Aid Worker from the United States and one of Gilberto’s suppliers from Great Britain had told them.

                Even when they were living in Costa Rica, though it was not often, they knew about and heard about the people who were undernourished. 

                Gilberto had gone into the hinterlands and the jungles often when he was younger.  At first the people out there he encountered were healthy and strong.  Sometimes they needed medicine or other things but for the most part they were in good health.   

                As time went on and the pressures in the natural world developed, that is, as animals and birds were wiped out or taken away for sale, the forests cut or burned and the water polluted or dried up, he began to see people with nutritional problems.  Hunger became widespread.

                Then there came the time when the people started to move.  They went to the villages first, then the towns.  Then the villages started to empty and the towns too.  All went to the cities.  The cities could not hold them nor support them so they started north.  They started on the very road that Gilberto, Maria, Gilberto, Jr., Anna and Jose were on.  The road to a new home in a new land.

                One of the doctors in town had tried to explain it to Gilberto but he could only sense what he was being told.  He was young, ambitious and worked hard.  The realities of the world were challenges to him and not fences at that age.

                Doctor Suarez had told him that the undernutrition and hunger they were starting to see was not the result of inadequate food supplies, though, that did come later as food crops were replaced with coffee and cotton and flowers.

                He said the hunger and undernutrition occurred because of the way that governments and businesses were working together to manage the national and international trade and economies.  They were serving something that had no shape or form but provided to them an immediate return whereas the feeding of the people was something they mistakenly came to believe was not their concern.

                Doctor Suarez noted on more than one occasion while they sat on Nicolas’s porch or at the hardware store that most of the undernourished and hungry people were out in the country – in the rural areas.  Either that or they had recently come to the villages, towns and cities and could not find work they could do and that would pay the pittance they would need to survive.  The costs of food also were higher in the cities.

                The problem, Doctor Suarez said, was rooted in the fact that the people driven from the land, who, were sometimes from families that had lived on the land for centuries, did not have title of the land.  He said it was unfair that a system started later was able to assume ownership over land that was no even known at the time the system was set up.

                Because they did not take part in the machinations of government and they had no formal representation they were not able to ensure that even if they were pushed off their land or forced to work it that they received adequate pay for the work.

                As the large-scale production of foodstuffs and cash crops increased the more the number of rural and city poor rose.

                Food processors, textile mills, cotton growing, coffee culture, flower growers or cacao producers did not make up the disparity in pay because they, themselves, were competing with similar poverty driving economies in the international markets that they hoped would enrich them.

                In El Salvador and Guatemala these rural people were forced by circumstance and contrivance to get food through a centrally controlled system of distribution.  Even as national leaders talked about fighting communism and visited violence on there political opponents with that battled cry they centralized the cultivation, distribution and sale of food in such a way that the government and certain producers and manufacturers benefitted and from which the rural population could not escape.

                This allowed the small number of rich to maintain their false standard of living both within the country and for those that went abroad.

                As a result of the centralization of the in-country food production and distribution and sale the cost of a simple diet of staples was hard to come by and in some locations often out of reach for the working people living there.  As a further problem the centralized systems would sometimes buy food of inferior nutritional value and offer that for sale because they could get it from foreign sources easier than healthy food could be produced in-country.

                Doctor Suarez was convinced that the rural poor were now not considered to be a remnant of the past whose living misery was to be eliminated, but, instead, had become necessary for the current system to operate and continue.

                The only logical thing to do, the Doctor said, was to leave.

                One weekend Gilberto was offered extra work.  Maria was no invited.

                He was taken by truck with the other seafood processing workers he was accustomed to over to a location about five miles up the coast.  It was at the extreme end of the bay.  There was a small gauge railway there with a single steam engine and a few cars.

                They were taken to a warehouse and Gilberto was excited to large sacks of wheat and oats and corn.  He hoped to be able to get a little of it before they went back.  He decided to remember to ask for some before they went back to the hotels.

                They did not stop there, however, they were taken on beyond the warehouse.

                In the back some men were loading the sacks of grain into large vats on wheels.  They were being taken over to pens filled with pigs and cows.  To the left of those pens were large pens filled with donkeys.

                There were thousands and thousands of them.

                As they climbed from the truck another truck arrived and more donkeys were let down and driven into the pens.

                Gilberto could see some corn had been put out in a line and the donkeys were crowing around to eat it.  The water in the troughs was foul.  There were some dead donkeys in the enclosure, having been crushed under hoof either while dying or after death.

                The sacks of grain were marked as having come from the United States, Russia and some from China.  The workers were using them to feed the pigs and cows to fatten them up for the trip over the ocean.

                As for the donkeys, Gilberto had three week job.  None of them would be allowed to go back until the work was done.

                It turned out they were to slaughter and flay the donkeys.  Their skins would be piled up, taken by the train down to the port and then sent to China.

                In China the hides would be pressed for oil.

                The Chinese use the oil for cooking.  They believe it is a sexual stimulant.  They also believe it can make a person immortal and they will be able to live forever.

                Gilberto looked in stunned silence at the thousands and thousands of donkeys.  Each one of them could have been a useful and helpful companion for a farmer to have.  In fact, in some cases, the difference between success and failure on a small farm in Central America was whether or not a farmer had a donkey.

                Tears came to his eyes.

                His work was to flay the donkeys that were slaughtered.

                He wore a long leather apron though it provided no protection.  He was given goggles but they would not stay clear so the gore and blood was all about him.

                The men, at the end of the day, did not even look human.

                No amount of washing in the rust colored water from the single water pump could remove all of the refuse or take away the stench of death.

                All during this work of stripping the skins from the dead, or sometimes dying, donkeys, the pigs and cows were fed steady meals of oats and corn and wheat.  Fresh water was provided to them.

                The donkeys fought for anything that fell near their pens.  Three men were injured and one man was killed when he got caught on a fence and fell backwards.  He was trampled.  They could not find his body until the end of the day when all of the donkeys in the pen had been slaughtered and their carcasses and hides removed.

The sacks of grain that has been received from the United States, Russia and China, had of course, been meant as humanitarian aid, however, that is not what happened.  Intervention in Guatemala’s agricultural economy over more than eighty years had been dominated by the United States.  Both public and private interests were involved.

The Green Revolution was supposed to help Mexico, Central American countries and South American countries become food self-sufficient and allow for exports.

The result had been an increase in mechanization, chemical applications and a switch in large areas to unicultures of various cash crops including Cotton, Coffee, Cacao, Flowers, Bananas and others.

This led to a concentration of land ownership by individuals, families, local banks and international corporations.

                The two main problems that occurred were that entire populations were forced off their land and the natural areas were destroyed.  Eventually, in large parts of Guatemala as in Costa Rica, El Salvador and Honduras, much of the land was not only damaged, it was not fit for agriculture at all, and natural vegetation would not return either.  Much of it laid to waste.

                Even as Gilberto and Maria and their family moved north many of the chemicals in use across the area were restricted or completely banned in the European Union and the United States but freely exported to or manufactured by the chemical companies there.

A list of plant poisons, commonly referred to as Herbicides include Paraquat, 2, 4-D and Glyphosphate are used in enormous quantities.

As for insect poisons, these days called Insecticides include but are not limited to the poisonous Methyl parathion, Methamidaphos, Imidacloprid and Phoxim.

Out of the primary plant poisons now in use, three of them which are 2,4-D, glyphosate, and paraquat are carcinogenic.

The Green Revolution started just after World War Two ended.  It was a government and private partnership.  It was primarily financed by the U.S. government and led by private foundations like Ford and Rockefeller which produced oil-dependent agricultural production like fertilizers, mechanized tractors, general machinery and insect poisons made from oil.

Gigantic irrigation systems were cut into the fields and forests that disrupted centuries of local irrigation and forced the local people to become dependent upon not only the costs for lights and electric power in their homes but to pay for these large electrical systems.

As time has gone on hybrid and now genetically modified seeds became the primary source for the plantings across entire countries.  Local varieties adapted to the areas over hundreds of thousands of years were limited in use or wipe out.  For newer varieties of plants even small farmers are not allowed to set aside any seed for the next season.

The ideas backing this major disruption in society included that agricultural technology should immediately replace subsistence agriculture.  This was intended to free up labor in the poorer countries for new factories and industries as well as to provide more and nutritious food for the planned burgeoning urban areas.  All of this combined together would then boost national incomes collected from the production and export of new cash crops.

The reality that came to be, however, was the massive increase in size of unicultural plantations based on existing cash crops like coffee, cacao, cotton, bananas and, a new one, palm oil.  Nutritional benefits did not materialize.  Villages and towns were pressed out of existence while cities grew larger and poorer.  Finally people began to flee impending bouts of disease and eventual starvation.

                At the end of the work with the donkeys Alexander found himself standing on the last pile of hides bound for the port by steam engine.

                He had a pitchfork in hand.  He had started by catching one or two carefully and throwing them down to be loaded.  He had to be careful.  The hides needed to be smooth and unscathed other than the skinning marks.  As time passed during the past few days he was able to hurl armloads of the hides through the air.  Any that missed the waiting train gondola were picked up and tossed in by helpers down on the ground.

                It took twelve hours to load the last of the hides.  Then they cleaned off the floor and train pulled out.  Just as they were closing the front doors of the building a herd of cattle was being led in.  Fat, well fed, watered and ready for market.

                The men, covered in grime, blood and offal, shut the giant doors on the coming herd and turned to wash up at the single spigot available to them.

                They were paid workman’s wages which, in this case, amounted to five dollars a day.

                Gilberto quickly realized he would have made more money working in the fields and cleaning fish.

                He made no complaint.

                They boarded the bus and headed back towards the city.  The small steam engine pulled out slowly with a long line of cars loaded with donkey skins behind it.  Each one of them meaning the nearly guaranteed poverty of some farmer in the valleys and hills and mountains from where they had been bought for cheap or stolen.

                When the train arrived the hides were loaded on a ship bound for China.  In a month or so the hides would arrive in Shandong, China.  They would be offloaded with other shipments collected all along the Pacific seaboard of Central America.  There they would be cleaned a little further and then pressed for the oil called ‘Ejiao’.

                The Ejiao is valued at twenty-two dollars an ounce and more.  Currently the market for Ejiao in China is valued at over eight billion dollars per year.

                Gilberto made his way home.  He gave the money to Maria.  He took a thorough shower and went to bed.

                The next day he woke up and they went out to the farm to work.

 

Chapter 25

During their break time at the seafood processing plant, which consisted of the time they had to go outside while the room was hosed down for a new batch to work on, they also met fishermen that catch no fish.  The fishermen pointed out the giant Chinese and American factory ships that come into port for oil and other services.  The fishermen said they take all the fish and drag the bottoms with nets that turn the lush and productive waters into an underwater desert devoid of life.  It was the same story Gilberto and Maria had heard further south.

Gilberto asked them what they planned on doing.

One of the fishermen said, ‘What can we do?  I know I will eventually sell, and will probably, if you are still here, standing next to you at the cleaning table.’

One of the other fishermen took them to look at the port.  He showed Maria and Gilberto large piles of abandoned and rotting fish.  He said that is the bycatch left from a ship in port for repairs

The fishermen said, ‘We used to have markets just for some of the fish they call trash.  They have no idea what they are doing fishing.  They are not  fishing, they are just wiping the Ocean floor clean.’

‘Look there.  See the dolphins and turtles?   To catch dolphins is bad.  They are our friends.  As for the turtles, they throw them aside.  They kill so many they don’t even return.  We got no meat from them anymore no eggs.  Because of these trawlers and their waste there are even beaches we cannot walk upon because foreigners come to save the turtles.  Meanwhile, we starve!’

Chapter 26

After they had been there some time and nearly worked out they were taken to the interior of Guatemala, after being separated from the Coyote, to Coatepeque.

Gilberto worked on a small farm growing Gardenias and other flowers and belongs to a cooperative formed by a company that specializes in doing business with small farmers.  The farmer is facing pressure to sell from a nearby large plantation just opened by Europeans. 

He also took care of the local vegetable garden and helped the others to improve it.

After six weeks Diego caught up with them and took them on to the Mexican border.

They crossed by truck from El Carmen in Guatemala to Talisman in Mexico without incident.

 

 

 

Chapter 27

They were then bussed to a location outside of Chiapa de Corzo.

They were welcomed to an Indian reservation along with other refugees.  Diego disappeared again.  They gain work and begin to settle in wondering if they should continue to the United States.

The children and given books and start back in school.

The place has little commerce outside of the reservation and town.  They are not rich but fairly prosperous and comfortable.

Maria and Gilberto feel safe there with their family.

Gilberto took a job at a hardware store and was welcomed by the farmers that came in for assistance because he really knew his way around tools and engines.

This pleasant time was not to last long.

 

Chapter 28

Diego returned after three months and told the family that the Mexican military would arrive the next day late in the morning.  He said he told them that the family was there and that they soldiers will take them to Veracruz for work.  He told them not to resist and be among the first to volunteer to get out.

If they were not first or were left behind, he told them he could not be responsible for their safety.

He told this to three other families but avoided the rest and left town in his car.

 

 

Chapter 29

The next morning the military arrived and arrested four of the Indian leaders including a teacher that had been teaching the Indian and Martinez children how to read, write and speak English.

Her name was Miss Lucille.  The day before she had given this paper to Gilberto, Jr. to show to his parents.  She said it was the ‘Oath of Allegiance to the United States’ that one day the would be able to say.

The words on the paper were these :

“I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God.”

Some of the Indians were put in trucks and driven out of town into the desert.

Others, Gilberto’s family included, and first, were offered work.  They accept and are put in another truck heading in the opposite direction from where the Indians were taken.

 

 

Chapter 30

Gilberto and Maria told them would be taken immediately to Veracruz.  They are given papers.

As they depart Gilberto witnesses the teacher executed in the square by a police captain and her body dragged away.

When they arrive at Veracruz there they are given small shelters and jobs at a local resort on the coast. 

For food they were allowed to eat leftovers from the banquets and meals.

Anna became ill and ran a high fever.  She could not eat for five days.

Maria was almost turned to prostitution by one of the cruel bosses who ran the work crews at the resort.  She told Gilberto who confronted the man.  There was nearly a deadly fight.

Not before the man told Gilberto, however, that it was common in Veracruz.  The tourists were always looking for something different.  He said some of the businessmen come there especially for the women.

Luckily for the work boss two men restrained Gilberto.

The next day Gilberto and Maria decided not to go to work.  They needed time to figure things out and what they would do next.

 

 

Chapter 31

It was later in the day that part of their problem was completely eliminated.         

There was drug cartel violence at the location.  Gilberto and Maria took their first walk along the beach where the tourists and party goers went.  The children were with another family as they walked and talked about their future.

They witnessed some tourists buying drugs and then using them under one of the fishing piers.

As they walked past another resort next to the one they worked at they saw two workers from the resort, dressed in white, raping two girls who were there on break from college and then given drugs and alcohol.

Later it was explained to Gilberto and Maria that they complained to the local police but nothing is ever done.  The girls went back to England.  Gilberto and Maria said that no matter what happens, rape, beatings, murder, overdose – the people just keep coming.  They think they are coming to some paradise only to be brutalized or murdered.

As Gilberto looked at a brochure he marveled at what he saw in the colorful images and what he knew to be true before his eyes.

In a separate incident, separate from the girls who had been brutalized, as Maria and Gilberto returned to their place having wordlessly deciding to leave the resort, they  on the  road above the boardwalk a five bodies covered in the street next to a burning car and gunmen getting into a truck and driving off.

 

Chapter 32

Gilberto and Maria took jobs in town cleaning rental apartments and sent word to Diego.  Gilberto sold ice on the weekend at the park.  Maria found seamstress work.  They survived.

Diego returned after six months and found them at their new jobs.  He took them to Mexico City.  The transfer there took place quickly. 

At first, he had arranged that they were to work in the markets but there is resistance by local workers to the migrants and they quickly had to leave.

They were taken by bus to Ciudad Juarez on the USA-Mexico border and into a camp.  This was six months sooner than Diego would have preferred but he got them into a job at a maquiladora owned by a Japanese auto supplier. 

A maquiladora is a business or manufacturing facility set up to employ Mexican workers.  They have special trade permissions.  The things they make were intended primarily to be shipped to the United States.  In return for promising to employe a certain number of Mexicans and pay a set fee to the government (sometimes more, sometimes less) the company can operate relatively unimpeded.

In this case the maquiladora was a factory that made advanced parts and wiring harnesses for cars.  There was no school.  The children had to stay in their huts during the day.  Maria and Gilberto were sent to different maquiladoras.  Sometimes they worked at one for eight hours and then were taken to another.  Diego had arranged for half of their pay to come to him, but it wasn’t clear how that worked to Gilberto and Maria.  They worked sixteen hour days for a few dollars a day.  They make high tech components.  The factory was unsafe. 

On Gilberto’s first day a man lost the fingers on his right hand on the wire cutting machine.  Gilberto was assigned his job.  There was only one water fountain, only two toilet stalls and more than two thousand workers at one of the locations.

Chapter 33

Two months later Diego the Coyote returned to take them to the United States.

They crossed in the night by foot into Texas.  There must have been a thousand people crossing at the same time.

Finally after wading through muddy waters and scrambling up the opposite bank of some stinking arroyo Diego appeared before them and told they them they were in the United States.

Then he turned and faded into the night.

The next morning they awoke and found they were on the outskirts of a town.  There were other families and individuals all around them.   Some men were running towards and then around them.   Some ran into the desert and others along the road.

There were Texas State Troopers, National Guardsmen and Border Patrol Agents walking and driving along towards them.

The family was captured that morning and brought to an interment center.

Gilberto was released by the Border Patrol and the State of Texas arrested him and put him on a plane to Detroit.  Maria and Gilberto, Jr. were sent by bus to New York.  She was distraught over her children.  Another migrant befriended her and told her what was happening.

Anna and Jose were left in the internment camp for children.

 

Chapter 34

At that time Anna and Joseput in a cage to separate them from the other children and some adults in the facility.  There were many children in separate cages alone and other cages held more than one or many.  There didn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason for what was going on.

They were fed irregularly.  During one day they received no food or water at all as the workers were arguing and one appeared under the influence of alcohol or some drug.  After a week they were moved along with other children to another facility.

The two of them were sent to an office where they were taken by a man and a woman to a building in the desert.  They were kept together but were being prepared for separate adoptions. 

The two of them stopped speaking to anyone except each other and stayed close together as much as possible.

                They were fed bread and water and some soup.

                There were other children in the building but they could not see them.

                The building had been a dog kennel used by the county dog catcher in the past and the rooms were just fenced off kennels.

 

 

Chapter 35

Gilberto took a job in construction.  He also worked at landscaping on the weekends.

He was very sad but did not give up.  He found good friends who helped them as they could.  They lived together and found work together.

He found work from time to time when his regular work has none by going to a street corner where day worker bosses pick up undocumented workers.  The jobs were normally day labor jobs.  They did not pay so well but much better than anything he had ever had in Costa Rica or the other countries.

After two months he located Maria and Gilberto Jr.  They had been sent to New York in a bus.  He went to New York to get them, also by bus, and returned with them in a bus.

His friends helped to find them an apartment in a nice building near a park.  Maria was frightfully worried about Anna and Jose.

 

 

 

 

Chapter 36

 

They find out where Anna and Jose were through the offices of a Migrant Agency specializing in settling people in Detroit.

Gilberto, Maria and Gilberto, Jr went to Texas by bus to get the children.

They were not at the camp.  Maria began to panic.  They called the agency in Detroit who told them they would have someone come meet them.  They tracked Anna down to an adoption agency but were forbidden contact.  They let the agency in Detroit know and their local contact left and came back an hour later with a lawyer.

They returned to the adoption agency and the lawyer spoke to the people in charge.  As they were speaking a uniformed officer from the Border Patrol arrived in a marked car and came up the steps of the building and knocked at the door.

The man and a woman in the adoption agency office let him in.  He sat down across from them and said to the lawyer, ‘Have you found the girl and the boy?’

The lawyer said, ‘Yes.’

The officer said, to Maria and Gilberto, ‘Let’s go.  Are your daughter and son okay?’

Maria started to cry and they are taken by car to a building outside of town.  They came to a nondescript building with a small parking lot and no other buildings around.  Ana was brought out to them and they drove off.  As they drove down the road away from the building Gilberto looked behind and saw the officer pointing at the two people at the adoption agency.  When he turned around again three border patrol cars came driving by very fast on their way to the building.

Gilberto asked, ‘What will happen next?’

The lawyer said, ‘Any other children there will be taken somewhere safe.  Thank you for speaking up.’

Before they left the lawyer gave them rail tickets for Amtrak and wished them all well.  The family returned to  Michigan together.

 

 

Chapter 37

 

Gilberto took a job at an urban farm.  He did very well and helped the farm adapt its use of containers, soil replenishment and watering.

He had difficulty in the winter, however, when operations shut down.

                He was confused about the Autumn and how it could fit in with the farm itself.  None of the other workers seemed concerned.  They went off to other jobs.  He did this as well and worked at a grocery story.

                On the weekends he would go to the farm and clean and organize things.

                The farm owner saw him one day and asked him what he was doing.  He told the owner who gave him permission to continue but told him he could not pay.

                Gilberto said he did not want pay and asked to bring his children.  The owner agreed to this as well.

                During the autumn at first the children played and Gilberto worked.  As the cold, came, however, they spent less and less time outside.

                At some point Gilberto, Jr. noticed the cold was impacting Anna and Jose and set up a small area for them with an oil heater.  He closed up gaps and cracks and replaced or covered broken glass.  In two weeks the room where the children read and played was the warmest in the buildings.

                Gilberto started to do the same throughout the large structure where the room was.

                He set out a growing tray in the children’s reading and play room.  The seeds he planted sprouted.  As they repaired the walls and windows in the larger structure they planted more trays.

                The plants were about foot tall and the tomatoes starting to flower and fruit in a small way when the farmer noticed what they were doing.

                He began to help and got more supplies.  Soon the whole building, except for the children’s room, was a greenhouse.

                They started on the other buildings as well.  By March they were already selling small amounts of tomatoes with the realization that the next year they would not need to stop growing at all.

 

Maria took work as a seamstress.  She was well-skilled and taught her fellow workers as much as she worked herself.

One night Sandra, the woman who employed Maria, took Maria and Gilberto to Father Henry who operated a local charity in Detroit.

The house that Father Henry lived in was a brick house.  The bricks were dark red.  There were rose bushes in the front garden and ivy growing up the side wall.  There was an American flag flying from a pole in front of the house.

The window frames could have used a little paint.  The front doors were double glass, steel doors that were at least eighty years old.  It was kindly home.  The foyer was tiled.  They were taken inside and met in the parlor.

They sat at a table and an African-American woman by the name of Mary brought them tea and some biscuits and cookies.

They talked over what could be done for the family, which turned out to be quite a lot, and how the children could get to school, and everyone vaccinated and given access to nutritious food and a source for clothing.  Then the rest, obviously, was up to them.

While they were there talking there was a disturbance in the street.  There were five men shouting at each other.

Father Henry walked and asked what they were fighting about.

The men called each other names as they were of different nationalities.  They were drunken and ready to fight each other hand to hand.

Father Henry was having trouble calming them.

Maria and Gilberto were worried and wondered if they had made the right decision.

Then, a loud booming voice came out of the night.

‘What are you doing there, you fools?’

An African-American man wearing a cap on his head came out of the darkness.

They all turned to look at him, even the men ready to fight.

Not knowing who they were he turned to Maria and Gilberto and said, ‘Welcome to you.  You have found a good friend here in Father Henry.’

Then he turned to the men and said, ‘Have you no sense?  I will tell you!  I will tell you now, so listen!’

He stood tall so that he seemed the tallest over everyone there, as if he become the trunk of a strong tree with power and strength.

He said, ‘Hear these words!’

‘If there comes to live strangers among you, do not vex them.  The strangers that dwelleth with you shall be unto as one born among you, and thou shalt love them as thyself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.’

Then he left.

The men in the street stood with bowed shoulders and weary faces.

One asked, ‘Then what do we do now?’

Father Henry said, ‘Go bowling or go home!’

One of the men said, ‘Bowling.  Let’s do that.’

‘No more drinking!’, shouted Father Henry.

Their footsteps went into the night and Father Henry, Mary, Gilberto and Maria went back into the house to talk some more.

 

Chapter 38

                Father Henry had a lot of things for them.

There was a lot of paperwork to fill out.  They were helped a great deal by Mrs. McDermott and Ms. Gonzalez.  They had to enroll the children in school, get medication and vaccination cards, have the children checked on by a doctor.

For the whole family they needed to ensure that they had their rental agreements filled out correctly.  They were helped in getting their electricity turned on, water connected and renter’s insurance arranged.

It was another set of steps to get the children enrolled in school.  They had to register the children and find the nearest and most convenient school for them.  Bus service for the children was new to them and it took them time to understand what was happening and how to choose the best school.

Volunteers took them the schools and they toured them with other parents.  They had interpreters with them so that they could ask their questions.  Thankfully they had pleasant guides who encouraged them to ask questions and make comments.  This allowed the school representatives to address any concerns and bring their attention to the appropriate services.

Maria and Gilberto wanted to learn English completely.  They knew this would take time.  More than one teacher and school official had encouraged them to address the language issue right away.  Not because they, as adults, would not fit in, but because it would ease things for the children.  What really caught Gilberto’s and Maria’s attention was that if they did not learn English well enough to be independent themselves, they may come to depend on the children.  They learned how children of very young ages who had arrived in the United States with their parents had ended up having to translate for the parents.  The result might be good in the first instances but as time went on the toll weighed upon the child.  Eventually children as young as those in elementary school or middle school might suddenly decide to make their own decisions and insert them in negotiations or other things being done.  This was especially a problem sometimes with teenagers.  It could also cause the children to end up losing respect for their elders.

                Ultimately it was told to them that the children could end up in bad company that takes advantage of situations like that.

                Maria and Gilberto decided to sign up for English as a Second Language Tutoring at the Detroit Public Library.  They could meet with the tutors on a weekly basis or more frequently, take advantage of the language books and tools at the library as well as provide a healthy and interesting outlet for the children.  From there they were introduced to other tutors and classes provided by the public schools, local community colleges and the larger colleges and universities.

                The children started school rather quickly.  At first they were put off and didn’t know how to act.  They were withdrawn and kept to themselves.  Gilberto, Jr. drew the attention of some gang members, but because Gilberto and Maria had taken time to learn about what the situation was in the high school they were able to intervene almost immediately.

                They spoke with a social worker at the school who suggested an afterschool activity like a sport.  It turned out that the school had started a soccer team two years ago.  The social worker was unaware but the school team had been struggling since they started.  Gilberto, Jr. tried out and because he had been playing soccer since he was a young child he was immediately passed into the program.

                He thought it was very easy and didn’t understand what happening.  He almost quit, until, at the third practice his teammates began asking him for tips.  He was free with his knowledge and they all started to play better together.

                During the first game that Gilberto, Jr. played with the team they won.   His teammates praised him as a hero.  Gilberto, Jr. had successfully sidestepped a series of problems that would have occurred had he befriended the gang members and been exploited by them.

                Jose did well at school.  Because of his age and because he was so bright, just as predicted, he picked up English very quickly.  He still was not clear on the nuances, however, and avoided tricky situations and risking being made fun of due to his pronunciation because his parents were also studying English and helped him.

                Anna was still withdrawn.  Very intelligent and sensitive, the things she had seen and heard along the way, as well as the sorrow of leaving her friends and family behind, weighed heavily on her.  She was taken into a program where she could continue to talk with the social worker as well as with a counselor.  Slowly, over time, she came out of her shell and was able to deal with these problems and address the trauma she had gone through in arriving to the United States.

                Renting was fine but after a year the family thought it might be nice to get a house.  They were offered an opportunity to purchase one through a land bank.  Once again volunteers helped them fill out the forms and collect the information they needed to provide.

                The process that had been set up was fairly simple in regards to the amount and complexity of the documents to be filled out.

                A few knowledgeable people had been assembled by a person who had gone through the same process themselves successfully.  They wrote down all the steps and put together all the materials and information they needed to follow what they had done.  Initially they did this to keep track of everything.  The existing process had been so complicated and convoluted that it was easy not only for the applicant to make an unintended error or omission but also the departments and agencies involved on the official side could do the same.

                During the course of working out what needed to be done these volunteers had also encountered situations in the processes followed by the local, state and federal governments that could each cancel out the work being done by the other agencies.  After all that had been done and collected the person decided to share the materials.  At first it was slow going but after a while the worth of the work was recognized and so they opened a non-profit organization of their own to help others work through the land bank process.

                For the Martinez family the process took over a year.  They didn’t have to wait a year to move into their home, however, because they were able to rent it from the land bank immediately.  This allowed them to live in the property to take legal possession of it and start the renovations right away.  Over the course of that year they were able to renovate the home they had chosen.

                The house was located in a neighborhood that had essentially been abandoned.  The owners of the homes had sold them to others at steep discounts or to large and small speculators.  They land and houses were sold back and forth in strange and complicated real estate deals.  Once the properties became bound up in those transactions, which sometimes consolidated several properties, and even entire blocks into projects, it was difficult for families and individuals seeking homes to even inquire about them let alone purchase them.

                As time went by and no repairs or other work was done to the homes they fell into continued disrepair.  They were often taken over by squatters or other illegal inhabitants such as various criminal enterprises which included drug dens, safe houses and other problematic unlawful activities.

                When the land bank took control of an area then they worked with the city.  The city, in agreement, would vacate all the buildings and ensure that they were not being used as tools in criminal activities.  The venture capital groups sometimes caused a problem because the worth of the bonds and other securities they had established were not related directly to the state of the properties and homes.  This problem was circumvented by condemning or seizing the properties.  At first the venture capital groups and investors fought this sort of thing strongly but as some of the deals they had fashioned were publicized and people became aware that homes laying vacant and abandoned were not like that because of laziness or a weak economy but because of what appeared to be essentially Ponzi schemes where foreign owners could take possession of single family houses they backed away.

                This is not to say that this sort of financial arrangement ceased to be.  It was just that the companies involved in these international pandering schemes that kept hard working people out of homes did not want them publicized.  As it was much of their work, besides being questionable and predatory was borderline illegal.  They did not want this gray zone to be painted in such a way that they would need to stop doing what they were doing.  The purchase and holding of homes in these ways provided a great deal of income and interest for predatory foreign buyers and domestic real estate consortiums but ultimately they harmed individuals, neighborhoods and ultimately local governments.  Until the States and national governments in the countries where this activity takes place respond localities need to work on their own to solve the problem.

                It was great good fortune that the Martinez family had landed in just such a place.  The entire neighborhood was being resettled by immigrant families and American families that could not otherwise afford a home.  The land bank provided them individual opportunities to purchase the homes.  The support agencies worked to provide the purchasers, whether they were immigrants or long time citizens, an opportunity to establish credit.

                They purchased the distressed properties at what seemed to be discounted rates but many of the homes needed extensive work.  Additional loans, grants and cash were provided in order to put the house in order, make it livable and secure.

                The work that they were doing at the land bank and the agencies associated with them had the effect of placing families in homes that were secure and healthy while also revitalizing and reestablishing entire neighborhoods.  The ultimate goal, without stating it overtly, was that as the neighborhoods coalesced and bordered up against each other that city itself would benefit.

                This was already being seen by higher tax income as well as more reasonable, professional and lucrative investments.  As the skilled and willing workforce increased, crime dropped and local business increased other companies were encouraged to come into the neighborhoods, communities and the area.

                Where once there had been food deserts, grocery stores were now reentering the market.  A food desert is an area where there are no established markets that sell a variety of food and other materials used in a home.  The markets in a community that is filled with empty homes or vacant lots quickly depart for more profitable areas.  As the neighborhoods declined in Detroit many ‘Mom and Pop’ grocery stores as well as other small businesses such as gas stations, auto mechanics, home goods, repair services and all matter of small businesses were either driven out or dried up as their customer base fled or were driven out by the speculators.  The situation was worsened by the fact that the speculators, as time went on, were no longer interested in renting the property or developing it.  Using a strange set of quirks in the tax codes of the State of Michigan, the United States and several other countries where the monies came from, there was no need to use the properties in a meaningful way.  Ownership of a property, no matter how distressed or dilapidated was enough to generate income.

                With no way to battle these forces directly the land bank had been able to chisel away at small holdings and separate properties from larger holdings by condemnation, fees and sometimes enforcement of laws regarding simple things like abandoned waste.  In other cases they had discovered toxic or chemical waste on properties that needed to be removed.  Owners of these properties often abandoned them as quickly at they could.  At that time the State of Michigan would come and clean the contamination out.

                The problems weren’t all solved, however, because the monied interests changed their tactics.  Though they had made not great direct attacks on these attempts to reestablish home ownerships in the communities there were groups of individuals and companies that were not in accordance with having the State of Michigan spend money on cleaning up toxins.  The result was a strange process put in place by the state government to catalog and list the locations of all the properties they could with known toxins on them.  Laws were put in place, then, so that the property could be transferred from one owner to another without having to clean it up.

                This set of laws allowed owners to sell their property and simply tell the new owner that some materials had been discovered on it.  The new owners were not required to clean it up either.  If they wanted to know what was on the land they would need to submit a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the state.  In order to get meaningful information the new owners would need to know what chemicals were on the site in order to get data on it.

                After this initial transaction the further communications about toxins were not deemed necessary, especially if the land was subdivided.  The result of this, obviously, was that land could end up being sold to individual homeowners that was contaminated toxins and they would never know.

                For the time being the land bank dealt with this directly.  Dealing with that processing and information problem in general, however, would need to be dealt with by the local, State and Federal governments.  There was no indication that this would happen except in certain isolated incident areas.

                As it was the land and neighborhood that the Martinez bought their home in was free of toxins.  Already half filled with other new families who now had the opportunity to own a home and establish a stable living environment they were happy to be there.

                Gilberto, Jr. continued to excel in athletics at school and became a leading student in mathematics.  After three years he was able to acquire a scholarship and attended a State University.

                Anna successfully negotiated her counseling and as she approached graduation age herself in high school took an interest in social work as well as economics.

                Jose settled into his new community.  He gathered new friends introduced to him by his parents, teachers and schoolmates.

                He joined the Cub Scouts.

                Gilberto and Maria settled into their work with Gilberto eventually opening a successful catering business centered around organic produce and food.  Maria went on with her seamstress work and provided sewing and clothes making courses from her shop.  She also operated a clothing boutique in the same location and joined others in her community in starting a thriving commercial area along a nearby boulevard.

                Six months later at the Federal Courthouse in Detroit, Michigan, Maria and Gilberto took the Oath of Allegiance to the United States and became American Citizens.