Devon McNerney

Assignment 1

El Sueno Americano

With a pained growl in his stomach, Jose clenched to the small weathered photo barely visible in the dim streetlight. Ciudad Juarez was the type of city that Jose’s parents had warned him about, the type that had kept them up so many nights fearing for their 14 year old son.

The comforting warmth of this spiritual presence kept Jose warm on these brisk late nights. Constantly reminding himself of the opportunity and family that awaited him, he ironically had never felt more comforted in this noisy border town, El Paso in view on the rising horizon.

Interrupted from his nostalgic serenity, Jose is startled by a slam on the back alley door of the divey tequileria. Seconds later the rusted metal door screams opens to spit out a disheveled middle aged gentleman. For what seemed like minutes, Jose observed as the belligerently drunk man physically and mentally collected himself, unaware of his anxious onlooker. Only after picking himself up and looking at the ground around him did he realize Jose’s presence. With a slurred greeting followed by a hick-up the man introduced himself as Pedro.

“Que tal?” Pedro asked.

After explaining his bordering destination, the man shook his head and stumbled to sit next to Jose. Pedro harshly questioned Jose’s intentions of traveling to the northern country due to the little it had to offer. Even after innocently describing the job he had waiting for him among his cousins, Pedro laughed in entertainment. It was implicitly clear that Pedro was no stranger to the process. He was a rugged man, leathered by the sun and many nights on the street. Though Pedro’s mean words did not get to his lion-like heart, Jose respected his perspective as clearly a more experienced person than him.