Steven Mayers is a writer, oral historian, and professor at the City College of San Francisco. He has interviewed Central American migrants for over a decade. His master’s thesis explored ways in which fiction can challenge historical accounts of the past, and his dissertation, analyzing the stories of Central American war refugees, focused on the themes of identity, home, and forgiveness.

Jonathan Freedman is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, author, and mentor with more than thirty years’ experience reporting from Central America, Mexico, and the US border. His six-year series of investigative editorials for the San Diego Tribune was influential in the passage of the landmark 1986 US immigration reforms that authorized 2.7 million undocumented immigrants to become permanent legal residents.

FOREWORD

INTRODUCTION by Steven Mayers and Jonathan Freedman

COFOUNDER AND EXECUTIVE EDITOR’S NOTE by Mimi Lok

MAP OF MIGRATION ROUTES

Soledad Castillo, Honduras: “Nobody wanted me.”

Josué Nieves, El Salvador: “My father didn’t want me to see that he was crying.”

Gabriel Méndez, Honduras: “I was made to do things I didn’t want to do.”

Jhony Chuc, Guatemala: “You ride on top of the Beast and are totally exposed.”

Noemi Tun, Guatemala: “People fought over water and land.”

Isabel Vásquez, El Salvador: “Before, a village like ours was so beautiful, and suddenly things were ruined.”

Danelia Silva, El Salvador: “He’d break down doors and come through the windows, or, if not, from the roof, up the fire escape.”

Adrián Cruz, Guatemala: “I was solito, solito. I decided to cross by myself.”

Pedro Hernandez, Guatemala: “The immigration police herded us into cars and drove us to la hielera, the freezer.”

Cristhian Molina, Honduras: “For eighteen years I have wandered from the bottom to the top of North America, trying to change my life.”

Rosa Cuevas, El Salvador: “We walked for days, through the jungle, risking our lives, not meeting anyone.”

Ernesto González, Honduras: “I’m the only one still alive.”

Julio Zavala, Honduras: “When I slept, there were cameras on four sides.”

Ismael Xol, Guatemala: “Maybe I’ll be transferred to the university next year as planned, or maybe I’ll be deported back to Guatemala.”

Itzel Tzab, Guatemala: “Only by leaving my studies could I work to pay him back.”

APPENDIXES

1. Ten Things You Can Do
2. Historical Timeline

III. Glossary

1. Essays

Risk Factors for Children

Violence against Women