Jay Mann, Nederland. My grandfather emigrated from his small village in Lithuania to South Africa as a teenager. I like to imagine that his transition was eased by his youth and the thought that an elder brother awaited him. It still must have been heartwrenching, however, to give up his entire community and not know whether he would see his family again.
Fortunately, most of his immediate family was able to move there over time.
He became a butcher, opened his own shop, and used bicycles carrying ice boxes to deliver meat to his customers.
Years later, my father made a journey from South Africa to El Paso, Texas which was facilitated by a friend. He worked on a pecan farm until his Green Card came through – which was a much quicker process back then. My maternal grandfather’s journey was more convoluted. His journey from Poland to El Paso included stops for years in Cuba first, and then the Bronx.
The Spanish he picked up in Cuba and the connections he made in the Garment District in New York proved useful when he opened a retail fabric store in El Paso; the majority of his customers were from Juarez. Looking back, we try to find causation, correlation, and a pattern to our lives but often our path and where we are now is a result of chance.
Kimball Taylor’s new nonfiction book, The Coyote’s Bicycle, looks at the life of a “Coyote”, someone who smuggles illegal immigrants into the U.S. from Mexico. The focus of the book, Pablo, grew up in a small village in Oaxaca.
He left as a teenager to join his family in the U.S. But instead of crossing the border in Tijuana, he ended up finding a living on its edge by ferrying people across it. He was highly successful, in large part because of his innovation technique (bicycles).
The author’s interest in the story began when he heard stories of hundreds of abandoned bicycles being found on the U.S. side of the border. As he traces both their origins and destinations we are introduced to the history of the region. The issues in the area – from ecology to activism – are explored through a cast of interesting people. The book alternates between the author’s investigations and a narrative of Pablo’s life which reads like fiction.
The language is evocative – the pollos (chickens) are escorted by the polleros (chicken herders) to the levantons (getaway drivers) while avoiding the jalapenos (Border Patrol, due to their “green uniforms and hot tempers”). Kimball’s descriptions of the landscape are detailed enough that you feel you are emerging from a valley and seeing the glint of the ocean along with the author.
I was able to relate to the setting of the book because I grew up on the border in El Paso, later lived in Encinitas (Southern California), and love bicycling. I laughed in recognition when the author talked about how most people drive through Tijuana as quickly as possible to get to other towns further down the peninsula. If you’ve never been to a border town, the descriptions are detailed and engaging enough to make you want to visit one, at least briefly.
For a first hand – albeit fictional – account of a pollo, check out Yuri Herrera’s Signs Preceding the End of the World. The story follows a woman who crosses the border in search of her brother. It captures the range of emotions that accompany her journey, from wonder and fear to hope and despair.
Both books give you an idea of the humane side of the trafficking business. The headlines tend to be horrific stories of people left to die in a desert crossing or suffocating in a trailer, but hundreds of thousands of people cross safely into the United States each year. Politics aside, what I will retain from these two books is empathy for the migrants. Just like my grandparents, their crossings were prompted by a desire to make a better life for themselves and their families.
Jay Mann is the Director of the Nederland Community Library.
Learn all you need to know about personal financial management. Our free Financial Literacy classes at the library start Thursday, March 24th at 7 pm and will run for five weeks. They will be taught be a former community college professor. Please register to attend. You can find details at www.nedlib.org/FL
