The Undocumented Americans (One World Essentials)

by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio

I crossed the desert four times to see my children.” The border was more porous at the time, and his children were in Mexico, so he headed home during the New York winter. He still needed a coyote for the crossing. At night in the desert it got so cold, he thought his skin would shatter like hard candy. During the day it was so hot, he thought demons had possessed him. He carried with him four gallons of water and a backpack with food. He wore construction boots, and his feet were covered in blisters. Once, he stayed behind with some people who’d gotten sick and the coyote just left them. “The coyotes are always drugged and drunk because they’re afraid to do what they do sober,” Julián explains. They survived by eating cans of peppers and drinking puddles. Two of them died. They threw up something green, then collapsed. He tried to help the living, but also didn’t want to join the dead, so he did what he had to do.