Border Crossing

Pedro had entrusted his niece to the red haired American. His English was not good, so he could not make the man understand that Juanita was his niece, his wife's family's pride and joy, their hope for the future. But the red haired American and his men had picked up hundreds of illegal aliens from Pedro. It was Pedro's job to get them from just inside the border to another point a hundred miles north. From there the American took the desperate, frightened people to cities and towns in Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and even as far away as Oklahoma or Colorado where they could find manual labor: work in factories and jobs as migratory field workers. The women went to live with friends until they could be hired out as domestic servants or work in restaurants and bakeries. At least that is how it usually happened, but not this time.