Antonio's Gun and Delfino's Dream: True Tales of Mexican Migration

327 Pages·2007·2.03 MB·English

by  Sam Quinones

Antonio’s Gun and Delfino’s Dream

Antonio’s Gun
and
Delfino’s Dream
True Tales of Mexican Migration
8
SAM QUINONES
    

©  by Sam Quinones
All rights reserved. Published 
Printed in the United States of America
First paperbound printing, 
Paperbound : ----
                 
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Quinones, Sam, –
Antonio’s gun and Delfino’s dream : true tales of Mexican migration / Sam Quinones.
p. cm.
 ---- (cloth : alk. paper)
. Mexicans—United States—Social conditions.
. Mexican Americans—United States—Social conditions.
. Immigrants—United States—Social conditions.
. Alien labor, Mexican—United States.
. Return migration—Mexico.
. Mexico—Emigration and immigration—Economic aspects.
. United States—Emigration and immigration—Economic aspects.
I. Title.
E.MQ 
.’—dc

Versions of some of these stories appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Houston Chronicle,
Baltimore Sun, San Francisco Chronicle, San Diego Union-Tribune, Chicago Tribune,
Opera Now, on NPR’s Weekend Edition, and, in Mexico, in Milenio and Día Siete.
  : Mina Yamashita
8
For Sheila
8
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Contents
Introduction: Antonio’s Gun / 
Chapter One: Delfino I:
A Sunday Afternoon Dream
in the Alameda / 
Chapter Two: The Tomato King / 
Chapter Three: The Saga of South Gate / 
Chapter Four: Doyle and Chuy
Wrap Juárez in Velvet / 
Chapter Five: Delfino II:
Diez in the Desert / 
Chapter Six: The Beautiful Insanity
of Enrique Fuentes / 
Chapter Seven: Atolinga / 
Chapter Eight: A Soccer Season
in Southwest Kansas / 
Chapter Nine: Delfino III: Alive in L.A. / 
Epilogue: Leaving Mexico / 
Story Updates / 
Acknowledgments / 
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Introduction
Antonio’s Gun
T
he stories in this book are about Mexican immigration to the United
States—the largest movement of people from one country to an-
other in our time.
If you are American or Mexican, this flow of humanity will touch
your life and change your country for years to come.
I lived and worked as a reporter in Mexico between  and . I
wrote often about Mexican immigration and continue to do so now that
I live in the United States.
Mexican immigration differs from the waves of European and Asian
immigrants that have come to America. It’s now lasted more than sixty
years and shows no sign of slowing. And unlike immigrants before them,
Mexicans have moved to almost every region of the United States—from
Alaska to Atlanta. Their arrival in the American South in huge numbers in
the s marked the largest influx of foreign-born workers to that region
since slavery. Virtually every municipio—or county—in Mexico has sent
people to the United States.
These stories are about the things Mexican immigrants seek in the
United States.
I thought about this often while living in Mexico. Of course, immi-
grants were looking for work and the future for themselves and their kids
that Mexico denied them.
But it was more complicated than that. For one thing, I noticed Mexi-
can immigrants also sought to return home. Immigrants to the United States
in other eras might have wanted to go home, too, but they faced arduous
journeys. Mexicans’ homeland is close, at peace; transportation is cheap and
dollars buy a lot. Thus they send money home constantly and return often.
Gardeners, drywall hangers, and factory workers spend lifetimes earning
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