Antonio's Gun and Delfino's Dream

Starred review from March 5, 2007
Quinones takes a keen look the migrant economy—both the rural to urban flow within Mexico, and between the U.S. and Mexico—in these nine skillful, moving stories. He devotes the first, middle and last chapters to Delfino Juárez, a construction worker who left his mountain village in Veracruz to work at Mexico City job sites when he was 12 years old before making his way to Arizona through the Sonora desert, a journey that almost cost him his life. Delfino "wanted more from life than simply not to starve," and his pluck shines through the narratives that Quinones (True Tales from Another Mexico
) layers with the sociological, economic and historical context of 60 years of immigration. Other standouts among these very fine pieces of literary journalism, include "The Tomato King," about Andrés Bermúdez, a longtime U.S. resident who returns to his native county of Jerez to run for mayor; and "Delfino II: Diez in the Desert," a nuanced portrait of the human trafficking that takes place at the border. The jewel of the collection, "A Soccer Season in Southwest Kansas," depicts the sport's transformative effect—both on the immigrant children and on the High Plains town.