Linguist, lexicographer, writer, editor, broadcaster

Coyote: a 14-year-old who supports his glue-sniffing habit by smuggling people

“5:30 a.m., Agua Prieta: The mud puddles have a skin of ice upon them. Antonio has been on the road for 30 hours straight, traveling the 1200 miles to the Arizona border. He stumbles off the fourth and final bus in his journey, the freezing air hitting him with a blast. He has never felt cold like this before; the home he left the previous morning was 50 degrees warmer, and his friendly neighbors are here replaced by the men who lounge in the shadows near the bus station. They move in on Antonio like sharks; theirs is a chorus of low voices asking, ‘Vas al otro lado?’

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Grant Barrett