The Air-Dried Corn Cobs

Translated by Marvin Najarro Whenever he can, Perfecto tells anyone he comes across that his entire family lives in the United States, and that he brought them all a long time ago, got papers for all his children, and that he even has grandchildren born in the United States. But the truth is different. Perfecto’s reality is similar to that of thousands of undocumented immigrants; he is ashamed to admit that he doesn’t have papers, and the fear of deportation makes him lie consistently about his life in the country. He emigrated more than thirty years ago when he was…

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Bertita’s Dreams

Translated by Marvin Najarro In the mornings, Bertita and her mother split firewood in their neighbors’ houses who hire them, usually elderly persons who were left alone because all their children left for el Norte. Twenty-year old Bertita wears her one-year-old daughter in a shawl attached to her back, her other two children who are five-and seven-year-old, are in charge of stacking the firewood so as not to leave a mess. When things go well, they are able to get lunch included in their pay; a few tortillas that they dip in an herbal soup, or in cooked beans, on some occasions…

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Martina’s Smile

Translated by Katrina Hassan The first time Arnold beat Martina was their first night together. She’d left home with him because her family wanted to send her to her aunt Dominga’s in the capital. Her parents wanted to get rid of the lazy good for nothing guy that kept lurking around their daughter. Martina’s dad nicknamed Arnold “The Jobless Good For Nothing.” Her mom grew up herding cows and making tortillas for the whole family and told Martina she wasn’t to marry until she finished studying. Martina’s mother had always herded cows and fed the workers in the valley where…

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Carambola Punch

Translated by Marvin Najarro At the beginning, Filomena used to write down in Spanish the list of groceries to shop at the super market, which she had translated with the help of an English-Spanish translator; everything was for kosher food. In her native Sibaná, El Asintal, Retalhuleu, Guatemala, she never heard about the Jewish religion, let alone kosher food. It was in Chicago, where she discovered that world of strange food and rituals. At first, it all seemed like gringo tricks to her, as the evangelicals with their loudspeakers blaring on Sunday worship in her village, or the bunch of…

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A Sprig of Mint

Translated by Marvin Najarro It was eleven thirty in the morning when, after the rain had stopped, Sabina got a whiff of fresh mint, and of freshly cut sprigs of cilantro wrapped in a tortilla fresh from the comal; the taste of tomato juice dripping from the corners of her lips, made her miss her native Olopa, Chiquimula, Guatemala, immensely, as well as her childhood years when the family was together. It is a hot day at the beginning of May, a rare thing, since summer arrives in June with its dog days and heavy rain. The hot weather makes her travel…

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From Dusk ‘Till Dawn 

Translated by Katrina Hassan Francisco is lucky enough to have work from Monday to Sunday, no matter what weather. This is what he tells his mom back in his native Morazán, El Salvador, every time the talk on the phone. The work is hard, but not too different from his farming days back home, where he grew up plowing the earth with a pair of oxen. When his friends told him they had decided to migrate to The North he didn’t even think twice and went too.This was thirty years ago. He left the hills and rivers to go and…

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Early Morning Shift 

Translated by Marvin Najarro She takes the avocado from her lunch box and cuts in half, takes out the bag where she has the toritllas that she had wrapped in aluminum foil, and then removes the lid from the plastic food container where she has fried beans and three boiled eggs. Wrapped in a napkin is a fistful of salt and a jalapeño pepper. She has coffee in the thermos bottle. It is mealtime.  Calandria Guadalupe, began working at age five, making comales from clay in the village of Santa Maria Magdalena Tiltipec, Santos Reyes Nopala, Oaxaca, Mexico, she was the fifth of twelve…

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