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…