American Dirt

The migrants resume their trek at two o’clock in the morning. They encounter vigilantes blocking the trail El Chacal normally uses. The coyote instructs the migrants to rest while they wait for the Americans to leave. The sun is up by the time they drive away. The migrants resume their walk at an even faster pace, battling heat and exposure. The coyote takes them over a steep hill. When they reach the top, they see nothing but more hills in the distance. Covered in sweat, Luca sheds his coat and reaches for his father’s red cap, but El Chacal tells him the color is too conspicuous. Lydia gives him her hat and puts a white shirt on Beto’s head. 

The migrants press forward, no longer under any illusions about the hardships that lie ahead. Beto’s asthma acts up. Lydia tells Luca she is proud of him. The group walks in silence until they reach a water station created by aid workers. The migrants drink and refill their jugs. They continue their trek into a valley until El Chacal catches sight of a US Border Patrol truck. He orders the group to hide. After a tense few minutes, the truck disappears and the migrants continue their long walk north. They stop to rest at a camp, where Choncho watches over Lydia and Luca as they sleep. 

El Chacal warns the migrants to prepare for a particularly difficult leg of the trek. Those who cannot keep up are told to head west to Ruby Road, where they will be picked up by US Border Patrol or locals. The group hikes three miles over rough terrain. For the first time since leaving Acapulco, Lydia thinks she and Luca might survive. Hope dissipates as the cold sets in. El Chacal pushes them to move even faster. He knows that by the end of the night, they will only be a few miles from safety, but he doesn’t share this information in case one of the migrants falls into the hands of Border Patrol.

A violent rainstorm erupts. Luca tells Lydia he has a blister. The others continue while she puts a band-aid on his foot and changes his wet socks. By the time she finishes, the group is out of sight. Battling darkness and rain, Lydia and Luca struggle to catch up. As panic sets in, she breaks one of El Chacal’s rules and calls out her companions’ names. Luca assures her they are going in the right direction. Lydia doesn’t want to know if Soledad and Rebeca noticed they were gone when they rejoin the group. She doesn’t care if they asked El Chacal to stop and wait.

The migrants are left wet and cold when the rain stops. Their sodden backpacks and clothing chafe their skin. Choncho tries to lift the group’s spirits, reminding them that only migrants go out in the rain, not vigilantes and Border Patrol agents. The migrants duck at an unfamiliar sound coming behind. Fast-moving water rushes toward them. El Chacal orders them to get to higher ground. They clamber on top of rocks, the strong helping the weak, but Ricardín is knocked down and swept away. El Chacal, Slim, and Choncho scramble to save him as water fills his lungs. He breaks a leg when it gets wedged inside a crevasse. The others reach him, but Ricardín feels no relief, knowing he will not be able to complete the trek. Choncho volunteers to stay back and take Ricardín to Ruby Road after giving the others a head start. El Chacal tells them to keep the rising sun on their backs when they make the mile-long walk to safety. The group begins their journey anew. Luca prays Ricardín and Choncho will make it to Ruby Road.

El Chacal leads the migrants to a cave to rest away from the sun’s hot rays. After abandoning Ricardín, the migrants are painfully aware of how far they will go to reach their destination. The women and children dry off and change, followed by the men. Temperatures soon rise. Luca wants to ask his mother what they’re going to do when they reach Colorado, but instead, he inquires about Rebeca, Soledad, and Beto, asking if they can all live together. He doesn’t ask the hard question about Ricardín and Choncho making it to Ruby Road alive.

El Chacal instructs the migrants to conserve their dwindling water supplies. Everyone rests in the cave except Rebeca, who searches for a place to urinate. Lorenzo wakes and follows her out. He lowers his boxers, revealing his erection. Rebeca tries to walk away, but Lorenzo is too quick. She struggles as he pins her against a rock. She wants to scream, but she fears being discovered by immigration agents. She is resigned to being raped again when El Chacal pulls Lorenzo away, threatening him with his pistol. Soledad reaches for the weapon. The coyote releases it thinking she is deescalating the situation. Instead, she points the gun at her sister’s would-be rapist. 

El Chacal takes the gun from Soledad after she pulls the trigger. He asks for Lorenzo’s forgiveness, knowing he could have prevented his death. He urges the others to break camp quickly in case anyone heard the gunshot. Marisol cares for Beto, who is having problems breathing. She and Nicolás then help the sisters pack their belongings.

Lorenzo’s death weighs on the group, but Lydia is grateful he is dead. The action rises when she tells El Chacal she needs to see the body. The coyote hands her Lorenzo’s wallet to leave with the corpse, hoping it will help someone identify the remains. Lydia feels nothing as she stands over the dead sicario. She prays, not for his soul, but for herself. She remembers her family in an emotional flashback. Her grief comes to the surface, but she suppresses it once again. As she gazes at the body, she finally accepts what has happened to her and lets go of her old life.

Lydia checks Lorenzo’s phone and sees seven unread messages from Javier. She is startled to learn that Lorenzo gave her and Luca up in exchange for his freedom from the cartel. Incensed, she makes a videocall to Javier. The jefe is shocked to see her. Lydia realizes that the love she had for him has turned into hatred. Javier swears his intention was never to kill or harm Lydia. She claims he tortured her by destroying her world, when all he lost was his daughter. She swears she will survive for the sake of Luca. She informs him his sicario is dead, hangs up, and rejoins the group.

El Chacal assures the migrants they are nearing their destination as the heat beats down on them. He regrets making the crossing with women and children before reminding himself that they survived the trek so far. He back peddles when Beto suffers another asthma attack. Marisol tries to help, but Beto collapses and passes out. She and Nicolás perform CPR, to no avail. El Chacal pulls the distressed migrants away from Beto’s body and promises to come back to retrieve it. The group resumes their march until they reach their designated campsite two and a half hours early. El Chacal’s contacts are not ready for them. The nearby US Border Patrol checkpoint is still open. Left with no other choice, the migrants make themselves comfortable and wait.

The group moves when the checkpoint closes. Luca hugs El Chacal and tells him he is a good man. The migrants hide in hollow compartments in two RVs, which take them to Tucson. The drive is slow and bumpy. The lead driver, a white man wearing a cowboy hat, encounters Border Patrol agents on the road, but they recognize him and wave him along. Luca knows he is minutes away from starting a new life. Lydia squeezes him tightly as the RVs sail through the closed checkpoint. She imagines the dazzling colors of the desert and the landscape stretching out to greet them.

53 days after the massacre, Lydia has a job cleaning houses in Maryland, while Luca is enrolled in a local school. They share a house with Soledad, Rebeca, César, his girlfriend, and the girlfriend’s aunt. Lydia’s grasp of English is helpful, but she often finds herself at a loss culturally. Bookstores are her refuge, as is the local library. After several visits, a librarian invites her and Luca to apply for cards. Rebeca occasionally joins them, but not Soledad. The sisters do not fit in with the other children at school. The violence and trauma they experienced separates them from their peers.

Lydia’s old life feels distant. She occasionally thinks of Javier and wonders if he regrets what he did to her family. Loss gave Javier a reason to stop feeling. By contrast, it amplified Lydia’s love. Luca’s principal speaks to Lydia about his aptitude for geography. She suggests enrolling him in a geography bee, until she realizes he is undocumented. The former migrants bury 18 painted stones in the back garden, one for every person they lost. Luca visits Sebastián’s every day and speaks to his father about his new life. The girls occasionally visit Elmer’s stone. Luca sleeps with the lights on and often dreams of his father. Suffering from insomnia, Lydia wishes Sebastián would slip out of Luca’s dreams and into her own. She rereads Love in the Time of Cholera in Spanish and English, a book no-one can take away from her.