American Dirt

Sebastián is Lydia’s husband, who is murdered after publishing an exposé on Javier. He is a principled journalist who is deeply devoted to his job. While many of his colleagues stick their heads in the sand when violence escalates in Acapulco, Sebastián bravely continues to research and write about the cartels. He views his profession in an idealistic manner, professing the free press to be the last line of defense against the cartels. Although Sebastián’s commitment to the truth is admirable, in her ungenerous moments, Lydia views her husband’s integrity as both sanctimonious and selfish.

Sebastián is a devoted and protective family man. Aware of the dangers associated with his work, he shows great concern for his family’s safety. Before publishing his exposé on Javier, for example, he asks Lydia if she thinks they should stay at a hotel. It is only Lydia’s insistence that the article “will be better than fine with Javier” (147) that convinces Sebastián not to disappear for a few days, a decision that cost him his life.

Luca is Lydia and Sebastián’s eight-year-old son who flees Acapulco with his mother after the cartel murders his family. He is a wunderkind endowed with superior geography skills. In addition to his innate sense of direction, he can recite facts about any place on earth, a skill uses to entertain tourists in his mother’s shop and to help guide his mother during their journey north. Luca is mature beyond his years. At several points in the book he comforts those around him, including his mother in the immediate aftermath of the massacre and Rebeca and Soledad after they are gang raped. He is principled like his father, urging Lydia to pay the toll to release the sisters from corrupt immigration officials. He is also brave, standing up to an agent who jokes he will keep Soledad when they cross the US-Mexico border. For all his maturity, however, Luca is still a child who seeks comfort in his mother’s arms. He cries often, especially at the beginning of the book, and struggles with guilt every time normalcy seeps back into his life.

Javier, nicknamed The Owl, is the book’s 51-year-old antagonist. He is the charming jefe of Los Jardineros, a new drug cartel operating in Acapulco. Unlike his contemporaries and predecessors, Javier is not flashy or gregarious. Rather, he is thoughtful and erudite, as evidenced by his book selection at Lydia’s shop. Javier is a violent drug lord with a cruel streak who murders a rival’s two-year-old son and paints the man’s face with the child’s blood. With Lydia, however, he shows a different side of his personality. He is a learned, witty, and attentive companion. He also shows his vulnerability by sharing his poetry with Lydia and confessing his dream to be a poet-scholar.  

Although Javier professes to love his wife, he admits to having at least one mistress, while also flirting shamelessly with Lydia. The two grow closer, bonding over the challenges of parenting and losing their fathers to cancer. Their relationship is so intimate that Lydia suspects Javier is in love with her. Javier is a loving father. He speaks of his daughter, Marta, with true affection, referring to her in flowery terms: “Es mi cielo, mi luna, y todas mis estrella’” (My sky, my moon, and all my stars) (30). He insists Marta is the only good thing he has ever done. His love for his daughter runs so deep her suicide sends him into a murderous rage. He blames Sebastián (and by extension Lydia) for exposing his identity to Marta, who hangs herself in her dorm room when she learns the truth about him. Anguish leads Javier to abandon his humanity. He not only kills 16 people, including women and children, but also puts a price on Lydia and Luca’s heads.

Lorenzo is a 17-year-old sicario for Los Jardineros. He fell in with the cartel at a young age after his mother remarried and his stepfather drove him away from home. He is primarily a menacing figure, though not without vulnerability. Lorenzo wants to get out of the cartel and start a new life. His desire runs so deep he is willing to sell out Lydia and Luca. He is a deceptive person. He lies to Lydia repeatedly, claiming he means her and Luca no harm despite having offered them to Javier in return for his freedom. Seven unread text messages from Javier, however, suggest Lorenzo had a change of heart.

Rebeca and Soledad are fourteen and fifteen-year-old Ch’orti sisters from a Honduran village known to locals as the cloud forest. Both girls are beautiful, but Soledad more so than Rebeca. The sisters are close and often communicate without speaking. They cling to each other, having never been away from home before. The nurturing mother-child bond between Lydia and Luca prompts the girls to befriend them in Chapter 14, a relationship that grows increasingly stronger over the course of the novel. The girls are clever and courageous. Instead of avoiding La Bestia like most women and children, they devise a daring way to board the trains by jumping from overpasses near curves in the tracks. They are well-versed in the advantages and disadvantages facing beautiful girls. They rely on their physical appearance and charm to obtain free food from restaurant workers. Unwanted sexual attention, however, keeps them from riding the trains at night.

As the older sibling, Soledad assumes the role of Rebeca’s protector. Her desire to shield her sister from Iván (the man who raped, abused, and impregnated Soledad) spurred her to take her sister away from Honduras. Soledad is wary of strangers, especially of men who offer help. She displays courage when she steps in front of a corrupt immigration agent who reaches for Rebeca. When she learns of their father’s death in Chapter 29, moreover, Soledad vows not to share the news with her sister so as not to burden her before embarking on the arduous trek across the desert. Last, she shoots Lorenzo without hesitation when she and El Chacal catch him assaulting Rebeca in Chapter 35.

Rebeca is meeker than her sister. In contrast to Soledad, who remains defiant after being raped, Rebeca squeezes her eyes shut to block out the pain. Further, she does not scream or fight when Lorenzo attacks her. Rather, she seems resigned to her fate. Despite being more fragile than Soledad, Rebeca is a source of comfort to those around her. She is extremely protective of Luca, consoling him when he is sad and holding him when he is scared. In Chapter 17, she comforts Soledad after they witness a man falling under the wheels of La Bestia. Both sisters are so traumatized by the end of the book, however, that neither adapt particularly well to their new circumstances in the US.

Beto is an outgoing ten-year-old deportee who was born in Tijuana but raised primarily in the US. He is a wily child who received a substantial reward for returning a gun and drugs to a dealer. He displays generosity and a desire to help others numerous times during the novel. For example, he buys food for Lydia, Luca, Soledad, and Rebeca at a birriería in Nogales in Chapter 26. He also gives El Chacal almost 400 dollars to help pay for Lydia and Luca’s passage across the US-Mexico border in Chapter 28. Beto is gregarious to the point of excess, singing, dancing, and speaking loudly at inopportune moments. He feels guilty at the thought of turning 11, the age his brother was when he died. He delights in Luca’s company, one of the few children he’s encountered on his journey. Like Luca, Beto is wise beyond his years. He is also well-informed in matters regarding the border and US immigration policies. Beto suffers from asthma and dies during an attack just hours from their destination.