The Far Away Brothers: Two Young Migrants and the Making of an American Life

It is February 19, 2014, and the Flores twins are in the back of their brother Wilber’s car in downtown San Francisco, frantically searching for the courthouse. Their appointment is at 10 o’clock in the morning. They left with enough time to arrive early, but the city is a maze and the street names look alike. If they miss the appointment, the judge will order 17-year-old Ernesto and Raúl Flores deported in absentia. Once apprehended, they will be returned to El Salvador, where gangs will likely murder them. Their brother Wilber Jr., at 24, is their guardian in the United States. He has been living undocumented in California for seven years, but the country is still foreign to him. They traverse downtown San Francisco for hours, both afraid and unable to request help, until it is inevitable that they will miss their appointment. The twins realize, “They’ll miss their appointment, they’ll be sent home, they’ll wind up dead, and what would have been the point of any of it—the journey, the debt, all this wandering?” (5).

The Salvadoran Civil War lasted from October 1979 to January 1992. The United Nations reports 75,000 deaths from the war, but an unknown number of Salvadorans disappeared during the war. Remains from the war continue to be unearthed, but they are now intermingled with the remains of victims of the modern Salvadoran gang war.

Raúl and Ernesto Flores are twins from La Colonia, a small and poor farming town in southern El Salvador. When they were children, the town center was beautiful, “frequented day and night” (11), but that has changed since the rise in gang violence. The Flores family are farmers. Their father, Wilber Sr., is a deeply religious man who acquired two parcels of farming land and believes a virtuous life is one of modesty and hard work. He and his wife, Esperanza, have a big family: sons Ricardo and Wilber Jr., daughter Maricela, the twins Ernesto and Raúl, and several younger siblings. Raúl and Ernesto have been inseparable since birth. They spend their mornings in the fields, their afternoons in school, and their evenings tending to livestock. At school, the twins are frequently picked on for their closeness and their family’s low income—even by their own cousins. Their aunt marries Don Agustín, a wealthy and powerful man from a neighboring town who is protected by gangs.

The first and most infamous Salvadoran gang, MS-13, formed in the United States among undocumented youth who fled the Salvadoran Civil War. Gang members were incarcerated and deported to El Salvador, where gang culture flourished. Most Salvadoran gang members are young, poor men who perform low-level drug deals and extortion. Gangs first proliferated in cities but eventually made their way to small towns like La Colonia. Gang graffiti and other signs of gang activity eventually appear in the once vibrant small town. The twins’ classmates begin showing gang signs and making their affiliations public. The twins resist the pull of gangs: “Their father reminded them, as they shoveled and pulled from the ground, that work would keep their hands clean” (20).

When the twins are 10, Wilber Sr. pays $6,000 for a coyote to guide Wilber Jr. through Mexico and into the United States. He is 17, a prime age for gang recruitment, and another mouth for the poor family to feed. This is a common trek for Salvadorans; they call it “going north.” Wilber Jr. makes it to the United States and becomes “a hermano lejano, a faraway brother—a Salvadoran who had left the country and—most often—crossed into the United States” (21).

Miguel moves to La Colonia when the twins are in seventh grade. The twins befriend Miguel even though his father is in a gang. Ernesto and Raúl learn that though he is in a gang, Miguel’s father is still poor, resorting to stealing corn from the Flores farm to survive. They also learn that their Uncle Don Agustín and cousins are in the MS-13 gang inner circle. As gang violence increases, a war emerges “between the government and the gangs, and between the gangs and each other” (26). The town grows quiet and those who can send their children north.

During the Salvadoran Civil War, 7% of El Salvador’s population emigrated to the United States. By 2008, 18% of El Salvador’s population lives in the United States. Homicides reach an all-time high in 2011, when 4,354 people were murdered. That autumn, the number of unaccompanied minors emigrating to the United States from El Salvador surges. As adult illegal border crossings decline, those of unaccompanied minors skyrocket.

In 2011 “things started to go bad for the Flores boys” (34). At 13 years old, because they are bullied, the twins stop dressing alike. Ernesto begins to form his own identity as a bold, outgoing, risk-taker, while Raúl remains shy and timid. A local gang attempts to recruit Ernesto, but he resists. Maricela is now 18 and has been spending time with Sebastian, a local gang member and Ricardo’s friend. Uncle Agustín “figured out how to make the gang wars, and the new exodus, work for him” (36): He begins lending money at high interest rates and using the capital to found a coyote ring.

The Flores twins’ cousins (Agustín’s children), Juan and Javier. begin spending more time with the MS-13 gang, as do many of the twins’ other friends. The Flores family frequently heard from Wilber Jr. when he first arrived in the United States, but since his debt has been repaid, he rarely contacts them. After a bad harvest, the family becomes food insecure. Maricela spends more and more time with Sebastian. She becomes pregnant, but “[b]y the time she found out she was pregnant, he’d lost interest not only in sleeping with her but even in talking to her” (38). On the day Maricela gives birth to her daughter Guadalupe, or Lupita, Sebastian leaves El Salvador for the United States.

Ernesto contemplates going north. His cousins are now full members of MS-13, along with several other members of his group, and they continue pestering him to join. Markham explains, “The North offered everything he wanted—success, belonging, respect, something better. He didn’t want to leave […] but at the same time he wanted to go” (40). Wilber Sr. knows the family needs more money than the crops will bring in to survive, and Ernesto is another mouth to feed, so he grants Ernesto permission to leave. Ernesto reasons, “It wasn’t just his future he was concerned about […] but that of the whole family. He didn’t tell him that, by leaving, he was also hoping to avoid the gangs’ widening net” (41).

They first approach Uncle Agustín for the $7,000 loan to pay the coyote, but he refuses. They receive a loan with 20% interest and hire a coyote. Wilber Sr. uses the family’s land as collateral for the loan. They arrange for Ernesto to leave in two weeks.

Ernesto is one week from leaving when the family hears someone felled Agustín’s large tree and ruined his coffee crop. Agustín believes Ernesto chopped the tree down and that he has been “bad-mouthing” Agustín. Markham explains, “This kind of bad-mouthing was treated as treason in the gang world. Agustín had always looked down on the twins’ family, and now he had reasons—the tree, the twins’ alleged shit talking—to seek revenge” (43). The night before Ernesto is to go north, the coyote learns that Agustín has men looking for Ernesto. Leaving now would be dangerous, so they delay and Ernesto hides. Over a week later, in the middle of the night and without saying goodbye to Raúl, the coyote sneaks Ernesto out of town.

There are several small cities, such as Reynosa, on the border between the United States and Mexico. They are “last stops and transit zones, places of free trade, the mutual territory of the businessman, the migrant, the coyote, and the narco” (46). Coyotes move people and drugs across the border in tandem. The drug cartels have turned these border towns into lawless battlegrounds, leading to a spike in violent and nonviolent crime. Drug cartels target migrants, who are desperately traversing hundreds of miles with lots of money on hand, and force many to become drug mules. Markham comments, “They flee the violence of the Northern Triangle only to pass through another unconventional war zone” (47).

Ernesto escapes La Colonia without incident. Raúl awakes to find his brother gone. Suddenly though, Raúl is afraid for his own safety—what “if Agustín thought Ernesto was still around and was still looking for him, was Raúl at risk? Anyone could mistake Raúl for his twin and think he’d found his mark” (51). Agustín could also release his frustrations on Raúl once he realizes Ernesto is gone. Raúl hides at home, where he begins to miss Ernesto and worry for him. Markham observes, “As the idle days stretched on, paranoia settled in like a hook” (53).

Ernesto and his coyote, Sandra, travel via automobile and bus to her home in Mexico, hiding and disguising themselves when necessary. The trip is uneventful for a human smuggling operation, and once at Sandra’s home Ernesto relaxes with her family.

Agustín discovers Ernesto has gone north and is furious. He believes this confirms Ernesto’s guilt in chopping down his tree and besmirching him. Wilber Sr. suggests to Raúl that he also go north, but “Raúl still didn’t want to leave home for the uncertain, unfamiliar, and to his mind, spiritually empty terrain up north” (58). After contemplation, Raúl agrees with his father that going north is best for him and the family. Sandra returns to San Salvador from Mexico to guide Raúl to Mexico, where he would meet Ernesto and travel to the United States together. The Flores family borrows another $7,000 at 20% interest for Raúl’s trip. Their debt is now $14,000 with interest compounding weekly.

Ernesto speaks to Raúl prior to his departure. Markham explains, “The guilt of the situation agitated him: What if Agustín thinks I’m you?” (61). He is also excited to see his brother. Raúl and Sandra encounter a roadblock on the route from San Salvador to the Guatemalan border. Ten uniformed men with machine guns order them out of the car, claiming they are antinarcotic officers. One holds a Flores family photo to Raúl’s face and confirms his identity. Raúl realizes, “They weren’t police at all but Agustín’s henchmen. Or maybe they were both?” (63). They throw Raúl to the ground, order him to strip, and handcuff him with his own shoelaces while they lead Sandra into the darkness.

Raúl hears Sandra’s screams crescendo, “along with shouting and grunting” (63). The men steal most of their money and leave them. They spend the night in the forest, then navigate north on buses. Raúl arrives at Sandra’s house dirty and shaking. Ernesto embraces Raúl and sobs: “Raúl just stood there, emoting not at all” (65). Markham explains, “Ernesto was silent for a while. It was his fault: he was the one Agustín wanted. […] He’d always taken care of his brother […] and now he’d failed” (65). They collect themselves for a few days at Sandra’s home, then leave for the Mexican border town Reynosa.

Ernesto and Raúl must cross the border without Sandra. She gives them her number and waits to hear that they’ve crossed successfully, then returns home. The twins wait for several days at a safe house with coyotes and others crossing the border. One night while Raúl is showering, a coyote asks Ernesto to help him with something out back. When Raúl returns from his shower, Ernesto is gone. He returns ash white. He says nothing but lies on his mattress in the fetal position and pulls a sheet over his head. The next night the twins cross the Rio Grande, which comprises the United States and Mexico border, by raft.