Donuts and Tortillas

Every Sunday morning on our way to church, we drive by a strip mall--a small shopping plaza of some sort--with a mom-and-pop donut shop on the corner. What caught my eye the first time driving by was the crowd gathered around the shop at 8:45 on a Sunday morning. Taking a more deliberate look, I noticed on that first drive-by that they were all men--perhaps all Mexican--who were most likely looking for contractors pulling in for their morning coffee on their way to a job site.

Since that first drive to church, I would unconciously think to myself, "well, that's one donut shop I'll never visit" In the same vein, I would avoid driving to the nearest Home Depot and instead drive an extra four miles out of my way to shop at another Home Depot. You see, in order to get to the local HD, I'd have to drive through a gauntlet of day laborers - typically men of Mexican descent looking for work or anything that will enable them to earn cash. The one time I had visited this local HD, I was approached by two different men in two different parts of the parking lot. I tried to state politely (but firmly) that I was not interested in hiring them. The second man, however, was annoyingly persistent and insistent and I knew the loaded flat bed by my car was a dead giveaway that I was going to start some time-consuming home improvement project. I didn't feel fearful but I did feel nervous, anxious, and a bit peeved.

All this is to say that since reading the book "The Tortilla Curtain" (TC Boyle), my perspective on migrant workers has widened a bit. The "tortilla curtain" is a reference to the thin border that exists between California and Mexico - a boundary that many Mexicans cross over in the hopes of living a richer better live.

The fictional book is the story of how two very different worlds collide and how the lives of two couples--one from each "world"--change dramatically. Delaney, a writer and magazine columnist, lives in an exclusive community populated with multi-million dollar homes. On his drive home one day, he accidentally hits a man dartng across the winding road. Candido, an illegal Mexican immigrant, is obviously hurt. For different motivating factors, neither Delaney nor Candido report the accident. More out of guilt than anything, Delaney offers Candido $20 which is later referred to as "blood money."

What I found most riviting about the book was the daily struggle of Candido and his young wife (17 year old America) to survive in lower hills of Topanga Canyon (Delaney and his family life at the top of Topanga Canyon which is just north of Malibu). Finding work is impossible for Candido as he can barely walk and fades in and out of consciousness the first few days after the accident. With no food and no money, pregnant America is compelled to find work. Each day, she waits at the labor exchange among the other men to see if work is available for her. She fears for her safety but her fear of starvation outweighs her fear of abuse.

While this is not a new novel (1995) nor does it carry new themes (illegal immigration, American dream, cultural and socio-economic differences), it has provided a wider backdrop on the struggles of immigrants as they try to live the American dream.

Somehow the drive to church today was a little bit different for me.