PORTIONS OF THIS BOOK originally appeared in The Commercial Appeal under the headlines “Investing in Isaias” and “Kingsbury Student Leader Took Harrowing Path to Memphis,” both published online December 19, 2013. A condensed version of the Isaias story appeared in print December 22, 2013.
Several works influenced the structure and style of this book. Among them were A Hope in the Unseen: An American Odyssey from the Inner City to the Ivy League by Ron Suskind (New York: Broadway Books, 1998) and Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream by H. G. Bissinger (Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 1990), both of which tell true stories about high school and the transition to adulthood. I read and re-read the book Children of Immigration by Carola Suárez-Orozco and Marcelo M. Suárez-Orozco (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001), the best academic work I’ve found on this subject. And obviously, I borrowed the title of my book from the Bible. At an Education Writers Association conference, I heard a talk by University of Pennsylvania professor Shaun R. Harper, who called on us in the news media to stop portraying failures among black and Hispanic boys and instead to highlight those who succeed. This led to my decision to focus my research on high-achieving students.
I know that some people find the terms “illegal immigrant” and “illegal alien” offensive, and I’ve tried to limit their use in this book. Those and similar terms were at one time in mainstream use in newspapers and they appear in some of the headlines that I cite below.
Prologue: Gold in a Green Town
1. The statistics on Mexican immigration compared to previous immigration waves come from Jeffrey Passel, D’Vera Cohn and Ana Gonzalez-Barrera, Net Migration from Mexico Falls to Zero—and Perhaps Less (Washington, DC: Pew Hispanic Center, April 23, 2012), p. 7. http://www.pewhispanic.org/2012/04/23/net-migration-from-mexico-falls-to-zero-and-perhaps-less/
2. Hasia R. Diner, The Jews of the United States, 1654 to 2000 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004), pp. 79 and 88. Diner notes that the nineteenth-century immigrants dubbed “German Jews” came either from countries that incorporated into unified Germany in 1871 or that, like Austria and Hungary, had an urban elite deeply influenced by German culture.
3. Mark Hugo Lopez, Jeffrey Passel and Molly Rohal, Modern Immigration Wave Brings 59 Million to U.S., Driving Population Growth and Change through 2065 (Washington, DC: Pew Hispanic Center, September 28, 2015), p. 11. http://www.pewhispanic.org/2015/09/28/modern-immigration-wave-brings-59-million-to-u-s-driving-population-growth-and-change-through-2065/
4. The statistic on Hispanic births in the Memphis area comes from the Tennessee Department of Health, via the Shelby County Health Department. A total of 1,761 Hispanic babies were born in 2007 in Shelby County, which includes Memphis. Per the National Center for Education Statistics, the average U.S. elementary school has 481 students; thus this number of children would fill more than three elementary schools.
5. The proportion of Hispanic youth in America comes from Jeffery S. Passel, D’Vera Cohn and Mark Hugo Lopez, Census 2010: 50 Million Latinos: Hispanics Account for More than Half of Nation’s Growth in Past Decade (Washington, DC: Pew Hispanic Center, March 24, 2011), table 7, http://www.pewhispanic.org/2011/03/24/hispanics-account-for-more-than-half-of-nations-growth-in-past-decade/. The proportion of children of immigrants comes from my correspondence with the Pew Hispanic Center and is based on the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2014 Current Population Survey.
6. Anna Brown and Eileen Patten, Statistical Portrait of Hispanics in the United States, 2012 (Washington, DC: Pew Hispanic Center, April 29, 2014), table 22. http://www.pewhispanic.org/2014/04/29/statistical-portrait-of-hispanics-in-the-united-states-2012/
7. Passel, Cohn and Gonzalez-Barrera, Net Migration from Mexico Falls to Zero—and Perhaps Less, p. 7.
8. The description of periodic torture at the tree in Santa Maria Asunción comes from my interviews in June and July 2013 with several residents of the village, including Maria Ines Castro Vargas, 36; Margarita Tellez Vargas, 68, nicknamed Señora Mago; her sister Herminia Herlinda Tellez Vargas, 67; Demetrio Vargas, 48; Blanquita Martinez Garcia, 57; and her daughter, Blanca Vargas Martinez, 22, nicknamed Blankita Chica. The August 2013 incident was documented in the local news. See, for example, Felipe Vega and Juan Manuel Aguirre, “Evitan linchamiento contra supuestos extorsionadores,” El Sol de Hidalgo, August 10, 2013. http://www.oem.com.mx/elsoldehidalgo/notas/n3083671.htm (accessed August 2013).
9. This quote comes from Ponchito’s mother, Esther Silva Hernandez.
10. Isaias described listening to the radio in the sewing shop in a college essay during his senior year.
11. This account is based on Ponchito’s recollection. Isaias said he doesn’t remember the conversation.
12. The account of bringing no clothes other than what they wore comes from Mario and Cristina. Dennis says he believes family members must have had a few extra clothes, but not a lot.
13. The National Centers for Environmental Information said the average daily high in March 2003 in the southern Arizona city of Tucson was 73 and the average low was 47.
14. Luke Turf, “Finding Rafa,” Tucson Citizen, December 18–19, 2003.
15. The National Centers for Environmental Information confirmed that snow fell in Denver on several days in March 2003.
16. The discussion of the wage difference between Mexico and the United States draws on my 2015 interview with economist Jaime Ros as well as my article with Jacquelyn Martin, “Seeking a Better Life: Thousands Leave Acambay, Mexico, for Birmingham Area,” Birmingham Post-Herald, July 26, 2004.
17. This section draws on sociologist Douglas S. Massey’s work, primarily on his book co-authored by Jorge Durand and Nolan J. Malone, Beyond Smoke and Mirrors: Mexican Immigration in an Era of Economic Integration (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2002). See also the article “Why Border Enforcement Backfired” by Douglas Massey with Jorge Durand and Karen A. Pren. At the time of writing the article was forthcoming in the American Journal of Sociology 121, no. 5 (March 2016): 1–44. Massey also answered some of my questions by e-mail.
18. Señora Mago’s sister, Herminia Herlinda Tellez Vargas, confirmed many of the details of Mario’s childhood and said that neglect by Mario’s mother may have contributed to the deaths of the other children. Mario’s mother can’t give her side of the story since she is deceased.
19. Facts and figures on the Mexican-born population in the United States come from the report by Passel, Cohn and Gonzalez-Barrera, Net Migration from Mexico Falls to Zero—and Perhaps Less.
20. The 2012 Passel, Cohn and Gonzalez-Barrera report says that, beginning in 2003, the number of unauthorized Mexican immigrants was 5.5 million and the number of legal Mexican immigrants was 5.2 million. That trend of unauthorized Mexican immigrants outnumbering legal Mexican immigrants was true as late as 2011: 6.1 million unauthorized, 5.8 million legal immigrants.
21. The section on conditions in the Memphis construction industry draws on my article “Construction Takeover; Hard Work, Unlawful Tactics Help Some Hispanic Builders Conquer Industry,” The Commercial Appeal, January 2, 2008.
22. The section on Memphis history draws on my interviews with G. Wayne Dowdy as well as his book A Brief History of Memphis (Charleston, SC: History Press, 2011). The section on former Mayor Willie Herenton draws from Marc Perrusquia’s series “Always a Fighter,” The Commercial Appeal, published over multiple days beginning January 4, 2009. Perrusquia notes that, technically, Herenton was not the first black mayor of Memphis. J. O. Patterson, Jr., a former City Council chairman, had served briefly in 1982 after another mayor resigned. Herenton was the first elected black mayor.
23. The discussion of Memphis city resources dedicated to Hispanics draws on my articles in The Commercial Appeal, “The Parallel Universe,” September 23, 2007, and “Hispanic Population Outpaces Help,” February 9, 2015.
24. This is a variation on a popular saying: “Cruz, cruz, que se vaya el diablo y que venga Jesús.” Cross, cross, go away devil and come here Jesus. Cristina provided the account of throwing the holy water. Isaias said he doesn’t remember it.