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from a small town in Guanajuato, a southern province of Mexico. I won't tell you how that tomato got from his grimy hand to your mouth; this article isn't about processing food. I will tell you how his hand got to that tomato. It's a story of illegal immigration in the 21st century.

They are speaking and thinking in Spanish, so it's the privilege of the narrator to translate these words into English.

The bus is nice. The seats are comfy and there are even televisions. An American film, "Cheaper by the Dozen" dubbed in Spanish, flickers on the screens and the passengers settle in for a long ride. Pablo is uninterested in the movie and gazes out the window. The vivacious green hills slowly fade into a more arid reflection of light rays. The Mexican landscape becomes swallowed by violet shadows and slowly turns to a dreadful black crowned by a fiery strip of sunset. Faraway pockets of resistance flare up in the mountains. They pass different communities full of unfamiliar people living their lives in safe places that light themselves up at night. All the while, Pablo and the others on this bus wander alone through darkness, heading somewhere they don't belong.

Guillermo, Pablo's childhood friend, is sawing logs next to him. Most of the passengers are lost in sleep. Pablo finds himself envious of all these sleepers, as he is a self diagnosed insomniac. The movie ends and an apathetic static conquers the screen. The only sound in the bus now is rubber flying over asphalt.

For a moment, Pablo becomes frightened. The fear causes his inner organs to tighten and grind. As the shuttle takes him light years from his home, he contemplates how real this is. This isn't a joke, how dare anyone have the audacity to try and sneak into THE MOST POWERFUL NATION IN THE UNIVERSE. He thinks about the evil that men are capable of. They really did kill Jesus.

The familiar horror stories of the migrant trail begin seething through his brain like parasitic worms. Fear manifests itself in so many forms in the desert. Forms of notorious serpents, helicopters, stone hearted bandits, and beams of light glinting off the badges of authority.

"Snap out of it," he tells himself. Pablo knows that a negative attitude won't help. Besides, crossing into the north is common- a right of passage in his community. He'll come back as a man, savvy with the ways of the nortenos. It's been accomplished successfully countless times. It all started during the World War II years when the U.S. Government established

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