La Linea

by Ann Jaramillo
Hennepin County Library, paperback, 135 pages

This is a powerful story of Miguel and his sister Elena trying to cross the border from Mexico into the U.S. to join their parents. Everyone involved in the immigration debate should read this! What a powerful book. I hope to have a lot of students read and discuss this book. There is a lot of authenticity in the story and it makes me sad.

 

<Above published  August 18, 2009. Below added November 2, 2026.>

 

I re-read this book because I grabbed a copy from a "discard" shelf. I love the author's notes at the end of the book. I am deeply sad that our country treats immigrants like garbage, ambushing them and sending them away. 

 

I had forgotten how much Spanish she uses! Sometimes I could figure out what was being said, but other times I wish I had used a translation tool and written the English in the margins . . . perhaps I will if I keep this on my shelf.

 

Page 2: In those days, Papá could save a peso here and there. He used the money to buy books. The few he had, he read over and over until he knew long passages by heart.

 

Miguel and his sister Elena are living in Mexico with their grandmother. Their parents have gone North and now have twin daughters, living in California. Miguel has a strong connection with his absent father and almost idolizes him. (I love books and reading, so this memory of Miguel's papa resonates for me.)

 

Page 10-11: My sister was pretty. She really didn't need to show skin for boys to notice her. I could scold her about dishonoring the family, but I wasn't her parent, and she knew it. She wasn't about to let me tell her how she could dress.

 

The sibling relationship was so realistic. They love and hate one another. They're a team and they're two distinct individuals. Miguel knows how dangerous Elena's beauty and innocence can be, but he also knows she won't receive his advice well.

 

Page 20: Abuelita said I didn't pay enough attention. She said my mind was always somewhere else. Anybody could grow a plant or raise an animal! But Abuelita didn't scold. She didn't even seem to blame me. To Abuelita, both my strengths and weaknesses were facts, as true as the rising sun or the drought that the sun caused.

 

This was interesting to me. I believe people can change. But I also love that Abuelita just recognized and accepted that Miguel wasn't a very good farmer. I am definitely more of a critical person that she was!

 

Page 39: His eyes continued to glide over us, checking to see who might resist. Everyone did exactly as he said. No one even complained. He smirked. To him, we were just a bunch of pobres, now under his control. ¡Buey! 

 

This is the "federal" - a Mexican official who knows he has power over these people and exercises it evilly. "Pobres" means poor people. "Buey" means ox. I hate when people bully others just because they can!

 

Page 53: Maybe the rats were a bad omen. I was dead tired, but I needed to stay awake. There was more than one kind of ratero in the world.

 

Miguel saves his sister from being raped, but gives the next round of evil people all the money he has. Imagine an exhausted fifteen-year-old trying to keep him and his sister safe from all the evils in the world. 

 

This book is well-written and heart-breaking. I am even more sad that the United States is no safe haven for people trying to make better lives for themselves and their families.