The Barbarian Nurseries (Google Books ⧉, Amazon ⧉, Bookshop ⧉)

by Héctor Tobar

Contributed by NobleBibliophile506

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References To Other Books

Direct References

Fourth of July

BOOK TWO: Fourth of July 10 11 12 13 14 15

The Succulent Garden

BOOK ONE: The Succulent Garden 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Circus Californianus

BOOK THREE: Circus Californianus 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26

White Noise

The American mystery deepens. —Don DeLillo, White Noise

María’s Choice

a few days before this party she had spent twenty minutes in her neighborhood bookstore perusing the back cover, jacket flap material, and opening paragraphs of a book called María’s Choice, which related the journey of a Guatemalan woman forced to leave her children behind for years while she worked in California: How terrible, Carla Wallace-Zuberi thought, how disconcerting to know that there are people like this living among us.

Hamlet

The Big Man remembered one of his favorite lines from Hamlet: “… ‘tis an unweeded garden that grows to seed, and things rank and gross in nature possess it merely.”

The Tempest

We saw a Tempest in the redwoods in Santa Cruz. That was memorable.

Airplanes

She gathered plastic board-game pieces in her palm, a foam ball, and a book entitled Airplanes, and proceeded to the boys’ room.

The Wonders of the Desert Garden

Wandering deeper into the stacks, she came upon a book titled The Wonders of the Desert Garden. Its cacti and assorted succulents caught her interest, as did a chapter called “Southern California: the Sonoran Possibilities” that carried several photographs of the agave, aloe, and the Golden Barrel cacti in the Huntington Gardens in San Marino.

Artemis Fowl

“You know,” Brandon insisted. “Like in Artemis Fowl.”

American Revolution

At the other end of the play structure, Brandon was sitting on a step, reading a book. “What are you reading?” Araceli asked him. “El revolución,” Brandon answered, holding up the book to show her the title, American Revolution. “La revolución,” Araceli corrected.

Los secretos del cartel del Golfo

Even on the bookshelf, the gravitas of Elena Poniatowska and José Emilio Pacheco were pushing up against the pulp crime of Los secretos del cartel del Golfo and The True Story of Los Zetas, announcing to Araceli her arrival at the home of a workingman grappling for ideas, arguments, and facts to understand his world.

The True Story of Los Zetas

Even on the bookshelf, the gravitas of Elena Poniatowska and José Emilio Pacheco were pushing up against the pulp crime of Los secretos del cartel del Golfo and The True Story of Los Zetas, announcing to Araceli her arrival at the home of a workingman grappling for ideas, arguments, and facts to understand his world.

Lord of the Flies

“They’re chopping down the garden!” Brandon said as he came running into the living room, drawn by the sounds. “Keenan, look! They’re chopping it down! The bamboo! Look!” Brandon watched them work and remembered the British children in Lord of the Flies, on a tropical island armed with spears and a knife, behaving like savages—and he thought he’d like to pick up a blade and join them.

Native Son

“You know, Bigger, I’ve long wanted to go into these houses … and just see how your people live.” —Richard Wright, Native Son

American Revolution

It was a musket like the ones in his book American Revolution and Araceli drew it from memory, though she gave her soldier a modern uniform, with a row of medals and a steel helmet.

The Saga of the Fire-Swallowers

A month earlier Brandon had finished the last volume in a four-book series of novels, The Saga of the Fire-Swallowers, and as he sat in the train with his nose pressed to the glass, the violent and disturbing denouement of that epic narrative seemed the only plausible explanation for the existence of this village of suffering passing below him.

Revenge of the Riverwalkers

“I read about it in Revenge of the Riverwalkers. The Fire-Swallowers burned down their village, Vardur, because they wouldn’t swear loyalty to the evil king.”

Eyewitness: World War II

Brandon had also read about the historical war that took place in the background of the seven-volume fantasy saga, in a big picture book called Eyewitness: World War II, and he wove a few events from that conflict into the story that he told Tomás and Héctor, who were shocked to hear that German planes had bombed British cities and transformed entire neighborhoods into flaming rubble.

Eyewitness: Civil War

In the prologue to Eyewitness: Civil War there were photographs of chains that wrapped around the necks and ankles of slaves, and etchings that showed slaves being whipped, and these images gave greater weight to the tales of slavery in Revenge of the Riverwalkers and other works of fiction he’d read.

Revenge of the Riverwalkers

and these images gave greater weight to the tales of slavery in Revenge of the Riverwalkers and other works of fiction he’d read.

Don Quixote

with an oil painting of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza on one wall. The Knight-Errant of La Mancha stood for the idea that the Lujáns were descended from a place of nobility and history, where men stood tall on horses and looked proudly over the dry, yellow hills of their patrimony.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Nor did it match with her puckish party outfit, a billowing spinach-green dress with forest-green leggings and elfin slippers, all of which suggested an actress fresh off the set of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Blade Runner

He was a native of the Orange County suburb of Fullerton who liked to tell people that his otherwise plain and unassuming hometown had once been home to the science fiction writer Philip K. Dick. 'You know, Blade Runner?

Huckleberry Finn

I would take up wickedness again … And for a starter I would go to work and steal Jim out of slavery again … —Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn

Revenge of the Riverwalkers

“The Fire-Swallowers?” Olivia Garza asked. “Yeah, those are the people who came and destroyed the village of Vardur at the end of Revenge of the Riverwalkers.” “It’s one of his books that he reads,” Keenan said.

Ladybug Girl

Scott looked at Brandon rolling his eyes because Ladybug Girl was not exactly his idea of compelling literature.

The Catcher in the Rye

Maureen took the copy of The Catcher in the Rye, a book she had never read, though she knew the name of its protagonist. The social worker’s thick index finger had been resting on a page where Holden Caulfield was using the cool slang of the middle of the last century, smoking cigarettes and preparing to talk to a prostitute: “She was sort of a blonde, but you could tell she dyed her hair. She wasn’t any old bag, though.”

Hamlet

Five of them were gathered in a semicircle, talking to one another and contemplating the black slabs they held in their raised palms, as Hamlet had the skull of his poor friend Yorick, summoning news of a tragedy with their thumbs.

Eragon

…and for the next hour he didn’t think about any of the books he was reading, about Holden Caulfield or the dragon in Eragon, and instead he secretly wished they would move to this house so that he might see that girl again.

The Tattooed Soldier

Also by HĂŠctor Tobar FICTION The Tattooed Soldier NONFICTION

Translation Nation

NONFICTION Translation Nation

Translation Nation

He is the author of Translation Nation and The Tattooed Soldier.

The Tattooed Soldier

He is the author of Translation Nation and The Tattooed Soldier.

Indirect References

Bible-sized tome

Having grown bored, finally, with the pleasures of computer‐generated fantasy, the boys were both reading, Brandon immersed in a Bible‐sized tome, Keenan with a book of brightly colored cartoons depicting the adventures of a journalist mouse, the text rendered in a crazy pasticcio of changing fonts.

book of brightly colored cartoons depicting the adventures of a journalist mouse

Having grown bored, finally, with the pleasures of computer‐generated fantasy, the boys were both reading, Brandon immersed in a Bible‐sized tome, Keenan with a book of brightly colored cartoons depicting the adventures of a journalist mouse, the text rendered in a crazy pasticcio of changing fonts.

Referenced By

No books reference this book

Places Referenced

Mexico City, Mexico
"Her fingertips transported her, fleetingly, to Mexico City, where these porcelain squares would be weather-beaten and cracked, decorating gazebos and doorways."
South Whittier, California, United States
"When Scott Torres was a kid living in South Whittier he cut the lawn himself, and as he pushed the machine over the slope of his bloated home in the Laguna Rancho Estates, he tried to draw on those lessons his father had passed down two decades earlier, on a cul-de-sac called Safari Drive."
Missouri, United States
"she had spent her teens and her twenties shedding herself of certain memories forged in a very ordinary Missouri street lined with shady sugar maple trees, where the leaves turned in October and it snowed a few days every winter."
Maine, United States
"his mother was a square-jawed rebel from Maine, a place where good discipline in the use of funds was standard Protestant practice."
California, United States
"But every now and then she wanted to share the pleasures of this solitude with someone and step outside her silent California existence, into one of her alternate daydream lives:"
Provence, France
"the wrought-iron wall grilles shipped in from Provence"
Czech Republic
"a handcrafted crib from the Czech Republic."
Oaxaca, Mexico
"Araceli believed that if you had transplanted this woman to Oaxaca she would have made very fine pottery, or papel picado, or been an excellent stage manager for a theater group wandering through the suburbs of El Distrito Federal."
Mexico City, Mexico
"In El Distrito Federal, these clothes would cost a fortune; if you could find them at all it would be in the marble-floored malls in the affluent satellite fringes where there was valet parking at the front doors and perfume piped into the air ducts."
Kyoto, Japan
"He considered them for a moment, two boys transported by semiconductors into a series of challenges designed by programmers in a Kyoto high-rise."
Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico
"her husband had left a trail of cut grass on the Saltillo tiles in the living room."
New Mexico, United States
"the oversized volumes stacked unevenly in pine bookcases purchased in New Mexico, the plastic buckets filled with blocks and miniature cars."
Oaxaca, Mexico
"she left a stack of sopes waiting to be garnished with Oaxaca cheese in the kitchen"
Mexico City, Mexico
"Araceli wore the boxy, nurselike uniform called a filipina that was standard for domestics in Mexico City."
Ashland, Oregon, United States
"We’ll do Ashland this month"
Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, United Kingdom
"maybe Stratford next year, right, hon?"
Tennessee, United States
"Remember that letter from that stockholder in Tennessee?"
Missouri, United States
"the river town of her Missouri youth"
Sierra Leone, West Africa
"“Are they reading yet in Sierra Leone?” the Big Man called out"
Barcelona, Spain
"Araceli would like to visit Barcelona and the Gaudí towers, and if she had a passport with the stamps and stickers that would allow her to come and go from the United States, she would take the several thousand dollars she had saved and buy an Iberia ticket and be out the door with not more than a week’s notice."
La Rambla, Barcelona, Spain
"That is why he is less forgiving, why he is less willing to bury what I said on La Rambla."
Condesa, Mexico City, Mexico
"…transformed her into the Araceli who once haunted galleries and clubs in Condesa, Roma, and other Mexico City neighborhoods."
Roma, Mexico City, Mexico
"…transformed her into the Araceli who once haunted galleries and clubs in Condesa, Roma, and other Mexico City neighborhoods."
Polanco, Mexico City, Mexico
"All had been scattered to the winds of employment and migration, to jobs in restaurants in the Polanco district of Mexico City, and to American cities and towns with exotic names she had collected on a handful of envelopes and postcards: Durham, nc; Indianapolis, in; Gettysburg, pa."
Mexico City, Mexico
"…each time Araceli heard these feminine voices she remembered the room in Mexico City she’d shared with her older sister"
California, United States
"…finding this relic of a Mexican family history in the home of a wealthy California family."
The Strand, California, United States
"Araceli noticed a note in Maureen’s handwriting on the tile counter of the kitchen’s center island: 'We went to The Strand for breakfast. Be back around noon. Sorry about the house. Ah, the warring couple made up this morning. Qué bueno."
Durham, North Carolina, United States
"…to American cities and towns with exotic names she had collected on a handful of envelopes and postcards: Durham, nc; Indianapolis, in; Gettysburg, pa."
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, United States
"…to American cities and towns with exotic names she had collected on a handful of envelopes and postcards: Durham, nc; Indianapolis, in; Gettysburg, pa."
United States
"…if she had a passport with the stamps and stickers that would allow her to come and go from the United States"
Newport Beach, California, United States
"Through the smoky glass of the sport-utility vehicle, Araceli watched freeway destination signs pass overhead. SAN DIEGO. LOS ANGELES. NEWPORT BEACH."
San Diego, California
"Through the smoky glass of the sport-utility vehicle, Araceli watched freeway destination signs pass overhead. SAN DIEGO. LOS ANGELES. NEWPORT BEACH."
Pasadena, California
"the coffee table handmade by a Pasadena artist from distressed Mexican pine"
Santa Ana, California
"MindWare’s own, commissioned headquarters, an architectural gem in downtown Santa Ana that now belonged to the county’s largest real estate brokerage"
Indianapolis, Indiana
"…to American cities and towns with exotic names she had collected on a handful of envelopes and postcards: Durham, nc; Indianapolis, in; Gettysburg, pa."
Santa Cruz, California
"We saw a Tempest in the redwoods in Santa Cruz. That was memorable."
Glendale, California
"Sasha “the Big Man” Avakian, a garrulous charmer and pitchman from Glendale."
Taiwan, East Asia
"with his three children and his wife, an immigrant from Taiwan who was telling her charges, in Mandarin, to behave themselves and not jump in the pool without their mother"
Orange County, California
"in jeans faded to the whitish blue of the Orange County sky in summer"
Riverside, California
"Over at our Desert Landscaping location in Riverside we’ve got a spectacular saguaro, five feet tall. A majestic plant, really, a centerpiece to an entire garden."
Paseo Linda Bonita, Huntington Park, California, United States
"…the much sharper and high-pitched vibrations of a car pulling into the cul-de-sac of Paseo Linda Bonita, the motor puttering to a stop, the driver setting the brake."
Huntington Gardens, San Marino, California, United States
"Its cacti and assorted succulents caught her interest, as did a chapter called “Southern California: the Sonoran Possibilities” that carried several photographs of the agave, aloe, and the Golden Barrel cacti in the Huntington Gardens in San Marino."
Sonoran Desert, California, United States
"In another she found a map that showed the Sonoran Desert reaching to a mountain range in California: on a clear day, you could see these mountains, the Palomars, from the toll road that cut through the hills behind her home. We’re practically on the fringes of the Sonoran and the Mojave."
Palomars, California, United States
"On a clear day, you could see these mountains, the Palomars, from the toll road that cut through the hills behind her home."
Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota, United States
"Over the course of the morning, Scott noted that it was raining at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota."
Los Alamos, New Mexico, United States
"Scott clicked through fence images from a half dozen more places, including a perimeter fence in a piñon forest in Los Alamos, New Mexico."
Alaska Pipeline, Alaska, United States
"He watched the long, Arctic-summer shadows stretch underneath the Alaska Pipeline."
Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky National Airport, Cincinnati, Ohio, United States
"Scott’s flat‐panel computer screen displayed five different images of the perimeter fence at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky National Airport."
San Onofre Power Plant, California, United States
"After watching turban man pass improbably back and forth through the steel mesh fence at the San Onofre power plant, Scott absentmindedly clicked open the latest numbers."
Mexico City, Mexico
"Araceli would give anything to be back in Mexico City on one of those summer days when balls of white drift across the blue canvas of the sky."
California, United States
"The succulent garden would create the illusion that their house was a portal into the unspoiled landscape of old California."
Santa Ana, California
"Araceli’s biweekly excursions took her to the home of a friend in Santa Ana, an hour away by foot and bus. After a while, she had grown to appreciate the routine that carried her from the Torres‐Thompson universe into the Mexican‐flavored neighborhoods of Santa Ana’s barrio."
Orange County, California
"Only the maids and construction workers used this bus stop – marked by a fiberglass sign reading 'orange county transportation authority' – so there was no sidewalk, just the dust and pebbles of the shoulder beside an undeveloped meadow."
Maple Street, Santa Ana, California
"The bus stopped on Maple Street and Araceli stepped off, walking a few blocks to the white wood‐frame house where Marisela lived with a family from Zacatecas."
Nezahualcóyotl, Mexico
"Ya, vámonos, ándale, let’s get moving. ¡Ya! In Nezahualcóyotl, you didn’t have to walk twenty minutes to get to the bus stop – just half a block and two or three buses waiting for you."
Mexico City, Mexico
"Octavio Covarrubias was reading, in a conspicuous display of his lefty bona fides, the Sunday edition of the Mexico City daily newspaper La Jornada, which he received by mail every week."
Zacatecas, Mexico
"Araceli reached the white wood‐frame house where Marisela lived with a family from Zacatecas."
Imuris, Sonora, Mexico
"During a song, Felipe revealed, 'I’m from Sonora,' before adding, 'A little town called Imuris. It’s near Cananea. ¿Y tú?"
Cananea, Sonora, Mexico
"In the same conversation, Felipe mentioned that Imuris is near Cananea, situating his origins in this part of Sonora."
California, United States
"Looking past the meadows at the blue ocean, Araceli waited at the bus stop in this open, empty stretch of California."
United States
"Araceli never would have imagined herself also waiting in the United States, so pathetically alone on a winding road."
Maine, United States
"Everything else about Scott was as pale and severe as the Maine winters her late mother-in-law used to talk about, though Maureen never would have dared to say such a thing out loud, to anyone, because as an American “white” woman it wasn’t her place to make such judgments."
Rancho Mirage, California
"“It’s an ocotillo. I call it ‘the burning bush’ because it looks like something from the Ten Commandments. It must be a good twenty years old. This one isn’t from the nursery, of course, it’s a transplant. We rescued it from the Palm Springs area, from Rancho Mirage, to be exact.”"
Thirty-ninth Street, Los Angeles, California
"Judge Robert Adalian was driving with the windows open when Araceli, Brandon, and Keenan passed before him at the crosswalk on Thirty-seventh Street and South Broadway."
Main Street, Los Angeles, California
"She found herself in the Mexican‐flavored barrio squeezed in between the railroad tracks and the bargain shopping of the city’s Main Street."
Orange County, California
"“Do you think the Russian mafia would ever come to Orange County?” he asked his brother."
Mojave Desert, California
"In another she found a map that showed the Sonoran Desert reaching to a mountain range in California: on a clear day, you could see these mountains, the Palomars, from the toll road that cut through the hills behind her home. We’re practically on the fringes of the Sonoran and the Mojave."
Irvine, California
"…in a corner of the city of Irvine."
Newport Beach, California, United States
"“We’ll be outta here by ten‐thirty, I promise. I got another job at eleven anyway over at Newport. I brought a couple more guys than usual to get done in time. Trust me.”"
Paseo Linda Bonita, Huntington Park, California, United States
"Her jefes lived on Paseo Linda Bonita, which was not only grammatically incorrect, Araceli noted, but also a redundancy – a quirk shared by all the paseos and vías in the Laguna Rancho Estates."
Paseo Linda Bonita, Huntington Park, California, United States
"The kitchen window offered only a partial view of the sidewalk at the bottom of the sloping lawn, and when the work crew rolled up to the cul‐de‐sac at Paseo Linda Bonita, Araceli saw only the top half of their truck."
Laguna Rancho Estates, California
"The twenty-minute walk to the bus stop took her downhill along the curving streets of the Laguna Rancho Estates."
Irvine, California
"Two and a half hours after surreptitiously meeting in the parking lot, Scott was sitting opposite Charlotte at the Islands Restaurant in Irvine, working on his second mango margarita and winding up his long story about the development of MindWare’s “virtual university” software."
California, United States
"Escape from work in the strawberry and cabbage fields of California, or from the horizonless hamlets of Maine to the modest affluence of South Whittier, was accomplishment enough."
Maine, United States
"Escape from work in the strawberry and cabbage fields of California, or from the horizonless hamlets of Maine to the modest affluence of South Whittier, was accomplishment enough."
California, United States
"bringing forth a morning in which the California sunlight returned to its normal soothing hues, losing the stark whiteness that had assaulted their eyes since Samantha’s birth."
Periférico Highway, Mexico City
"just off the Periférico Highway in the western part of Mexico City."
Nezahualcóyotl, Mexico
"in too many homes to count in the stacked cubes of the Nezahualcóyotl neighborhood where women conspired during the day to undo the tangles men made with their words at night."
Ignacio Zaragoza Boulevard, Nezahualcóyotl, Mexico
"the multitudes of factory workers fighting the gridlock on Ignacio Zaragoza Boulevard."
Pacific Northwest, United States
"by a lumber trade group in the Pacific Northwest."
Guerrero, Mexico
"… the reports on the latest drug murders in Guerrero and Nuevo Laredo, the videos of the dead being pulled from overturned buses, and the like."
Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico
"… the reports on the latest drug murders in Guerrero and Nuevo Laredo, the videos of the dead being pulled from overturned buses, and the like."
107 Paseo Linda Bonita, Whittier, California, United States
"… nor anywhere else within the confines of 107 Paseo Linda Bonita, because Maureen had taken the baby with her, of course."
Mexico City, Mexico
"Araceli had left Mexico City just as the cell phone craze had taken off, and had never owned such a device."
Joshua Tree, California, United States
"She had a vague idea of where she was headed: to that spa in the high desert mountains above Joshua Tree she had read about in the arts section of the newspaper."
Down East, Maine, United States
"In Maine’s 'Down East,' where his mother was from,"
St. Louis, Missouri, United States
"Her mother was in St. Louis, and if Scott was right about the credit cards Maureen wouldn’t be able to buy plane tickets to get there."
California, United States
"Araceli would like to leave too, but she could not, thanks to the chain that ran back to the house and those two boys anchoring her to this piece of California real estate."
Nebraska, United States
"Araceli had expanded her knowledge of U.S. geography from the maps in Univision stories that showed the places where North American men murdered their pregnant wives and fiancées, places with names like Nebraska, Utah, and New Hampshire."
Utah, United States
"Araceli had expanded her knowledge of U.S. geography from the maps in Univision stories that showed the places where North American men murdered their pregnant wives and fiancées, places with names like Nebraska, Utah, and New Hampshire."
New Hampshire, United States
"Araceli had expanded her knowledge of U.S. geography from the maps in Univision stories that showed the places where North American men murdered their pregnant wives and fiancées, places with names like Nebraska, Utah, and New Hampshire."
Chapultepec Park, Mexico City, Mexico
"Instead, she picked up a bar of amber‐colored soap and said, “Keenan, mira.” She held the soap delicately between thumb and forefinger and drew lines on the mirror, making quick, sweeping movements to capture and hold his attention, like those clowns in Chapultepec Park who squeezed and stretched balloons into dogs and swords."
California, United States
"There was an essence of herself that she had neglected, a part of her soul that was attached to this dry, austere, and harsh place. A California equivalent to the Missouri grasslands, to the places where her homesteader ancestors stood on the blank slate of the land."
Missouri, United States
"A California equivalent to the Missouri grasslands, to the places where her homesteader ancestors stood on the blank slate of the land."
Italy, Europe
"“Hi, you’ve reached the Goldman-Arbegast residence,” said a woman’s voice. “We’re not here right now because we’re in Italy.”"
Greece, Europe
"“No, we’re in Greece!” said a boy’s voice."
Paris, France
"“No, we’re in Paris!” interrupted the voice of a man."
Thirty-ninth Street, Los Angeles, California
"Two blocks later they arrived at a street sign announcing Thirty-ninth Street and the final confirmation of Araceli’s folly."
London, England
"“No, we’re in London!” said a second boy’s voice."
South Whittier, California, United States
"Escape from work in the strawberry and cabbage fields of California, or from the horizonless hamlets of Maine to the modest affluence of South Whittier, was accomplishment enough."
South Whittier, California, United States
"She had taken the argument back to South Whittier, to that sad little two‐story home of thin drywall and crabgrass lawns."
Paseo Linda Bonita, Huntington Park, California, United States
"At 6:45 p.m. Araceli impulsively walked out the front door, down the path that led through the lawn, to the sidewalk of Paseo Linda Bonita and its silent and peopleless cul-de-sac."
Nezahualcóyotl, Mexico
"In Araceli’s family home in Nezahualcóyotl children were obedient, quiet, and nondemanding: girls, especially, were expected to occupy quiet, scrubbed spaces that adults were free to ignore."
Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes, Mexico City, Mexico
"her train of thought often ended at the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes, just off the Periférico Highway in the western part of Mexico City."
Mexico City, Mexico
"Araceli was in a deep sleep on the floor in the Room of a Thousand Wonders, dreaming that she was walking through the corridors of her art school in Mexico City, which did not resemble her art school at all, but rather a factory in a desolate corner of an American city."
Mexico City, Mexico
"Araceli had a photograph like this of her mother in Mexico City, a snapshot taken by one of those men with the big Polaroids in the Zócalo, when her mother was a young woman recently arrived from provincial Hidalgo."
Hidalgo, Mexico
"…when her mother was a young woman recently arrived from provincial Hidalgo."
Zócalo, Mexico City, Mexico
"…a snapshot taken by one of those men with the big Polaroids in the Zócalo, when her mother was a young woman recently arrived from provincial Hidalgo."
Los Angeles, California
"My mother still felt like a tourist in Mexico City then, and so does the young man in this picture—he is a young man in the first days of his Los Angeles adventure."
232 West 39th Street, Los Angeles, California
"She remembered how her mother carefully wrote dates and other information on the back of family photographs. On a hunch, she picked up the frame, turned it around, and moved the tabs that held the photograph in place and pulled it out. She found words and numbers written on the back… 'West 39th Street, L.A., Julio 1954."
107 East Twenty-third Street, Los Angeles, California
"During her first few weeks in California, Araceli had lived at a similar address, a 107 East Twenty-third Street, and she believed that if the address corresponded to the logical system one expected from an American city, a 232 West Thirty-ninth Street must not be far away."
Monte Líbano 210, Nezahualcóyotl, Mexico
"Either old man Torres himself or someone related to him would certainly be living at this West Thirty-ninth Street address, just as one could find twenty to thirty people connected by blood, marriage, and poor judgment to Araceli at Monte Líbano 210 in Nezahualcóyotl and the adjoining houses."
Downtown Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California
"“Primero bajamos al front gate, y luego al bus stop, y después al train station que nos lleva a downtown Los Angeles, y finalmente tomamos the bus a la house de tu grandfather.”"
Metro Center, Los Angeles, California
"Seat belts on a bus would be a good idea, Araceli thought as the grinding bus climbed and coasted toward the Metro Center transportation hub."
Coyoacán, Mexico City, Mexico
"Araceli was standing at the edge of Coyoacán’s seventeenth-century plaza, in sight of the domed church and the gazebo, next to a line of trees whose trunks were painted white to discourage drivers from crashing into them."
Irvine Hampton Inn, Irvine, California
"Scott’s route from the Irvine Hampton Inn to his hillside home took him along the five northbound lanes of Interstate 5."
Disneyland, Anaheim, California
"He passed Disneyland, left Orange County and entered Los Angeles County at La Habra."
Orange County, California
"He passed Disneyland, left Orange County and entered Los Angeles County at La Habra."
Los Angeles County, California
"He passed Disneyland, left Orange County and entered Los Angeles County at La Habra."
La Habra, California
"He passed Disneyland, left Orange County and entered Los Angeles County at La Habra."
Telegraph Road, South Whittier, California
"They walked another block down the sidewalk-free public access road, with Araceli trying to get the boys to walk on the grass shoulder, and then approached the Telegraph Road exit to his old South Whittier neighborhood."
Carmelita Road and Painter Avenue, South Whittier, California
"When he reached the intersection of Carmelita Road and Painter Avenue, the vista changed abruptly, shifting Scott’s mood along with it."
Fullerton, California
"The train’s jolt upon arrival in Fullerton, the last station before Los Angeles, left Scott with mixed feelings."
Laguna Niguel, California
"The small steel rectangle that announced LAGUNA NIGUEL in the spare, sans-serif font of the Metrolink commuter rail network hinted at the train station’s identity."
Santa Fe Springs, California
"He entered the late twentieth century industrial parks of an old oil patch called Santa Fe Springs, onto surface streets plied by fleets of tractor-trailers."
Griffith Park, Los Angeles, California
"His only previous train ride had come some years back on the Travel Town kiddie train at Griffith Park, where the station was a kid-sized replica of an actual building."
Union Station, Los Angeles, California
"Maureen’s boys were walking dutifully behind their Mexican caretaker, taking their first steps off the train at Union Station."
Los Angeles, California
"Araceli had passed through here during her first days in Los Angeles, and the sight of the crowds of people with huge duffel bags and boxes tucked under their arms reminded her of that other, more innocent Araceli."
Las Vegas, Nevada
"They passed an electronic sign announcing destinations and departure times, LAS VEGAS BUS, TEXAS EAGLE, SURFLINER NORTH, and then suddenly entered a room where the low ceilings disappeared..."
Financial District, Los Angeles, California
"Behind this shifting tableau stood the imposing backdrop … the glass skyscrapers of the Financial District."
City Hall, Los Angeles, California
"… the stubby stone tower of City Hall, which had a ziggurat pyramid on top, resembling a Mesopotamian rocket ready for launch."
Patsaouras Plaza, Los Angeles, California
"“That’s back, the other way,” he said. “Patsaouras Plaza.”"
Los Angeles Municipal Traffic Court—Central District, Los Angeles, California
"Judge Robert Adalian, a jurist at the nearby concrete bunker known as Los Angeles Municipal Traffic Court—Central District."
Crenshaw Boulevard, Los Angeles, California
"… when he was about the age of this older boy here, he’d sold newspapers on the street himself, making a killing hawking extras on Crenshaw Boulevard for the Max Schmeling—Joe Louis fights."
Downtown Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California
"Behind this shifting tableau stood the imposing backdrop of the downtown Los Angeles skyline, the glass skyscrapers of the Financial District, and the stubby stone tower of City Hall."
South Whittier, California, United States
"He approached the Telegraph Road exit to his old South Whittier neighborhood."
Watts, Los Angeles, California
"After the Torres people had left—four of them, he seemed to remember, including khaki-pants Johnny here—there hadn’t been many other Mexicans around until well after the Watts troubles."
South Los Angeles, California
"he could still take a couple of buses and find the last place in South Los Angeles that served Louisiana buffalo fish, and he might find two or three other old-timers there to talk about baseball and Duke Snider and Roy Campanella, and watching the Yankees play the Los Angeles Angels in 1961 at the old Wrigley Field, just a short walk away on Forty-second Place."
Lancaster, California
"There wasn’t any buffalo fish in Lancaster, it was dry as all hell out there, not a place for a man from Louisiana to live."
Huntington Park, California
"I think he moved to the desert. Or to Huntington Park. Used to be that Huntington Park was all the rage. A lot of people from here moved to HP, especially after they opened up that Ford plant …"
Wrigley Field, South Los Angeles, California
"watching the Yankees play the Los Angeles Angels in 1961 at the old Wrigley Field, just a short walk away on Forty-second Place."
Sonsonate, El Salvador
"She had been born in a town in the municipality of Sonsonate, El Salvador, a place of rusting railroad tracks where the green mushroom-cloud canopy of a single ceiba tree billowed over the central plaza and where neighbors knocked on your door expecting to be invited in."
Thirty-ninth Street, Los Angeles, California
"Encounters with disoriented travelers were not unusual on Thirty-ninth Street, where Isabel’s rented bungalow stood at the edge of a district of hurricane fencing and barbed wire, of HELP WANTED signs in Korean, Spanish, and Cantonese, where cloth was transformed into boutique T-shirts and steel was cut and solvents were mixed."
Main Street, Los Angeles, California
"“¿Y la Main, dónde está?” “You know where my homie Ruben lives?” “Have any idea, honey, where I might find the United States Post Office?”"
Pasadena, California
"They reminded Isabel of the children she had cared for in Pasadena when she worked there one summer, boys who knew the abundance of expansive homes with unlocked doors and clutter‐free stretches of hardwood floor that were swept and polished by women like her."
Los Angeles, California
"The train had brought them to this place called Los Angeles, where the magical and the real, the world of fantasy books and history, seemed to coexist on the same extended stage of streets, rivers, and railroad tracks."
South Broadway, Los Angeles, California
"…and now he’s jaywalking across the highway! Nearby South Broadway resembled a highway to Brandon, and seeing Tomás sprint across its four lanes of asphalt was like watching a diver jump off a rocky cliff into a narrow pool of water."
Calexico, California
"He had ridden on top of trains in southern Mexico, snuck into the backs of buses in Calexico, and had once called the Los Angeles City Fire Department’s 911 emergency line when his father’s eyes rolled back and he had stopped breathing on a bus bench on Main Street."
Chalatenango, El Salvador
"“It happened to my grandpa in the war, in Chalatenango,” Héctor interjected, causing the other boys to stop and look at him and await more details, though he had none."
Calvino Street, Los Angeles, California
"For many months the neighborhood story was dominated by events that took place at the far edge of what could be seen from Tomás’s window, at the corner of Calvino Street, underneath a streetlamp recently repaired by a crew of city workers with a truck that had a stretching bucket that lifted a man into the air."
LIQUOR MARKET, Los Angeles, California
"Tomás slipped into a gray stucco prison labeled LIQUOR MARKET and emerged a few minutes later carrying one white plastic bag in his right hand and two in his left."
Oaxaca, Mexico
"Isabel detected a faint coloring of Oaxaca or Guatemala in their skin—perhaps she was their aunt or cousin."
Los Angeles River, Los Angeles, California, United States
"they heard the calls of the birds for the first time in months, the keek-keek of highflying, black-necked stilts heading for the nearby Los Angeles River, and the three-note carols of American robins"
Pacific Boulevard, Huntington Park, California, United States
"‘Está del otro lado de Pacific,’ Victorino said, pointing westward. ‘Regrésate por allá’"
Guatemala, Central America
"Isabel detected a faint coloring of Oaxaca or Guatemala in their skin—perhaps she was their aunt or cousin."
Orange County, California
"“There’s a red-flag warning in the canyons of Los Angeles and Orange counties, which means acute fire danger …”"
Pacific Ocean, Earth
"…he was soon past her, headed toward the bus stop and then into the meadow behind it, following a ghost trail through the grass that led down toward the Pacific."
Forty-ninth and McKinley, Los Angeles, California
"watching the Yankees play the Los Angeles Angels in 1961 at the old Wrigley Field, just a short walk away on Forty-second Place."
California Street, San Francisco
"They switched lines on California Street and headed southward, now inside a bus in which they were the only passengers, alone with the driver’s unauthorized personal radio."
Barstow, California
"“That was a four-point-eight, centered in Barstow,” the radio declared."
Los Angeles County, California
"“There’s a red-flag warning in the canyons of Los Angeles and Orange counties, which means acute fire danger …”"
Interstate 10, Los Angeles, California, United States
"“Look, I just came in off the Ten, and it isn’t pretty in either direction. It could take you five hours to get into the city. It’s the Fourth of July tomorrow.”"
South Whittier, California, United States
"What was left of Scott’s anger melted away in the early afternoon drive back from South Whittier to the coast..."
Paseo Linda Bonita, Huntington Park, California, United States
"What was left of Scott’s anger melted away in the early afternoon drive back from South Whittier to the coast, and when he made the final turn onto Paseo Linda Bonita, he realized Maureen had every right to hate him."
Huntington Park, California
"Every Huntington Park resident who was up and about that morning noticed the quiet too; it hit them first through the windows left open on a summer night, and later when they stepped outside."
Paseo Linda Bonita, Huntington Park, California, United States
"Maureen rolled her car out of the spa at the early but sane hour of eight-fifteen in the morning. She arrived at Paseo Linda Bonita without stopping three hours and twenty-six minutes later, according to the onboard computer in her automobile."
Salt Lake Park, Huntington Park, California, United States
"At that hour they would turn their lawn chairs and their necks toward Salt Lake Park and the municipal fireworks show, and all the neighborhoods across the city grid would be joined together by the light and the explosions of Chinese powder, louder than any other noise on that noisy day."
Bradbury, California, United States
"and their mansion in that Asian Beverly Hills called Bradbury."
Seoul, South Korea
"Myung Lee was a native of Seoul, single, thirty-eight years old, and fluent in the language of local fashions: rayon with tropical flowers and leopard prints and bold décolletages, free-flowing polyesters to drape over bodies of any shape or size."
Ramadi, Iraq
"Jack Salazar also had a blue star in the window, and a son in Ramadi, Iraq, and two American flags that hung from the eaves 365 days a year."
Kandahar, Afghanistan
"“Correct,” Victorino said, as he descended to retrieve the flag. “My son in is Kandahar. En Afghani stan. He is a medic.”"
Mexico City, Mexico
"a ruggedly handsome man in his forties who greeted her with a chivalrous “Buenos días” and the same pencil-thin mustache and jaunty smile that had broken hearts when he left Mexico City two decades earlier."
Mexico City, Mexico
"Probably they were already wearing these things in Mexico City, or would soon be, Araceli thought."
Princeton, New Jersey, United States
"Lucía was two weeks back from Princeton and still suffering from the cruel cultural whiplash caused by her return to Huntington Park: she had lived nine months among assorted geniuses and trust‐fund children from across the United States..."
Long Island, New York, United States
"A week before finals she had split up with a young man who hailed from a moneyed Long Island suburb, in part because he had talked about coming to Huntington Park this summer..."
Rhode Island, United States
"“I got into Brown, which is in Rhode Island, and I thought I’d hang out over there on the East Coast with Lucía, but I couldn’t go,”"
Missouri, United States
"He would launch a search for his wife and children, who had likely left for Missouri to spend a week, or perhaps a month or two in recreation and exile from their abusive paterfamilias..."
Guangdong Province, China
"the nationwide fireworks shortage caused by a warehouse explosion in China’s Guangdong Province some months earlier."
Paseo Linda Bonita, Huntington Park, California, United States
"for the first time since leaving his home on Paseo Linda Bonita, Brandon felt truly alone and afraid."
Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes, Mexico City, Mexico
"After just a few minutes of casual conversation, she had learned a lot about Araceli, the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes, and what it was like to clean houses in Orange County."
Tacubaya Metro station, Mexico City, Mexico
"There were several pencil and charcoal sketches of shoes and sandals ascending and descending the steps in the Tacubaya Metro station..."
Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City, Mexico
"“What is the Palacio de Bellas Artes like?” Griselda Pulido asked..."
Coyoacán, Mexico City, Mexico
"Switching to Spanglish, she asked, “Tienen las pinturas de Frida allí, or do you have to go to her house in Coyoacán?”"
Rugby Avenue, Huntington Park, California
"Forty minutes after the fiasco of the fireworks, Brandon and Keenan stood on the front porch of the Luján home on Rugby Avenue, having been drawn there, along with much of the Luján family and their guests, by the shouting and chanting coming from the street."
Huntington Park, California
"A minute later two police cruisers slowly wheeled up to the block, each painted white with slanted steel-blue letters proclaiming POLICE, and progressively smaller letters declaring HUNTINGTON PARK, and the department’s wordy motto: DEDICATED TO SERVICE THROUGH EXCELLENCE IN PERFORMANCE."
Mexico City, Mexico
"Araceli was from Mexico City, if Maureen remembered correctly."
São Paolo, Brazil
"The mother who had given Maureen Araceli’s name was in South America as of three years ago, having become an expatriate for a U.S. company in São Paolo, Brazil, and Maureen had no number for her."
Santa Ana, California
"“Where does she go on the weekend?” Maureen asked Scott. “I think she said to Santa Ana. I’m pretty sure I heard her say that once.”"
Totonicapán, Guatemala
"For a year before Araceli joined them the Torres-Thompsons had a Guatemalan housekeeper, Lourdes, who kept a continual lament about the daughter she had left behind in a place called Totonicapán, often weeping as she did so."
Orange County, California
"At the Orange County Emergency Communications Center, the operator considered the choices on her screen, which required her to classify the urgency of the dozens of dramas, mundane and bloody, that were whispered and screamed at her through her headset each day."
2626 Rugby Street, Huntington Park
"“It’s 2626 Rugby Street,” Lucía said, and looked at Griselda. “In Huntington Park.”"
San Ysidro, San Diego, California
"“We’ve got Captain Joe McDonnell in Sky Five over San Ysidro, over the U.S.-Mexico border … And whoa, look at that line.”"
Knott’s Berry Farm, Buena Park, California
"“Are you sure they’re not just late coming back from Knott’s Berry Farm or something?”"
Orange County, California
"After just a few minutes of casual conversation, she had learned a lot about Araceli, the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes, and what it was like to clean houses in Orange County."
Laguna Rancho Estates, California
"Maureen drove past the guard shack without bothering to acknowledge the pregnant woman on duty, and violated the 25 MPH speed limit signs, flying over speed bumps and making several squealing turns up the sinuous streets of the Laguna Rancho Estates."
Huntington Park, California
"…the thought of him entering her home in his Tommy Hilfiger summer‐wear was too much to bear. No, that won’t go over well in HP."
Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico
"… the drug gangs ran kidnapping rings that snared doctors and schoolteachers and the children of the Tijuana rich, and they tortured their enemies and tossed their bodies onto highways with notes attached and severed fingers stuffed into their mouths."
Downtown San Diego, San Diego, California
"the camera then turned back on itself and showed how the parallel lines of vehicles climbed and banked northward, toward the San Diego downtown skyline, a hazy Oz many miles distant."
Orange County, California
"Among the tribe of sheriff’s deputies, detectives, social workers, and assorted county officials gathered in the Torres-Thompson living room, it was the presence of the representative of Orange County Child Protective Services that Maureen found most threatening."
Fullerton, California
"Ian Goller was a native of the Orange County suburb of Fullerton who liked to tell people that his otherwise plain and unassuming hometown had once been home to the science fiction writer Philip K. Dick. 'You know, Blade Runner?"
Santa Ana, California
"Olivia Garza had worked her way up from Case Worker I in the Santa Ana office with the files of 127 children whose parents and guardians were raccoon‐eyed heroin addicts."
Laguna Rancho Estates, California
"…in the well‐appointed living room in the Laguna Rancho Estates…"
Laguna Beach, California
"They entered the guesthouse, which wasn’t much smaller, truth be told, than the condominium in Laguna Beach where the childless Olivia Garza lived with her two cats."
Huntington Park, California
"An accelerating automobile drew their eyes back to the ground, a Huntington Park police patrol car zooming past with exaggerated masculine purpose."
San Salvador, El Salvador
"…onto airplanes that landed on the tropical runways of San Salvador and Tegucigalpa and other places, far away from those other places they had learned to call home—Iowa, Chicago, Massachusetts."
Tegucigalpa, Honduras
"…onto airplanes that landed on the tropical runways of San Salvador and Tegucigalpa and other places, far away from those other places they had learned to call home—Iowa, Chicago, Massachusetts."
Chicago, Illinois
"…from those other places they had learned to call home—Iowa, Chicago, Massachusetts."
Iowa, United States
"…from those other places they had learned to call home—Iowa, Chicago, Massachusetts."
Massachusetts, United States
"…from those other places they had learned to call home—Iowa, Chicago, Massachusetts."
San Diego, California
"Goller himself was a graduate of San Diego State University and the middle-of-the-pack Chapman University School of Law."
Henderson, Nevada
"The cinematographer had shot other towers and wires in the San Bernardino Mountains, and in the plain of tumbleweeds outside Henderson, Nevada, and the Cimarron Grasslands of southwestern Kansas."
San Bernardino Mountains, California
"The cinematographer had shot other towers and wires in the San Bernardino Mountains, and in the plain of tumbleweeds outside Henderson, Nevada, and the Cimarron Grasslands of southwestern Kansas."
Cimarron Grasslands, Kansas
"The cinematographer had shot other towers and wires in the San Bernardino Mountains, and in the plain of tumbleweeds outside Henderson, Nevada, and the Cimarron Grasslands of southwestern Kansas."
Huntington Park, California
"escorted her to a holding cell at the Huntington Park Police Station"
Mexico City, Mexico
"until she landed at the airport in Mexico City"
Santa Ana, California
"if there might still be a way to get to that money she had in the bank in Santa Ana"
Huatulco, Oaxaca, Mexico
"bohemian gathering spots that awaited the free spirit: Huatulco and the hippies on the Oaxacan coast"
Oaxacan coast, Oaxaca, Mexico
"the hippies on the Oaxacan coast"
Palenque, Chiapas, Mexico
"Palenque and incense-burning shamans of Veracruz"
Veracruz, Mexico
"Palenque and incense-burning shamans of Veracruz"
Los Angeles, California
"ill‐advised journey to the center of Los Angeles, and finally to Huntington Park"
Nezahualcóyotl, Mexico
"associated in her youth with certain mean-spirited street vendors in Nezahualcóyotl"
Gaithersburg, Maryland
"a caller opined in Gaithersburg, Maryland, speaking to the woman of the flaring nostrils"
Los Angeles, California
"…and we left for another place. In Los Angeles,” he said, his younger brother nodding alongside him."
Orange County, California
"I called the LAPD. It’s smack in the middle of the ganginfested garment-factory district of L.A. If taking two Orange County kids to that hellhole isn’t two seventy‐three-A, then I don’t know what is."
South Central, Los Angeles, California
"…arrived home to the cluttered hominess of their apartments in South-Central and Compton…"
Compton, California
"…arrived home to the cluttered hominess of their apartments in South-Central and Compton…"
Beverly Hills, California
"…or when they settled into their cramped servant quarters in Beverly Hills homes…"
UCLA, Los Angeles, California
"…the staff psychologist from Child Protective Services, a twenty-nine-year-old recently minted PhD from UCLA named Jennifer Gelfand-Peña."
Laguna Rancho Estates, California
"…on five monitors that rested at the feet of the reporters, each with the words LIVE: LAGUNA RANCHO ESTATES in various fonts."
Aliso Viejo, California
"She walked quickly around the corner, through the station’s parking lot and its fleet of patrol cars, and into the empty center of Aliso Viejo, where the streets were free of pedestrians after four-thirty in the afternoon."
Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico
"She did have the money in the plastic bag, and briefly considered buying a bus ticket to the border: she had enough for a ticket to Tijuana, and for a torta and taco once she got there, but not enough to go any farther."
Mexico City, Mexico
"I can do that too, and slip back across the city, and maybe back to Mexico, with a little stop at the bank to get my money."
Newport Beach, California, United States
"Goller... lived alone, though in a much more spacious condominium with a view of the harbor in Newport Beach."
Nezahualcóyotl, Mexico
"If your car was stolen, you paid the police to get it back for you, which had happened to her father, in the comisaría in Nezahualcóyotl."
Calmada Avenue, South Whittier, California
"In her home on Calmada Avenue in South Whittier, Janet Bryson was angry too, though for entirely different reasons."
Safari Drive, South Whittier, California
"Her home happened to be eight blocks from Scott Torres’s old home on Safari Drive."
Coyote Creek, South Whittier, California
"A home plopped like his on the flat surface of forgotten cow pastures, alongside a concrete drainage channel called Coyote Creek."
El Monte, California
"Isolated voices scattered about suburbs like El Monte and Lancaster, fighting the evils of bilingual education and the bad habits of these people."
Lancaster, California
"Isolated voices scattered about suburbs like El Monte and Lancaster, fighting the evils of bilingual education and the bad habits of these people."
Parthenon, Athens, Greece
"“We saw the Parthenon in Athens,” Max said."
Mount Olympus, Greece
"“No, that’s Mount Olympus,” Brandon corrected."
South Whittier, California, United States
"“Where did you go to school?” “South Whittier. St. Paul High.”"
Whittier, California, United States
"“We grew up in the same kind of places, really. Me in Fullerton, and you in Whittier.”"
Mid-City, Los Angeles, California, United States
"… as a single woman in her twenties in an L.A. neighborhood called Mid-City."
La Cienega, Los Angeles, California, United States
"… instead of in some condo off La Cienega, or in Brentwood."
Cotton's, Orange County, California, United States
"About a mile down the coast, there was a surf break called Cotton’s that was one of the best-kept secrets on the coast this summer."
California, United States
"California was a paradise of open land and sea breezes, the sliver of Eden between the desert and the sea. This was the California of Scott’s and Ian Goller’s birth..."
Rome, Italy
"“I really wanna go to Greece, though. And Rome too.”"
Santa Ana, California
"In his small kitchen-dining room in Santa Ana, Octavio Covarrubias made Araceli a breakfast of eggs with chorizo, fresh-squeezed juice from oranges plucked from the tree in the backyard, and a side dish of fried nopals, from the petals of an enormous cactus plant that grew in a vacant lot down the street."
Maple Street, Santa Ana, California
"He read and pontificated so much on these issues to his neighbors on Maple Street that they called him licenciado behind his back."
Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico
"Octavio Covarrubias was a Proceso subscriber, receiving the Mexican investigative magazine by mail from Tijuana every week."
San Diego County, California
"Before Araceli could respond, he began describing a report by this same Proceso correspondent about a facility for the detention of immigrant children in San Diego County, and a Televisa report on the same story."
Los Angeles, California
"Liberated now from jail and from the worry of the fate of Brandon and Keenan, she could appreciate the journey away from Paseo Linda Bonita and into Los Angeles for its carnivalesque qualities."
Durango, Durango, Mexico
"Having been forced to drop out of his final year of high school in Durango, his dream of a degree in political science unrealized, he studied the news instead."
Aliso Viejo, California
"then in the silent, spooky glory of the nighttime streets of Aliso Viejo the next."
Thirty-ninth Street, Los Angeles, California
"Out here, in the world away from the paradise of the Laguna Rancho Estates, there was the silver skin of taco trucks on Thirty-ninth Street, and the fat tortillas the hungry men and women workers raised to their mouths."
East Los Angeles, California
"“Did you ever authorize this woman, your employee, to take your children to East Los Angeles?”"
New York, New York
"He was in New York, but was talking, via satellite link, to the reporter who had sat down with Maureen Thompson."
Santa Ana, California
"… and those images too would appear on the web, in an essay of eleven images that his Los Angeles newspaper would headline “Arrest, Anger, and Drama in Santa Ana,” accompanied by the breathless audio narration of Cynthia Villarreal: “Araceli Ramirez knew that she would soon be taken into custody, but her response was a defiant one.”"
Los Angeles, California
"… that his Los Angeles newspaper would headline “Arrest, Anger, and Drama in Santa Ana,” accompanied by the breathless audio narration of Cynthia Villarreal: “Araceli Ramirez knew that she would soon be taken into custody…”"
Orange County, California
"Janet Bryson’s contribution to the campaign to return Araceli Ramirez to jail, and eventually back to Mexico, began at the southernmost point on her big fold-out map of Orange County, in the community formerly known as Leisure World."
Leisure World, Orange County, California
"… on her big fold‐out map of Orange County, in the community formerly known as Leisure World."
Guanajuato, Mexico
"In a building down at the end of the block, a woman from rural Guanajuato grabbed her infant son and executed a panicked climb into the attic of her two‐story duplex, then crawled into a nook of stacked boxes..."
Los Angeles, California
"“When we went to L.A., everybody spoke in Spanish, mostly,” Keenan said."
London, England
"“And then later we went to London and saw the marbles the English took from the Greeks.”"
Santa Ana, California
"The headline in question ran on the lower half of the page, incongruously below a photograph of children at a public swimming pool in Santa Ana."
Orange County, California
"Goller placed the local news section of the Orange County Register on the dining room table."
Brentwood, Los Angeles, California
"… instead of in some condo off La Cienega, or in Brentwood."
Anaheim, California
"People crowded into houses and apartment buildings in Santa Ana, in Anaheim, cities that used to be good places to live."
Fullerton, California
"“We grew up in the same kind of places, really. Me in Fullerton, and you in Whittier.”"
Yorba Linda, California
"At 3:45 p.m. on Citrus Avenue in Yorba Linda, four blocks from the Richard Nixon Library and Museum, and made her way southward on the State Highway 57 freeway to Santa Ana."
Citrus Avenue, Yorba Linda, California
"At 3:45 p.m. on Citrus Avenue in Yorba Linda, four blocks from the Richard Nixon Library and Museum..."
Richard Nixon Library and Museum, Yorba Linda, California
"At 3:45 p.m. on Citrus Avenue in Yorba Linda, four blocks from the Richard Nixon Library and Museum..."
State Highway 57, Orange County, California
"… and made her way southward on the State Highway 57 freeway to Santa Ana."
Carmenita Road, South Whittier, California
"… until she reached her exit at Carmenita Road and she turned northward home."
Kenosha, Wisconsin
"… my mom died a year ago this week in Kenosha."
Garden Grove, California
"Janet Bryson’s journey took her next to a Garden Grove apartment block the color of overripe avocado flesh, where a too‐thin woman of about forty with bony, sunburned shoulders handed her a letter..."
Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico
"The door opened to a vortex of weeping Spanish souls that drained into Tijuana and Mexicali and other forsaken places."
Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico
"The door opened to a vortex of weeping Spanish souls that drained into Tijuana and Mexicali and other forsaken places."
Pico Boulevard, Los Angeles, California
"I got my first two strikes with my crazy novios. Armed robbery and ADW. Assault with a deadly weapon. Now they got me because I was making eyes at an undercover cop over on Pico. They got me good. And for looking at that cop, and asking him for fifty bucks, I’m looking at twenty-five to life, believe it or not."
Civic Center Drive, Los Angeles, California
"Every attorney in the two concrete buildings on the opposite sides of Civic Center Drive accepted such outcomes as a matter of course."
Bonaventure Hotel, Los Angeles, California
"Then, in the waning moments of his third and final public appearance of the morning, at the Bonaventure Hotel, he had been given another rude reminder of Araceli’s existence."
Los Angeles, California
"The mayor of Los Angeles daydreamed while ostensibly perusing the menu at his favorite downtown eatery."
Santa Ana, California
"He had forgotten about Escalante and the proto-martyr languishing in a Santa Ana jail cell."
New Jersey, United States
"The consultant was a New Jersey transplant of Italian heritage with a wild shock of gray Beethoven curls."
Fremont, California, United States
"Six hours earlier, he had done just that, after catching the appearance of an up‐and‐coming state senator from Fremont, California, on Univision’s ¡Despierta América! talk show."
Pacific Dining Car, Los Angeles, California
"He was a man who spent most of his waking day in conversation and monologue—on the phone, in his City Hall office, in parking lots and passageways, in elementary school auditoriums, at doughnut shops, in Westside receptions, in his official Lincoln Town Car—and even the regular customers at the Pacific Dining Car took notice."
Prague, Czech Republic
"She listened to a Prague coffee machine, the musical speaking‐voice of a Louisiana shrimp fisherman."
Louisiana, United States
"She listened to a Prague coffee machine, the musical speaking‐voice of a Louisiana shrimp fisherman."
California, United States
"Basic fairness to the people of California dictated such a result."
Southern California, United States
"Several hours later the mayor was in East Hollywood, at a memorial service for one of the last remaining survivors in Southern California of the Armenian genocide."
Orange County, California
"The district attorney of Orange County sent back a one-word answer: “Surprising.”"
Los Angeles, California
"Clearly, the mayor believed that Los Angeles and the Laguna Rancho Estates rested atop the same shifting tectonic plates, and he spoke cautiously to keep his footing as the ground beneath him rumbled."
Laguna Rancho Estates, California
"Clearly, the mayor believed that Los Angeles and the Laguna Rancho Estates rested atop the same shifting tectonic plates, and he spoke cautiously to keep his footing as the ground beneath him rumbled."
Colonia San Cosme, Mexico City, Mexico
"Back in colonia San Cosme in Mexico City, where her last chilango boyfriend lived, the sun warming their faces, rows of fault‐shaken buildings leaning over the sidewalks;"
South Whittier, California, United States
"His bald‐headed look transported Scott back to South Whittier and to the first recruits to a lifestyle his father told him was “for losers who don’t want to learn good English.”"
Santa Fe Mall, Mexico City, Mexico
"I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen shoes like that in Mexico City, not even at the Santa Fe Mall."
Nezahualcóyotl, Mexico
"She had been this way as a girl in Nezahualcóyotl, when her mother slipped into those seasonal depressions that kept her from working for several days at a time, once or twice a year."
Mexico City, Mexico
"… and eventually back to Mexico."
Bakersfield, California, United States
"Two hours later, Ian Goller sent a transcript of this statement via BlackBerry to his boss, who was traveling in Bakersfield that afternoon."
Santa Ana, California
"Her step north had brought her to a cell in Santa Ana, to become familiar with the angles in the walls, the sounds of the corridors, among inmates hypnotized by the collective need to sleep."
Interstate 5, California, United States
"At 5:30 p.m. she was back on Interstate 5, heading north toward South Whittier in heavy traffic..."
East Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, United States
"Several hours later the mayor was in East Hollywood, at a memorial service for one of the last remaining survivors in Southern California of the Armenian genocide."
South Whittier, California, United States
"At 5:30 p.m. she was back on Interstate 5, heading north toward South Whittier in heavy traffic..."
United States of America
"In fact, I will tell you that I want to stay here, and not accept the very generous offer to be deported directly to Mexico, because Los Estados Unidos de América is a country where women can wear boots like that."
Florida, United States
"My job exists, for example, because a poor man from Florida sat down and wrote a letter to the Supreme Court, with paper and pencil."
Chihuahua, Mexico
"My father was from Chihuahua. I was born there, but it’s been a long time."
California, United States
"Now Araceli could see that this place called California was like a home that had fallen into a state of obsolescence and neglect, a conclusion confirmed by the fact that this idealistic woman with the pink‐trimmed boots had been forced to make an absurd offer: tell a lie and you can go free."
Austin, Texas
"…a large circle of benevolent and open‐minded people from Manhattan, Austin, Santa Monica, Cambridge, and many other places."
Santa Monica, California
"…a large circle of benevolent and open‐minded people from Manhattan, Austin, Santa Monica, Cambridge, and many other places."
New England, United States
"…free of overbearing authorities as the New Englanders who stood up to King George, a startling fact which she confirmed by scanning the street and the parked cars as she walked toward the jail’s parking lot."
Mexico City, Mexico
"He would fit in in Mexico City, except for the fact that he’s clapping and crying at the same time—in my city, we are either happy or morose but rarely both at the same time."
Huntington Park, California
"From his very first glimpse of her running in that footage shot under the electric transmission lines in Huntington Park, Giovanni saw in Araceli a symbol of mexicana hipsterhood victimized."
Santa Ana, California
"“That’s the consul of Mexico in Santa Ana,” Glass whispered into Araceli’s ear."
Orange County, California
"It had been ages since the Orange County District Attorney’s Office had a defendant whose fate worried faraway liberal crusaders."
Burbank, California
"Judge Adalian told the cable host from the network’s Burbank studios."
Broadway, Los Angeles, California
"I saw this woman and those two boys crossing the street on Broadway. And it was two days before they show up on the TV ‘kidnapped.’"
Garden Grove, California
"People like his immigrant mother, who tended to her roses in their home in Garden Grove, telling Giovanni that she felt the Holy Spirit in the faint breeze."
San Onofre State Park, California
"Ian Goller listened to the news in his quiet office on a Sunday afternoon and rubbed his temples and tried not to think about the Angels’ pitching rotation instead, or the endangered state park at San Onofre, or any other of his usual topics of procrastination."
Huntington Park, California
"…‘numerous statements by a city council member of Huntington Park, who we choose to believe,’ the host said sardonically, ‘even though he has a Mexican last name.’"
Santa Ana, California
"Ian Goller had fed these bits of info to three different reporters at a Santa Ana Denny’s, and had felt oddly spent and empty afterward."
Los Angeles, California
"including selected passages from the transcript of Brandon’s description of his days in the mystery‐land of Los Angeles."
Orange County, California
"“We spent four hours tracking down the Oaxaqueño with the best mole in Orange County,” Octavio said."
San Francisco, California
"I was going to call you, and then my uncle got us a job up in San Francisco for a week."
Malibu, California
"Carlos Francisco Batres Goulet had been in Malibu in the morning, having flown out from Mexico City to interview a Mexican actress who was a big crossover success in the United States."
Mexico City, Mexico
"Carlos Francisco Batres Goulet had been in Malibu in the morning, having flown out from Mexico City to interview a Mexican actress who was a big crossover success in the United States."
San Ángel, Mexico City
"and afterward he had phoned the network’s headquarters in the San Ángel district of Mexico City to suggest an interview with the famous paisana who had been falsely accused of kidnapping."
Nezahualcóyotl, Mexico
"from her mother’s kitchen, to the television next to the stacks of cigarettes in the abarrote sundry store on the corner in Nezahualcóyotl, to the breakfast restaurants of Polanco in Mexico City, where businessmen would see her as they ate their chilaquiles."
Ciudad Neza, Mexico
"“¿Is there a message you would like to send to your family back in Ciudad Neza?” Batres Goulet asked. “I’m sorry I haven’t called,” she said."
Santa Ana, California
"“¿Y quién es usted?” … “Soy Emilio Ordaz Rivera,” the man said, adding with a measured frankness, “Soy el cónsul de México en Santa Ana.”"
Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
"…a large circle of benevolent and open‐minded people from Manhattan, Austin, Santa Monica, Cambridge, and many other places."
Manhattan, New York, United States
"…a large circle of benevolent and open‐minded people from Manhattan, Austin, Santa Monica, Cambridge, and many other places."
Yuma, Arizona
"“I’m from Yuma, in Arizona.”"
Polanco, Mexico City, Mexico
"to the breakfast restaurants of Polanco in Mexico City, where businessmen would see her as they ate their chilaquiles."
Paseo Linda Bonita, Huntington Park, California, United States
"I scratched on the floor underneath the cabinets and inside the closets to keep away the ants on Paseo Linda Bonita."
Laguna Rancho Estates, California
"The following morning Child Protective Services issued a two‐sentence press release concerning “the events surrounding two children at a home on Paseo Linda Bonita in the Laguna Rancho Estates.”"
Laguna Niguel, California
"… and a moment later Araceli and Ruthy entered the still quiet of the new Laguna Niguel satellite courthouse and its concrete plaza."
Huntington Park, California
"when the mob confronted the councilman in Huntington Park,"
Kern County, California, United States
"When Olivia Garza was twelve, a Kern County social worker visited her home."
Stanton, California, United States
"This new story involved a single missing child and had begun to unfold the previous afternoon in Stanton at about the same time Olivia Garza was leaving the Torres-Thompson home..."
Missouri, United States
"… and for an instant that seal was as disturbing as those dusty old icons of Saint Patrick in her Missouri home."
Manhattan, New York, United States
"Her eleven-year-old was consorting with pimps and prostitutes, having been transported to a seamy corner of Manhattan via the art of fiction."
Pike County, Missouri, United States
"I’ve glossed it all over so it doesn’t look like Pike County, but underneath everything is just as frayed as that old couch in our living room."
Laguna Niguel, California
"This new Laguna Niguel satellite courthouse had a bit of both, and the mood was as somber as those other places, despite the presence of large Latino families with children sitting on some of the benches in the hallways and playing with toy cars and dolls."
Union Station, Los Angeles, California
"An image appeared on the screen, a video from a Union Station surveillance camera that showed Araceli, Brandon, and Keenan, seen from an eye high above the waiting area, so that Araceli and the boys stood in a menacing glow."
Huntington Park, California
"“It’s in the statement. Brandon says he saw a fire burning in the ground.” “There was a pig cooked, apparently. At the home in Huntington Park.”"
Santa Ana, California
"They drove back to Santa Ana, and she told him about how Ruthy had taken apart the prosecution."
Laguna Beach, California
"…witness the sentencing of a man who would hound the beautiful people of Laguna Beach, Brentwood, and Bel Air no longer."
Brentwood, Los Angeles, California
"…witness the sentencing of a man who would hound the beautiful people of Laguna Beach, Brentwood, and Bel Air no longer."
Bel Air, Los Angeles, California
"…witness the sentencing of a man who would hound the beautiful people of Laguna Beach, Brentwood, and Bel Air no longer."
Huntington Park, California
"The Huntington Park city councilman entered the courtroom, in black denim jeans and a thick leather belt whose bronze buckle bore the initials SL."
South Pasadena, California
"Of all the Craftsman homes they had seen in South Pasadena, this was the purest gem. It wasn’t as big as some of the others, but it was the best preserved, and it seduced Maureen with the triangles of its eaves…"
Santa Ana, California
"…so don’t even go back to that address in Santa Ana. That’ll be the first place they’ll look for you—because he’s probably calling the ICE people right now."
Laguna Niguel, California
"Felipe maneuvered his pickup through the streets of Laguna Niguel with an aggression she had not seen before, squealing through a couple of turns, accelerating with controlled desperation, and after a few minutes they were on the freeway, headed north."
Claremont, California
"…exit after exit announcing a new district of the city unknown to her—Covina, Claremont, Redlands—more malls and parking lots extending from the freeway’s edge."
Redlands, California
"…exit after exit announcing a new district of the city unknown to her—Covina, Claremont, Redlands—more malls and parking lots extending from the freeway’s edge."
Los Angeles, California
"Los Angeles did not want to let her go; it kept its hold on her with its sprawl."
Indio, California
"Soon they were on another freeway, headed east toward a place called Indio, according to the green signs that floated over their heads."
Arizona, United States
"Felipe said the hard part of the drive started after Indio, when you passed into the Mojave Desert, which you had to cross to get to Arizona."
Phoenix, Arizona
"Sometimes I go with my father. We go to Phoenix, then Tucson, and from there we drive south, into Mexico."
New Mexico, United States
"After Phoenix is New Mexico. After that, Texas, I think. And then, no sé. Tennessee, maybe? It’s a big country. All the way on the other side is Carolina. Carolina del Norte y Carolina del Sur."
Texas, United States
"After Phoenix is New Mexico. After that, Texas, I think. And then, no sé. Tennessee, maybe? It’s a big country."
Tennessee, United States
"And then, no sé. Tennessee, maybe? It’s a big country."
North Carolina, United States
"All the way on the other side is Carolina. Carolina del Norte y Carolina del Sur."
South Carolina, United States
"All the way on the other side is Carolina. Carolina del Norte y Carolina del Sur."
Sonora, Mexico
"Or we can go south, to Sonora and to Nogales and Imuris—to my tierra."
Nogales, Sonora, Mexico
"Or we can go south, to Sonora and to Nogales and Imuris—to my tierra."
Imuris, Sonora, Mexico
"Or we can go south, to Sonora and to Nogales and Imuris—to my tierra."
Cananea, Sonora, Mexico
"Sometimes I go with my father. We go to Phoenix, then Tucson, and from there we drive south, into Mexico. I was born in Cananea, did I ever tell you that?"
Mexico City, Mexico
"…here’s another I had made for you and sent from the Distrito Federal."
Mojave Desert, California
"‘We reached the desert,’ Araceli shouted. The road had become a straight line, dipping over the horizon in a watery mirage. ‘It’s the Mojave,’ Felipe shouted."
Orange County, California
"COUNTY OF ORANGE, said the official seal on the social worker’s plastic badge: three pieces of the eponymous fruit rested in a green field that itself was nestled inside the center of a sun ablaze with a corona of dancing yellow arms..."
Covina, California, United States
"…exit after exit announcing a new district of the city unknown to her—Covina, Claremont, Redlands—more malls and parking lots extending from the freeway’s edge."
North Carolina, United States
"She imagined gliding across this desert ocean, with Felipe at her side, until they reached Carolina del Norte, or maybe even Veracruz, and the real sea at the end of their journey, to begin life anew."
Veracruz, Mexico
"She imagined gliding across this desert ocean, with Felipe at her side, until they reached Carolina del Norte, or maybe even Veracruz, and the real sea at the end of their journey, to begin life anew."
Blythe, California
"…until they reached a place called Blythe and the signs said Arizona was just five miles away."
California, United States
"LEAVING CALIFORNIA said the sign as they passed over a muddy river. “¡Adiós, California!” she yelled with her arms raised in the air, as if on the last drop of a roller coaster."
United States
"She had never been in another state besides California. It’s called the United States because there are many, fifty altogether."
Arizona, United States
"On the other side they were greeted by a sign that said WELCOME TO ARIZONA, decorated with what she assumed was the flag of that state, and they began climbing away from the river into a rocky landscape."
Tucson, Arizona, United States
"17. FLAGSTAFF. 225. TUCSON. “So we have to decide,” Felipe said. “Which way are we going? To Flagstaff if we stay in the United States. To Tucson if we go to Mexico.”"
Michoacán, Mexico
"…with a muddy complexion that suggested Michoacán or Guerrero, or some other corner of her country where the people raised corn."
Guerrero, Mexico
"…with a muddy complexion that suggested Michoacán or Guerrero, or some other corner of her country where the people raised corn."
Los Angeles, California
"The son of Guatemalan immigrants, he is a native of the city of Los Angeles, where he lives with his wife and three children."
2 Bloor Street East, Toronto
"HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.2 Bloor Street East, 20th FloorToronto, Ontario, CanadaM4W 1A8"
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
"HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.2 Bloor Street East, 20th FloorToronto, Ontario, CanadaM4W 1A8"
25 Ryde Road, Pymble
"25 Ryde Road (PO Box 321)Pymble, NSW 2073, Australia"
2 Bloor Street East, Toronto
"2 Bloor Street East - 20th FloorToronto, ON, M4W 1A8, Canada"
Auckland, New Zealand
"P.O. Box 1 Auckland,New Zealand"
77-85 Fulham Palace Road, London
"77-85 Fulham Palace RoadLondon, W6 8JB, UK"
10 East 53rd Street, New York
"10 East 53rd StreetNew York, NY 10022"
Mexico City, Mexico
"“To Tucson if we go to Mexico.”"
Flagstaff, Arizona
"17. FLAGSTAFF. 225. TUCSON. “So we have to decide,” Felipe said. “Which way are we going? To Flagstaff if we stay in the United States. To Tucson if we go to Mexico.”"
New York, New York
"…the one daughter who called to check in every week, she lived in New York."
New York, New York
"“It’s an old book I found on my grandpa’s bookshelf when we stopped to visit him in New York,” Max said."
Los Angeles, California
"The Big Man lived in Los Angeles, on its Westside"
Los Angeles, California
"…in front of a bungalow in a city that Araceli guessed was Los Angeles in the 1940s or 1950s."
Los Angeles, California
"Through the smoky glass of the sport-utility vehicle, Araceli watched freeway destination signs pass overhead. SAN DIEGO. LOS ANGELES. NEWPORT BEACH."
Los Angeles, California
"The portraits of the grandfather, el viejo Torres, called out to her most loudly, smiling wryly from the final decades of black-and-white photography—a teenager standing before a Los Angeles bungalow, his swarthy skin rendered in tones of gray and darker gray, hands on his hips and an irresistible twinkle in his eye."
Los Angeles, California
"She felt this same unsettled sense when she first entered the center of Los Angeles with Brandon and Keenan,"
United States
"But his brief remarks only strengthened Goller’s resolve to shuffle her off U.S. soil and on her way to Mexico as soon as possible."
Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
"…people who hadn’t read the letter: Sorry for the inconvenience: We’re bringing a little bit of Hollywood to your neighborhood!"
China, Asia
"“And let me tell you something else—this’ll really blow your mind. Where we’re standing, right now—it used to be Chinatown. There’s all sorts of archaeological stuff they found buried underneath here.”"
Mexico City, Mexico
"“Did Lupita go back to Mexico?” “What part of Mexico is she from? Is it the same time there as it is here? Can we call her?”"
Mexico City, Mexico
"But his brief remarks only strengthened Goller’s resolve to shuffle her off U.S. soil and on her way to Mexico as soon as possible."
Mexico City, Mexico
"In Mexico bosses did not give their employees choices, and ambiguous statements like Maureen’s were a common way around the unpleasantness of a direct command."
Mexico City, Mexico
"Araceli knew that her fate ended in Mexico, that at the end of her current visit to purgatory she would step into the disorderly but familiar sunshine of a Mexican border town, and that afterward she would walk to a bus station or a telephone booth and decide what to do next."
Mexico City, Mexico
"In fact, I will tell you that I want to stay here, and not accept the very generous offer to be deported directly to Mexico, because Los Estados Unidos de América is a country where women can wear boots like that."
Phoenix, Arizona
"Soon they were entering a metropolis, Phoenix, with its low-slung warehouses, and neighborhoods with homes of rocky front yards and cactus landscaping."
Tucson, Arizona, United States
"Sometimes I go with my father. We go to Phoenix, then Tucson, and from there we drive south, into Mexico."
Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico
"Salomón’s brother Pedro had brought three large boxes’ worth of assorted handheld pyrotechnics from Tijuana, and the children were playing with them..."
Thirty-ninth Street, Los Angeles, California
"On certain moist summer mornings the seagulls came to Thirty-ninth Street and circled over the trash cans behind the garment factory, where the taco trucks tossed the tortillas they didn’t sell."
Thirty-ninth Street, Los Angeles, California
"… a man said to occupy an orderly American suburban house in a neighborhood that was also the one el abuelo had moved to, according to Mr. Washington back on Thirty-ninth Street."
Thirty-ninth Street, Los Angeles, California
"“The neighborhood this boy described to you,” the prosecutor began. “Would you say it bore a general resemblance to the neighborhood near the intersection of Thirty-ninth and South Broadway?” “Very general. Yes.”"
Kansas City, Missouri, United States
"Schematic drawings that were said to represent the superhighway that would link the interior of Mexico to Kansas City, and thus accelerate the country’s plunge into foreignness."
Interstate 5, California, United States
"Scott’s route from the Irvine Hampton Inn to his hillside home took him along the five northbound lanes of Interstate 5, a highway that was considerably thinner and less traveled in Scott’s youth, when it had been known as the Golden State Freeway."
Pebble Beach, California
"Scott continued his playing tour of Charlotte’s impressive and diverse collection, chipping onto the green at Pebble Beach to the sound of the roaring surf nearby, negotiating with Don Corleone in his study, forging blades of steel in a medieval foundry, and carrying his new weapons into battle against hordes of bearded Vikings on a Scandinavian beach."
Laguna Rancho Estates, California
"“Police are asking for your help this morning in finding these two young boys, little Brandon and Keenan Torres-Thompson, of the Laguna Rancho Estates,” a male voice was saying gravely."