The Guardians

Content Warning: This section discusses sexual assault, abduction and human trafficking, murder, torture, and femicide.

Regina

Regina’s 15-year-old nephew, Gabo, is staying with her. Gabo is from Mexico, and Regina would like him to live with her until he finishes high school. His father, Rafa, returned to Mexico after the last pecan harvest and is now in the process of crossing the border again. Regina thinks that he should have remained in the US with Gabo, but she knows that he has a new wife in Chihuahua to whom he wanted to return. Gabo’s mother, Ximena, died seven years ago while crossing the border with a group of women. She and the others were found dead in the desert, the victims of organ traffickers. Rafa insists that Gabo should grow up partly in Mexico so that he doesn’t become a “gringo” and has the opportunity to know his Mexican family. Regina resents the implication that living in the US makes anyone a “gringo.” She reflects that the lands in and around her small New Mexican border town belonged to the Mexicans before they were part of the US, and before they were Mexican, they had been Apache.