We Are Not from Here

The three teenage migrants travel away from Arriaga on the roof of the train as their victorious feeling fades. Pulga pulls a Walkman from his backpack and listens to a mix tape. His father made the mix tape for Consuelo before he died, and she gave it to Pulga when she thought he was old enough. On the mix tape, Pulga can hear his father’s voice speaking loving comments to his mother. Pulga’s father was Mexican but raised in the United States, so he speaks a blend of Spanish and English. Pulga realizes that his mother knew the tape would make him sad but wanted Pulga to have a connection to the father he never knew. Pulga watches the sky turn dark and almost falls asleep. When he startles awake, a man glares at him as if warning him not to speak to his girlfriend. Pulga flips the tape and keeps listening.

Pequeña watches the stars from the roof of the train as well, thinking about how she attempted to kill herself, the baby, or both when she purposely fell out of the bus door in the market. She thinks about her mother holding the baby.