All They Will Call You

In her January 2014 interview with Hernandez, Casimira, Luis’s former girlfriend, tells Hernandez about the last time she spoke to Luis. She says that he didn’t usually call or write before returning from the US, but this time he did. He called to say that he had been picked up by la migra—immigration officials—and was getting deported. He promised that he was coming home, and he would bring her a mariachi band.

At 6:00 am on January 28, 1948, the guard Officer Chaffin wakes up Luis and Ramón in immigration detention. Ramón tells Guadalupe it’s “time to fly” (127). The detainees are nervous about the upcoming flight. Most of them have never been on a plane before. María says it’s better than the trains, which stink of cattle and manure. Someone else retorts that at least the trains are reliable.

In late spring of 1948, José Murillo Ramírez returns to Charco. He goes to the home of Ramón Paredes and tells Ramón’s wife, Elisa, and their six children that Ramón is dead. Eventually, the whole town hears how Ramón and Guadalupe were captured by immigration officials in San Juan Bautista, California.

Guadalupe was living in San Juan Bautista and Ramón came for a visit with Guadalupe and José.