Dear Reader,
I moved to Guatemala when I was around 30 and lived there for 10 years. I was widowed at age 28, and left with four kids. Two years later I met and married a man who was from my area, but didn't spend a lot of time there. His parents had been missionaries, so he had lived in Guatemala from the age of four. To him, Guatemala was "home." So when we got married, I and my four kids all moved with him to Guatemala. While there I had four more kids, and now live in Florida.
When I first moved to Guatemala, which is the country just south of Mexico, I was shocked when the local people were always referring to going to States illegally as "going mojado". The Spanish word "mojado" means "wet." Growing up in the US, to me the word "wetback" was a derogatory term, but that's the word they use for it. I don't know who used it first, us or them, but either way, I guess joke's on the racists, because that's just their word for it.
In Guatemala, their money is called the Quetzal (Ket-sal). One Quetzal, is equivalent to about thirteen cents in US Dollars. When the characters discuss money, I skipped over the part where you have to read a word that looks funky to you, and the part where you have to math. Who wants to math to figure out what costs they're really talking about? So, you could say I have had the characters speak in dollars.
I also have had the Spanish characters speaking in English, obviously, because that would make for a bit of a difficult read if you had to put all the dialogue into Google Translate, now wouldn't it? But here and there I try to add some simple Spanish that should be obvious to the reader, to remind you that these characters speak Spanish, not English.
But there is one kinda' funky word I left in the book, and that's the main character's name.
When you write a book, you'd be surprised, but a lot of things "just happen" as you're writing. Just like real people, the characters just end up doing, or saying something you didn't plan. Events just seem to happen. Characters appear. And the names the characters end up with usually just happens, too. It's not calculated or plotted, chosen, or planned, it's just as the character pops into your head, they have a name. (Last names I tend to calculate, but first names just happen.) It's weird.
All that is to say that "Herson" is probably not my first choice of a name for English readers to have to deal with, but that's the name that popped into my head for the main character. So, I do apologize.
When I lived in Guatemala, there was a little boy, a tiny adorable little guy who rarely spoke, who lived a few houses down and would sometimes come over to play with my kids. His name was Herson. That's the only Herson I know.
But you're thinking it's not really that bad. It's different, but nothing like trying to pronounce Guillermo or something. True. But it's not pronounced the way your English brain is thinking.
Here's your Spanish lesson for the day - the "h" is always silent in Spanish, because the letter "j" is pronounced like an "h." (So what do they even need the "h" for, right?)
This means the name, Herson, is pronounced kind of like, "AIR-sun." (Emphasis on the 1st half of the name.)
I'm sorry. I know you may have preferred him to be a Carlos or a Juan, but sorry. That's not the name he got.
And something you might wonder is - is Herson a "real" person? Yes and no.
Over the years I lived in Guatemala I talked to many people who had either gone through the whole process of leaving Guatemala to head for the States in the pursuit of the American Dream, or had a family member or friend who'd done so. And, honestly, that's pretty much everyone. Everyone has a friend, or family member whose done it.
And as a member of the community, I saw many wood or stick-sided thatched-roof huts with growing piles of cinder blocks beside them, which later were transformed into nice, solid houses. These new homes happened thanks to one of their relatives, usually their adult son, sometimes a daughter, who was sending money back from the States.
I knew people who had gone to the States in the past, mojado, and had worked successfully, saving up their earnings, and after a few years returned home to open stores, and were then living financially successful lives.
I knew people who had gone to the States after selling all their property, and ended up caught in Mexico, and sent back, penniless, only to borrow money and try again.
I knew people who had gone to the States and were "kidnapped" and held for ransom at the border by people they had no power against. Who can an illegal immigrant turn to when wronged on a journey where they're illegally in Mexico and sneaking illegally into the US?
I heard stories of young women who were raped on the journey, because, again, when someone is in the middle of doing something illegal, who can they turn to?
And I think we've all heard the horror stories that make the news from time to time, like the story of the group of abandoned immigrants, abandoned, and all dying inside a semi-truck container.
Some of those who have gone to the States have returned to lived happily ever after in Guatemala. But some who have gone to the States, discover a world they don't ever want to leave.
So many stories.
So, this book is based on years of hearing people's stories. It is not one person's story in particular, but it is many people's stories, and I hope I do them justice.
- Dara
