American Dirt

Chapter 15 opens with a flashback to the year before the massacre, when Mexico was the deadliest place on earth to be a journalist. Sebastián does not receive official cartel death threats, creating a false sense of security reinforced by Lydia’s friendship with Javier. Nevertheless, Sebastián takes precautions after running particularly risky articles, while Lydia becomes hypervigilant. She continues to see Javier at the bookstore, but the tenor of their relationship changes. Although Javier still charms Lydia, she cannot detach the man she knows from the man in her husband’s headlines.

A week before the family's murder, Sebastian prepares to run his exposé. Lydia suggests warning Javier to gauge his response, but Sebastián rejects the idea. Although she is reluctant to learn about Javier’s dark side, Lydia reads Sebastián’s article the night before it goes to press. It outlines Javier’s violent rise to power, including the gruesome murder of a rival’s two-year-old son. The article ends with one of Javier’s poems, which Sebastián obtained from a contest Marta entered on her father’s behalf. Sebastián asks for Lydia’s opinion on the article. She expresses confidence that Javier will find it flattering and convinces him a hotel is an unnecessary precaution.

In the present, Lydia secures herself and Luca to a train grate with canvas belts while Rebeca and Soledad seek them out. Lydia feeds Luca and gives the sisters a granola bar to share as the train ambles north. The migrants watch for police vehicles, flattening themselves against the top of the freight cars to avoid detection. Cargo workers toss them food and refill their canteens whenever the train stops. The sisters warn Lydia about the dangers of the train at night, prompting the group to disembark at San Miguel de Allende.

Luca reminds himself not to be taken by the beauty of the place. He thinks of the massacre and ends up sobbing in his mother’s arms. Rebeca and Soledad get free food from a restaurant worker and share it with Lydia and Luca. The four sleep on benches in the plaza.

Lydia, Luca, and the sisters return to the tracks the next morning. A local padre serves rice and tortillas from the back of a pickup truck, offers the migrants Communion, and gives them a blessing. Rebeca informs her companions that they missed the Pacific Route stop and that they must backtrack to Celaya. Their current route is shorter, but the cartels make it unsafe. They board a southbound train with ease.

Rebeca tells Luca she is Ch’orti and talks about her village in the mountains of Honduras–the so-called cloud-forest–describing it in such vivid terms Luca can see it in his mind’s eye. The tone of Rebeca’s account changes when she discusses the arrival of the cartels, who kidnapped and raped indigenous girls in her village. Rebeca and Soledad’s mother insisted they go live with their father, Elmer, in San Pedro Sula. The sisters enrolled in school, where they experienced discrimination. Rebeca tells Luca that a violent gang member named Iván stopped Soledad on the street one day and declared himself her boyfriend. Iván threatened Soledad’s father, forced her to have sex, and beat her regularly. The situation was so serious Soledad contemplated suicide. It was Iván’s interest in Rebeca, however, that prompted the sisters to flee San Pedro Sula. The sisters’ cousin, César, arranged for a coyote to take them across the border. Luca understands that suffering is common to all migrants.

Soledad informs Lydia that she is pregnant when the group reaches the Casa del Migrante in Celaya. Lydia expresses optimism that the baby will be a US citizen. They enjoy a restorative day at the shelter before looking for a place to board La Bestia. They run alongside the train until men pull them up one at a time. The men are friendly, but as one of the few women on the train, Lydia is on guard. Despite her vigilance, she fails to notice Lorenzo watching her from the end of the car. Luca recognizes him as the sicario who raped the Salvadoran girl in Huehuetoca.

A commotion two cars ahead frightens Luca. A migrant was knocked off the train as it sped through a tunnel. Lydia and Luca watch as the man’s brother jumps after him. Lorenzo sits next to Lydia and strikes up a conversation. Lydia uses a fake name, but Lorenzo knows exactly who she is. He pulls up a selfie she and Javier took and tells her everyone in the state of Guerrero has a copy. Lorenzo insists he is no longer a member of Los Jardineros. Although she is miles away from Acapulco, Lydia feels as vulnerable as ever.

The migrants (including Lorenzo) disembark at La Verde on the outskirts of Guadalajara, where they encounter a large man with a machete named Danilo. He presents himself as their protector, warning them to avoid police officers, security guards, and railroad employees. He also cautions them not to accept help from people offering jobs or accommodations. Soledad is suspicious when Danilo proposes to walk them as far as La Piedrera. He tells her helping migrants is his way of atoning for past wrongs. Lydia falls back to speak with Lorenzo, who reveals he is a 17-year-old runaway and informs her of Marta’s suicide.

In a flashback, the reader learns that Javier likes the article Sebastián wrote about him, though he is surprised not to have seen it coming. Javier is initially pleased by the inclusion of his poem, imagining that Lydia memorized or photographed it and gave it to her husband. Javier’s only concern is the impact of the article on his anonymity. In short, his first reaction is exactly as Lydia predicted. Javier’s wife, on the other hand, is troubled by the content. She fails to reassure Marta when she calls from boarding school. Marta is so distraught she hangs herself in her dorm room three days before Lydia’s family is murdered.