georgephillip
Diamond Member
"In a doorless desert safe house in northwestern Mexico, the drug traffickers sized up the boy17 years old, 1,700 miles from home, gay, aloneand asked if he was too scared to strap on a load of marijuana and walk across the border into Arizona.
"The kidIll call him Adriánpaused to consider his options. He didnt have any. Okay, he told them. Hed do it.
"Hed grown up mostly on the streets in Guatemala City, his abusive father a crack addict and his mother everywhere but around, leaving him with a thin, green-eyed prostitute friend who would sometimes have sex with johns right there next to him.
"Hed seen robberies, stabbings, shootings; hed never once set foot in a classroom.
"Eventually he started making a little money selling clothes and makeup in the citys colonial district. It wasnt much, but even so the Barrio 18 street gang took notice and started asking for a cut.
"When Adrián didnt budge, they pockmarked his tiny stall with bullets.
"It was time to leave."
70,000 Kids Will Show Up Alone at Our Border This Year. | The Young Center
"The kidIll call him Adriánpaused to consider his options. He didnt have any. Okay, he told them. Hed do it.
"Hed grown up mostly on the streets in Guatemala City, his abusive father a crack addict and his mother everywhere but around, leaving him with a thin, green-eyed prostitute friend who would sometimes have sex with johns right there next to him.
"Hed seen robberies, stabbings, shootings; hed never once set foot in a classroom.
"Eventually he started making a little money selling clothes and makeup in the citys colonial district. It wasnt much, but even so the Barrio 18 street gang took notice and started asking for a cut.
"When Adrián didnt budge, they pockmarked his tiny stall with bullets.
"It was time to leave."
70,000 Kids Will Show Up Alone at Our Border This Year. | The Young Center