Arturo Islas' "Migrant Souls" is a short story based on the life on a Mexican American Family living in Del Sapo, Texas. The children attend public schools and show signs of enculturation while the parents both encourage and resist the Americanization of their children. The family deals with the everyday pressures immigrants often face and maintain a sense of humor throughout every experience. In an effort to have a unique identity, the family struggles with the social, psychological, and cultural duality "living on the border" causes them to have.

The family in "Migrant Souls" is an example of the social effect racism has on a subculture. The first example of this is when Josie thinks about how her mother has sympathy for the families of "twenty-one Mexican males" who died in a boxcar on the way to a job. Josie believes her mother had compassion because "they were...