Summary

In Chapter 1, Lost Children, Juan Diego sometimes says he's Mexican because he was born in Mexico, sometimes says he is American because he's lived there most of his life, or sometimes just says he's a Midwesterner. He considers that his life is in two distinct parts – the childhood in Mexico and the adult life in America – and that the two are parallel.

Juan Diego and his sister, Lupe, lived in a shack in Guerrero, a small “colony” of shacks inhabited by the people who worked in the dump, or basurero. The dump was in Oaxaca, Mexico. When he was 14, Juan Diego was aware of how other people talked about the kids who lived at the dump. By that time, he had taught himself to read. He read many books that were thrown away by various people, including leaders of a nearby Jesuit school...