Summary

Javier Zamora’s parents always referred to his leaving El Salvador for the United States as a “trip.” He lived with his Abuelita and dreamed that he was a superhero who could fly, leaving behind El Salvador and traveling all the way to California where his parents lived. He imagined that he had a huge TV, a backyard with a swimming pool, and many fruit trees. Javier fears getting older without getting the opportunity to go to the United States to be with his parents. He knows that most of the people from his home that do leave their country and move to the United States never come back to El Salvador.

He overhears his grandfather talking on the phone about a man named Don Dago, the smuggler who brought his mother to the U.S. four years ago. Javier deduces that it...