Summary

“Coming to America, to clean” begins with Antonia recalling how she grew up in a small Mexican village, a place that all her friends wanted to leave. Antonia recalls how she and her cousin Blanca decided to cross the border to the US illegally and how they found a smuggler to help them. Antonia says her uncle lent her some money to get near the border and that she left a note for her mother when she left.

Antonia describes the night trip when she and her cousin along with other Mexicans were smuggled across the border, which turned out to be very easy although she was scared. They went through a fence and were picked up by a car on the other side. She mentions that her employers paid for her smuggling and that she had to work for one month without pay in return. At the time Antonia reached the US, she ha...