Summary

The article “Toil and Temptation” by Michael Kamber follows the story of Antonio Gonzalez. He is an 18-year old illegal immigrant from the Mexican village Zapotitlán, who came to the US to join his brother Juan Carlos.

He starts working at the same carwash as his brother, where many other illegal immigrants are employed. Antonio, who used to work in a slaughter house in Mexico, does not do very well at his new job and thinks about returning to Zapotitlán. However, most of the men from his village have emigrated and now form a small diaspora in New York.

The article presents several stories of other Mexican immigrants, such as that of a man who came to the US after his son, or that of Angel Flores, who founded a baseball club to keep together the Mexican community in New York. Flores, who works as a painter, is proud that his money helped his siblings in Mexico get a higher education, even if he remains a laborer.

Another story is that of a Mexican couple who met in Mexico. The girls’ parents rejected the boy and sent her away. The couple meet again accidentally in New York and now form a family.

One-fifth of immigrants from Zapotitlán are women. In the whole Mexican community in New York, 40% are women. They lead the top of immigrant births, surpassing the number of children born in South Asia...