Urrea's
Across the Wire, is a poignant story of life in the "dompes" (dumps) along the Tijuana/San Diego border. In it, Urea describes his acquaintance with various people and families, living in these dumps, often in raw detail, documenting their incomprehensible plights. I became quite intrigued with the story because I cannot conceive living so inhumanely, and yet Urea shares his characters' story with as much dignity as the context could possibly allow.
Across the Wire, conveys a repulsive environment devised of "scabies...dump rats...and feces" set-up alongside, a pit wherein "the city drops off its dead animals-dogs, cats, sometimes goats, horses...[to be] torched." What makes this imagery even more astonishing is the hierarchy of station, between the residents, which accompanies it. Even in the most dire of circumstances humans always find ways to establish a socio-cultural order and more often than not, the people therein are inevitably ranked according to whatever measure is established.
Take into account, Dona Araceli, "the Cheese Lady" who was somewhat of an advocate for new and poorer families (if there is such a thing in these parts) moving into the dompe, and emphatically made it her business to assure that there were houses built for them. And then there are "the Serrano's" a
stereotypical family comprised of a mother, father, two boys and a little girl, and another baby on the way. Yet, Mrs. Serrano was stricken with such dehydration that it was thought the baby would never make it to full gestation. Urea, and his colleagues help the mother by prescribing medications to her but are quickly refused by her husband because they "can't read." Mrs. Serrano was then instead given an anti-diarrea medication and "jugs of Gatorade..water..and some clothes." The living conditions that the Serrano's and other families endure are unimaginable and yet they function just as such, to the point where even their sexual appetites are hardly quelled and they often increase the size of their families in spite of the poverty they are stricken with. Families of the dompe love fiercely, endure the madness of eating "meat that is not too rotten to be cooked", and find the finest luxuries in other people's waste. Moreover, they hold tight to their pride and push through it like a lawnmower through grass. As better explained by Urea, "the poor don't feel the compunction to play the humble and quiet role we assign them in our minds." At least, the people of the San Diego/Tijuana dompe that Urea describes surely do not.
The saddest story in
Across the Wire was that of Jesusita and her family. Urea describes her as a loved one, perhaps an "aunt" or endearing relative who held a demeanor that could disarm the hardest of souls. Jesusita, was somewhat of a celebrity around town attending church service and bible studies. Such an environment even had a church institutionalized within it which proves even further the tenacity of the human spirit. Unfortunately, Jesusita's and her husband would be made to endure a terrible murder by thugs of the community, forcing their children from their home, never to be found again. All of these different elements of society and life built right into a place of "miasma" and filth and yet these families and countless others go on as if there is no hope and that all is meant to be as it is, fully functional however debilitating the long-term effects are.
