(Chart on wall of Border Patrol waiting room.)
According to Mexico’s Foreign Relations Office:
In 1995, 61 border deaths along the Mexico/Arizona border.
In 1996, 87
In 1997, 149
In 1998, 329
In 1999, 358
In 2000, to date mid-August, 401 written in, crossed out, replaced with 411.
(This wouldn’t include the bodies seen in the desert or all those unaccounted for throughout the years.)
What is the average number of deaths per year since Operation Gatekeeper in California, Operation Safeguard in Arizona, and Operation Rio Grande in Texas began in 1994?
Solution: 61 + 87 + 149 + 329 + 358 + 411 = 1,395
1,395 ÷ 6 years = 232.5 deaths/year
Consider just the most recent three years, 1998–2000. What is the average number of border deaths each day?
Solution: 329 + 358 + 411 = 1,098
1,098 ÷ 3 years = 366 deaths/year or ~1 death/day
Math Problem #7
The drive from Nogales, Arizona to Los Angeles, California, was 551.39 American miles.
If five of the seven passengers planned to drive an equal distance, how long would they each have to drive if they traveled at an average of 65 miles per hour?
Solution: 1 hour and 42 minutes each
551.39 miles ÷ 5 drivers = 110.3 miles each
110.3 miles ÷ 65 miles per hour = 1.7 hours
7/10 of 60 minutes = 42 minutes
Therefore 1 hour and 42 minutes each
Math Problem #8
Betty’s Bakery received the following order:
25 plain croissants @ $1.75
25 chocolate croissants @ $1.75
25 Napoleons @ $1.95
25 chocolate éclairs @ $1.95
25 brioches @ $1.85
Compute the total cost in American dollars and cents.
Then compute the change for this purchase if given two $100 bills and a $50 bill. (Explain what American bills and coins you would choose as change.)
*Do not use a calculator! It’s important to keep your basic skills sharp!
Solution: Total cost is $231.25 Change back is $18.75
(One $10 bill, one $5 bill, three $1 bills, and three quarters.)
50 × $1.75 = 87.50
50 × $1.95 = 97.50
25 × $1.85 = 46.25
Total cost $231.25
Change back: $250.00 – 231.25 = $18.75
$10.00 + $5.00 + (3 × $1.00) + 3 quarters @ 0.25 cents each = $18.75
Math Problem #9
A recipe for Berta’s Sugarbaby Cookies calls for ½ kg of sugar. How many times can she make these cookies before she uses up a 6 kg bag of sugar?
Solution: 12 times
6 kg ÷ ½ kg = 6 × 2/1 = 12/1 = 12
Math Problem #10: Math Placement Review!
1. Change to Mixed Numbers
9/4
Solution: 9 ÷ 4 = 2 ¼
2. Change to Improper Fractions
7 ¾
Solution: 31/4 (4 × 7) + 3 over 4 or (28 + 3) = 31/4
3. Simplify (reduce to lowest terms)
32/68
Solution: 8/17 (divide each by 4) 32 ÷ 4 = 8 68 ÷ 4 = 17
4. Multiply
1 ½ × 2 ¾
Solution: 4 1/8
First change to improper fractions: 1 ½ = 3/2; 2 ¾ = 11/4
3/2 × 11/4 = 33/8 = 4 1/8
5. Divide
4 3/5 ÷ 2 ½
Solution: 1 21/25
First change to improper fractions: 4 3/5 = 23/5; 2 ½ = 5/2
Then invert the second fraction and multiply: 23/5 × 2/5 = 46/25 = 1 21/25
6. Berta and I have the combined age of 66. Berta is 32 years older than I am.
How old is Berta? How old am I?
Solution: Berta is 49. I am 17.
If x = my age x + 32 = Berta’s x + (x + 32) = 66
2x + 32 = 66 2x = 66 – 32 2x = 34 x = 34 ÷ 2 = 17
x = 17 My age 17 + 32 = 49 Berta’s age
Author’s Note
Bearing Witness to
Luz
Since I first began working on this novel in 2004, I’ve been asked many times what led me to write about a young Mexican immigrant girl’s experience. In truth, I think the real question was: Am I qualified, and do I have a right to tell this story? I have worked with the immigrant community in Southern California for decades; I’ve heard numerous stories of the dangers of border crossings and the struggles faced once here; and I’ve been an immigrant rights activist—but I am not Latina.
Initially, I assumed that to write about the issues at the heart of this book, I should take what I called a Barbara Kingsolver approach: In her novel The Bean Trees, her main character is a young, white southern girl who sets out on a journey of her own, which is the center of the novel, but she also meets a couple fleeing the civil war in Guatemala and conveys their story, too, as well as Native American concerns associated with the baby that the protagonist finds. My first attempt at a novel, Blue Flags, was about an Italian-American woman who moves to Southern California to help her brother after a family tragedy, and while there, she learns about migrant deaths in the desert near the border.
After finishing a draft, I set the novel aside and took a writing class with author Gayle Brandeis, winner of Barbara Kingsolver’s Bellwether Prize for Fiction of Social Engagement. In response to one of Gayle’s assignments, I began writing in the voice of a young Mexican girl who was searching for her missing migrant father. It was just an assignment, so I didn’t worry that maybe I shouldn’t or couldn’t. As a result, Alma’s story poured out of me. I couldn’t stop writing. I knew it came from somewhere genuine and true. I trusted that feeling and just kept going.
In the months leading up to the publication of Alma’s story, now titled Luz, a controversy broke out that spoke to the very heart of the concerns I harbored about my own book. American Dirt, the novel by Jeanine Cummins about a middle-class Mexican woman’s harrowing border crossing with her young son, was criticized for stereotypical portrayals of Mexicans and Mexican culture and for not having offered an accurate depiction of the issues at the heart of her story.
As writers, we all stretch our imagination in order to climb into each character’s skin and walk around in it, as
