The Only Road

Ángela is Miguel’s older sister and Jaime’s cousin; after Miguel’s death she is targeted by the Alphas for recruitment. Ángela represents the particular plight of women and girls; they are targeted by gangs not just to join them but to be female/sexual companions to the men in those gangs. Young women are given the “choice” to exchange their bodies for their families’ freedom and safety; the most fortunate among them will gain safety and security of their own, while the least will be violently raped, tortured, or murdered—or all of the above. Ángela’s first kiss with Xavi is a sad parody of what a 15-year-old girl might hope for: She has met a handsome and kind boy close to her age, but they are dirty and tired and ragged when they come together at a migrant refuge, and soon they will separate and never see each other again.

Jaime and Ángela are unremarkable, ordinary children, blank slates who represent the many hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of children like them: Children who have been loved by their families and who must leave those families if they are to have any hope of a better life.

Miguel is Jaime’s 12-year-old cousin who is murdered by the local gang, the Alphas, setting in motion the events that send Jaime and Ángela north. Miguel is an innocent, caught up in the violence that plagues the region, and his death is presented as a tragic yet almost inevitable event. Because he refused to join the gang, they must retaliate or be perceived as weak. Miguel’s death is the spark the families need to insist Jaime and Ángela leave. This represents a terrible dramatic irony in that with Miguel’s death, not just one but all three of the children are taken away.

Diaz uses these characters to illustrate the many reasons children might leave their homes: Xavi, age 17, is leaving El Salvador because he “want[s] the freedom to make [his] own choices and be in control of [his] future” (103). Xavi is not specific about what obstacles he faced in El Salvador, but he has fled the country with nothing but a broken cellphone. He has stolen a polo shirt bearing the crest of a private school and is hoping that will protect him against questions from la migra. Xavi tries to look out for the other children, but he cannot even save himself.

Rafa is also 17 and is leaving Honduras to escape his alcoholic mother and her many “boyfriends”; Rafa is cheeky and careless but redeems himself when he volunteers to go with a gang that approaches the group and requires one of them to smuggle drugs over the border. Rafa also has no possessions but the clothes on his back, and his determination to meet what is an inevitably tragic end with a joking smile on his face is both reckless and poignant, as no other conclusion to his story seems possible. He, like Xavi, most likely becomes one of the many nameless dead whose bones litter the road north.

Joaquín is the youngest of the group that Jaime and Ángela take up with, just 11 years old. The children eventually discover that Joaquín is a girl disguising herself as a boy. Joaquín is also from Honduras and reveals little about herself or her life, but her decision to make the journey alone and unprotected explains exactly how desperate she must be.

Diaz includes these characters both to give Jaime and Ángela companionship and to show they are not the only ones making this difficult journey; she is also reminding the reader that Jaime and Ángela are hardly unique or even coming from the most dire circumstances. They have families who have packed them food and raised money for them to pay smugglers, and they have each other. Jaime and Ángela are constantly surprised by the sheer number of people, including young, unaccompanied children, who are leaving everything behind and risking their lives for the slim chance at a better future.

Pulguita represents the path Miguel or Jaime might have taken if they had joined the Alphas: He has been outfitted with “new and expensive” clothes and a “flashy iPhone” (8), but he must do the gang’s bidding. He tempts Miguel and Jaime to join them, suggesting they could provide for their families and ease the burdens of poverty, but the other boys are steadfast in their refusal. They would rather suffer than sell themselves to the Alphas, especially as they know the Alphas would own them and their families completely. Their decision to refuse Pulguita leads to Miguel’s death and Jaime and Ángela’s flight north.

Padre Kevin runs a migrant shelter housed in a decrepit church on the southern side of the US-Mexico border. Diaz implies that Padre Kevin might be American; whatever his nationality, he is an unlikely religious figure: “Padre Kevin looked nothing like any priest Jaime had ever seen before, with his sandals, flowery Bermuda shorts, blue tank top, and the cigarette stuck to his bottom lip” (93). Padre Kevin’s relationship with El Gordo is one of uneasy mutual assistance: Padre Kevin is embarrassed and hesitant to take food and presumably money from El Gordo, while El Gordo is delighted to have a priest and a church at which his customers assemble. Diaz does not explicitly address why Padre Kevin has entered into or stayed in this alliance, but Jaime suspects that Padre Kevin may be like him and feel he doesn’t have a choice: To do some good, he must do a little bad.