The first inch of a saguaro
Abstract
The First Inch of a Saguaro follows three Mexican American teenagers after their father, Luis, is arrested for a drug-related murder in an Arizona border town. During Luis' trial, fourteenyear-old Javier takes to leaving home in the middle of the night and wanders the streets. On the edge of town, he finds ghostly women trapped in a cult and he desperately works to free them. Once his father is convicted of murder, Javier must navigate this dangerous cult while growing up without his father at home. Middle child Alejandra is angry--angry at her friends, her father, and the world. Unable to cope with this world in which her father is in prison, she runs away with another boy from high school who feels he has no reason to stay after his mother and stepfather skip out. They travel the country in his van for several years--meeting other teenagers in need of help and eventually settling into a commune in California. All the while, Alejandra sends postcards to her father in prison. Paulina, the eldest, was preparing for college when Luis was pulled from their home. Ever the dutiful daughter, she sacrifices everything to support Javier and her mother. Paulina takes on local gig work during the day, and tries to reconcile her sexuality and her religious beliefs at night. Luis' trial is not the focal point of this novel. Throughout, his guilt is always in question. Instead, the story focuses on the way that Javier, Alejandra, and Paulina begin to grow distant as the arrest of their father destroys the stability of their home life. They face the community's condemnation and racism, and they navigate the prison visitation space as a form of borderland. Throughout the book, Mexican mythology has a prominent role in the structure of plot, and in the events themselves. The novel inhabits the points of view of the teenagers and details how they deal with the arrest and aftermath during the seven subsequent years.
Degree
Ph. D.