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More Book beastThe Undocumented Cross-Dresser
Terry Greene Sterling is an Arizona journalist who blogs about immigration in Phoenix at terrygreenesterling.com. Her book, ILLEGAL, Life and Death in Arizona's Immigration War Zone, was published July 1st by the Globe Pequot Press.
Kathy McCraine
In all of the debate over the immigration law in Arizona the individual lives of people like Rodrigo, a manual laborer and cross-dresser, can get lost. Terry Greene Sterling tells his story in her new book, Illegal.
Arizona is the epicenter of the nation’s immigration brawl and my new book, Illegal: Life and Death in Arizona’s Immigration War Zone, profiles the invisible immigrants stubbornly hunkering down in the Phoenix area, persevering despite kidnappings, killings, and laws meant to drive them out of the state. I follow several characters over time, chronicling how they hope, sin, die, work, and love in the shadows of Phoenix.
In one chapter, called “The Border Crosser,” I profile Rodrigo, a cross-dressing construction worker whose alter ego, Erika, morphs from a southern Mexico prostitute to an Arizona party girl after she sneaks into Phoenix. Erika and Rodrigo share the same hubris—they fall in love with married men who grew up under the enforced heterosexuality of Mexican Catholicism. In the excerpt that follows I visit Rodrigo in the apartment he shares with Emilio, who as a kid was smuggled across the line by a pedophile narco. The passage brings the readers into Rodrigo’s tentative world, and foreshadows the dangers and temptations that lie ahead.
I visited Rodrigo several times in the spring of 2009. He shared the apartment with a friend I’ll call Emilio, an undocumented Mexican immigrant who had been smuggled into the United States at the age of 12 by a drug lord. Emilio had been kept in the drug lord’s Chicago home and used as a sex slave. Orphaned in Mexico, Emilio didn’t have a lot of options, and would never think of his years in Chicago as sexual abuse. He would instead remember them as confining. A babysitter took care of him when the pedophile drug lord was out of town, and Emilio was well fed and clothed. Mostly, he watched TV, which taught him English, played video games, and plotted his escape. He secretly communicated with another immigrant who had a relative in Phoenix, and finally the two escaped to Arizona. Emilio eventually got a job at a fast-food restaurant using a friend’s Social Security card, and his English skills and work ethic soon got him promoted to manager. By this time, he was in his late 20s.
Rodrigo and Emilio both loved men, but they weren’t attracted to each other. (I can attest to that, since one day at the apartment I bumped into Emilio’s boyfriend, a decidedly straight-looking mayate who was embarrassed that I knew he was involved with a gay man.) In the one-bedroom apartment, Rodrigo slept on the living-room couch and Emilio slept in the bedroom.
Illegal: Life and Death in Arizona’s Immigration Zone. By Terry Greene Sterling. 256 pages. Lyons Press. $16.95.
A small statue of La Santa Muerte, or Saint Death, sat on Emilio’s bed stand. The grinning skeleton saint is said to be worshipped by many involved in the drug trade. She originated in the Roman Catholic Church in Mexico, but the same church disavowed her. In 2009 President Felipe Calderón of Mexico ordered that several of her altars be destroyed as part of his professed war against drug cartels. Emilio left offerings to his Santa Muerte, mostly dollar bills and cigarettes.
Emilio paid for Rodrigo’s share of the $570 monthly rent and utilities expenses. Rodrigo had pawned his jewelry to help Emilio pay the rent. Their situation was not unusual in Phoenix—undocumented immigrants like Rodrigo couldn’t collect unemployment, although they’d paid plenty of taxes through their fake documents when they were working. Absent public assistance in times of dire need, undocumented immigrants took care of each other in what amounted to an underground social service network.
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Terry Greene Sterling is an Arizona journalist who blogs about immigration in Phoenix at terrygreenesterling.com. Her book, ILLEGAL, Life and Death in Arizona's Immigration War Zone, was published July 1st by the Globe Pequot Press.
charlesholden
Couple of things, basic ID costs from $100.00 to the high end at $250.00, it is just not that hard, And being a cross dresser in the Mexican culture,... come on get a life, nobody really cares,...
Margot707
The total cost with legal fees can run into the thousands. Regardless, it can take years to get through the system. Someone who has been in the country illegally for any reason more than six months is automatically denied a visa which is the first step to getting registered legally. I know people who had what they thought were legal green cards and social security cards, but eventually found out they were counterfeit after they'd been in the country for years.
Holyterror44
Did they go through the proper channels? Or try to jump the line?
The government doesn't give counterfeit papers, so they must have gone somewhere else.
jihobbyist
FLOL. This is too fuckin much.
Obama is going to shit bricks when he finds out there's a bunch of illegal trannies who can't get unemployment benefits. God help him and the Dem.
Elan Head
Of the many things one could say about cross dressing in the Mexican culture - and about this very interesting excerpt - "come on get a life, nobody really cares"?! Um, seriously? Terry: great excerpt, I look forward to reading the book.
Rhett6
While I can certainly sympathize with the young men depicted in this article and with the author's attempt to put a human face on our on going problem with immigration,I cannot consent to calling them "undocumented immigrants." They have come into my country without permission and remain here illegally. They are 'illegals."
Yes,I understand that one of the two was brought here as a child and without his consent,the fact remains that no matter how much the liberals want to and try to spin this problem into a big emotional issue the United States of America cannot and must not take on the burden of an additional 10 to 12 million dependents. That is exactly what they will become if amnesty is granted,Dependents
The problem isn't really the people nor their numbers,the problem is their mental attitude...why haven't these same people at least attempted to reform their own country?Why do they come here expecting America to take care of them?They seem to start out already defeated and as any intelligent person knows the right mental attitude can mean success of failure.
Mexico is a beautiful and wealthy country.It should be that for all its citizens.
The Saint
"They are 'illegals.""
Ah, the first step in demonizing any group is dehumanizing it, as this quote demonstrates. They are 'people in the US illegally' or 'human beings here illegally'. Never forget that they're human beings just like any American citizens. I'm sure some will say I'm being pedantic, but words matter. Just ask Karl Rove or Frank Luntz. Or George Orwell.
whk2004
It is against the law for them to be here, no ifs ands or buts. Arizona's immigration law is the same as the national but now it can actually be enforced. I don't think my hard earned cash should support people who are breaking the law; in a perfect world we can help everyone, but get out of your fantasy world and face reality America cannot afford to help these people. If you want to help them out then donate to a charity or something, but do not force it on me.
Why is this journalist depicting these illegal immigrants as heros? They are breaking the law. Why don't you liberals step out of your fairytail land and face reality, in case you haven't noticed people have to work for everything in this world. Nothing is free. So if you don't like your circumstances then work to improve them, but complaining won't do shit!
Rhett6
Ah,the ever politically correct liberal attitude.
Who never met a social problem that couldn't be cured with other people's money.
Is this really only a semantics problem?
I think not.
The real issue is what I said,those human beings of whom we are speaking are here without permission to supposedly seek a better life. They differ markedly from the American attitude and nature in that they already seem defeated.
Why are they not working to change their own country instead of insisting and with,I might add,the assistance of liberals like yourself,to change mine.
I owe them nothing and neither does any other American.
The people I do owe are my children and my grandchildren who deserve a life in the country I have worked for and fought for.
Holyterror44
No one said they weren't human beings, and they wouldn't be "dehumanized" if they would simply fill out a few papers, as millions have done before them.
I think we should stop thinking of Mexicans as uniquely incapable of conforming to the law.
What is the point of this article? That we're big bullies who make it impossible for drag queens to live with dignity? Maybe while "waiting for the ouster of Sheriff Joe," he could go fill out his immigration papers.
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Margot707
Wow, this article really brought out all the haters, and on multiple levels to boot.
iamone3
Margot707
"Wow, this article really brought out all the haters, and on multiple levels to boot."
The haters of America are those supporting & encouraging illegal aliens to come here & stay here. Illegal aliens need to go home or they will be caught & forced out.
Diane D'Angelo
Thank you for a most interesting portrait. Too frequently undocumented immigrants are made out to be saints or demons, instead of multifaceted people with strengths and flaws like anyone else.
iamone3
It is irrelevant what their strengths or weaknesses are. If they are here illegally they need to leave.
octavio
This woman needs to write a book about the homosexuals in the USA's Capitol Hill.A book about the homosexual senators would bring her more money.The author can also throw in a chapter about the Vatican's Pope --- he is overdressed and loves homosexuals,pedophile,et cetera.
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backfire
Enough is enough.
Holyterror44
"The Undocumented Cross-Dresser." Now there's a group we should worry about. What, exactly, does being a cross-dresser add to this story? And why should we care that he can't receive unemployment benefits? He couldn't get them in Mexico, either.
Ritarita
What does it add
To this story?
It got you over here.
Gregory Curtis
really?
cosmojude
Are you seriously trying to create some sort of sympathy and tears for an illegal crossdressing freak? What kind of desperate "writer" are YOU? You're more pitiful than him.
Sorry - DO NOT CARE. He needs to disappear. He's using resources for Americans; he has no right being here. My interest in him is zero. My concern with fixing the oil leak and cleaning up the Gulf is paramount. Shame on you, TDB, you really are reaching. Pathetic.
scott1607
What would Jesus do?
iamone3
Probably forgive him if he asked, then tell him to go his way & sin no more. But to know for sure YOU would have to ask him.
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Margot707
I can't quite figure out who you're slamming harder, the right wing nuts or the progressives.
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Margot707
Sounds like you're slamming progressives to me. Much of your diatribe shows your hatred of gays and illegals. "...spending your money on a herd of undocumented Spanish-only speakers..." and "The out of touch social pundits who bring you trannies and freaks are not progressive, they harm the liberal cause by associating it with the fringe... the(y) send the middle class running for vomit bags... " It's your narrow minded opinion that puts "trannies" on the fringe. You also don't seem to know the difference between a transsexual, transvestite and homosexual, not that you'd care from the tone of your postings here.
wikieditor
Koolaidantidote--
If you had balls, you wouldn't hate on people just because they were different then you.
iamone3
Margot707 & wikieditor: You both sound like children, you think everyone that doesn`t agree with you are "haters".
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wikieditor
Just because you are ashamed of your own sexuality doesn't mean you have to force your insecurities on everyone else.
Sorry, bro.
PaulJG
To me, "undocumented immigrant" implies that there are millions of people who merely "forgot" to seek citizenship, or follow the laws to enter this country.
If you break the law, you have done something illegal. If you break the law to enter this country, you are a criminal. So, for those who want to split hairs, and try to trivialize the illegal immigration issue, I ask: which would you rather -- "illegal immigrant" or "criminal immigrant?"
Margot707
The only difference between our parents, grand parents or great grand parents and the current wave of undocumented immigrants, is the country in which they were born.
PaulJG
...And the fact that there are now LAWS that were not required at the time our grandparents came -- and became naturalized citizens of this country. And I have my grandparents' papers to prove that they actively sought citizenship. Stop the excuses.
iamone3
Margot707;
Like the current wave of drug dealers is just "undocumented pharmacists". Right?
Holyterror44
Have you heard of Ellis Island? Immigrants not only had to go through there, they could be quarantined for months.
Making demands of immigrants is nothing new, and if they respect this country, they will meet those demands.
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PaulJG
You think this is the only type of criminal I care about? You are dismissed. Thanks for playing.
Again, stop the excuses.
timeflies
Agree. Any American who has encountered the intense level of scrutiny and passport/visa difficulty involved with merely traveling to another country, especially one that isn't in the cushy EU, fully understands how arrogant illegals are who break into the U.S. and who demean our sovereign laws and citizenry.
greenback
This person must be declared legal NOW or the NeoCons win.
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
itstrue
You're mistaken when you say that only the "fringe" respects people like the man in this article. Why is a cross-dresser, gay person, or Mexican (not sure which one you oppose more) useless? There is room in this world for all kinds of people. People don't have to be exactly like me to have my respect. You may have political disagreements with immigration policy, you may object to what you perceive as a sympathetic bias toward illegal immigrants, but it should be directed at the legal aspect only. There is no need to resort to homophobic name calling. Every person has my respect until they do something to lose it. I don't expect strangers to have to earn my respect - why should they? They've got nothing to prove to me. I respect their humanity, and while you may not like the statistics, never confuse a person with a number.
iamone3
Why do you think it is alright to show favoritism to Mexicans? Why do you think Mexicans should not fill out the proper paper work & get in line & wait their turn?
scott1607
What would Jesus do? Send people away and put up a wall?
iamone3
Probably forgive them if they asked then tell them to go their way & sin no more. That applies to illegal aliens too, I would think if they are causing someone else to sin.
Thank you.
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