Citizen Illegal

The Mexicans that St. Peter allows into heaven are sent to work in the kitchen, but they dream of being in another kind of heaven.

Olivarez’s brother is unemployed and poor, but his parents praise him for getting accepted into graduate school. They have been strong enough to raise a family in spite of the closure of the steel mill where the father worked and foreclosure on their house. Now the son may have a chance to succeed, although it may all come to nothing.

Olivarez tried to live up to cultural expectations of what a Mexican son should be like, but he was not very good at it. He went to college and came home for holidays, but he had no prestigious job to show for his efforts. He keeps reproaching himself for various failings, such as his slowness in answering his mother’s texts. She still loves him though.