In the spring of 1999, when Javier Zamora was 9 years old, he left his home village in El Salvador. His family had hired a coyote, a smuggler, to help him cross the southern border of the United States illegally and join his parents, who were living in California. “Gringolandia,” he writes as he approaches his destination. “The country of the movies, popcorn, pizza for school lunches, snowball fights, swimming pools, Toys ‘R’ Us, and McDonald’s.”
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