Alfredo Quinones-Hinojosa worked for just$155 a week on a
10,000-acre form in central California. He was an illegal Mexican immigrant
living in a decrepit truck camper.
It had been a year
since he failed in his first attempt crossing the border illegally. He went
over the fence again. It was January 2, 1987, Quinones 19th birthday. This time
his cousin was there. Quinones hopped in his car, and they headed to El Centro.
Quinoneses family
was almost middle-class. But in 1976 the Mexican government devaluated the
peso. Quinones says: "We lost everything just like that. I remember going
to the back of the house to find my father crying."
We turned to his brothers
who were migrant farm workers. Besides working hard at a taco stand he kept up
with school. At the age 14, Quinones qualified for an accelerated program in
Mexicali prepared students for jobs.