Dreamland: Part 1: Enrique Summary & Analysis

In the summer of 1999, a young, well-dressed Mexican man uses a fake ID to cross the border from Mexico into Arizona. He takes a cab to the Yuma International Airport, where he flies to Phoenix. When the young man arrives at the airport, he sees a group of Mexican men dressed in dirty, faded clothes. He assumes that they are illegal immigrants: hard workers, but with nothing to show for it. This man sometimes goes by “Enrique.” He grew up poor in a village in Nayarit, Mexico, where his father was a sugarcane farmer. Now, though, Enrique has a business, “with employees and expenses.” His success allows him to purchase “his first Levi’s 501s.” With his fake ID, he can cross the border freely.

Enrique waits for his plane and sees an immigration officer ask the other men for their IDs. The men cannot provide identification, so they are escorted away, likely to be deported. Enrique sympathizes with the men. He knows that hard, honest work isn’t enough to get ahead in the world, and he uses this knowledge to justify his own line of work. Enrique later boards his plane to Phoenix. From there, he travels to Santa Fe, New Mexico.