Selected Work
Saint Dismas
Date | Publisher |
March 9, 2024 | The Atlantic |
Carlito held one end of the rope, Omar the other. The three of us wore orange vests to seem official. Sebastián, our lookout, hid behind some bushes.
“¡Here comes one!” I picked up my shovel and dug out some of the dirt we’d dumped in one of the potholes covering the road. Omar held up a gloved hand, signaling for the car to slow down and stop. Things had gotten more difficult for us recently, with the news warning of false checkpoints, where men dressed in military or police uniforms stopped vehicles under the pretense of government-sanctioned searches, forced all the passengers out of the car, and then drove off to have the car scrapped or sold. There was talk of rapes and beatings when the passengers failed to comply, and sometimes those things did happen. But we weren’t like that—we wouldn’t have known what to do with a car if we had managed to steal one… Read More
Caídas
Date | Publisher |
Fall 2024 | The Kenyon Review |
There’s been this American tourist recently, leaving empty water bottles and candy wrappers strewn about the gravel-covered dirt parking lot. Sergio has asked him to please clean up after himself, but the boy hasn’t listened. He seems young — early twenties, that age at which he thinks he’s invincible, untouchable. Sergio remembers that age well, but doesn’t remember ever behaving like an animal.
“The pigs,” Don Sergio said to the boy the last time he spoke to him, asking him to pick up his discarded cereal box, “even they don’t make such a mess.” Don Sergio pointed to the wild animals, four piglets and six adult pigs that roamed near the winding stream and knew to stand farther away from it during the rainy season, the way they were doing now. The boy kicked the cereal box in the direction of the animals, then got in his car and drove off… Read More
So Long to the Rearview
Date | Publisher |
Summer 2022 | Story Magazine |
The next curve is a tricky one. Too much pressure on the gas and the van could tip. Not enough, and the truck a cigarette-length from your fender will send you flying cliffside. Or worse, they’ll overtake you ‘round the blind corner. This happens, and your regulars will click their tongues and say each second costs them money. You check the rearview with the crack across its length and missing top-left corner. Do a quick headcount. About equal per side, but the heavier ones are on the right. Plus, cargo weight up top will help, long as all four wheels stay on the ground. You tap the accelerator and turn the steering wheel, let the downhill force do the rest. Someone calls from the back. It’s their stop up here. Francisco leans out doorway, signals at the truck behind you that you’re pulling over. The van door slides open and DonJuarez and his pregnant wife climb out…. Read More
Whistle While You Work
Date | Publisher |
Spring 2022 | The Pinch Journal |
The job started at five thirty in the morning. The crew was me, Jorge, and Shawna, and we were in charge of two buildings connected by an awning. The goal was to constantly look busy — emptying trash cans, mopping floors and putting out wet floor signs — while not working hard enough to finish all of our duties too fast. The job sucked, but it didn’t require a high school diploma, or even a GED, so I couldn’t complain too much, I guess.
“Before you do the bathrooms in Fassler,” Jorge called out to me from inside the janitor’s closet, next to the table where we took our lunch breaks. “Shawna wants to see you.” He emerged waving a communal walkie-talkie at me. I would only get one with my name taped on it after I passed what he and Shawna called the six-month free-trial period.t…. Read More on the Arkansas Times
Volcanes
Date | Publisher |
September 19 | Porter House Review |
“Look what you did,” Boñec said to Jaime—his ten-year-old cousin—when the preliminary reports were announced. “Set the whole country on fire.”
“I didn’t do it,” Jaime said.
“They say it could go on for days.”
“But—” Jaime said, getting cut off by Boñec turning the volume all the way up on his boombox.
They were sitting in Boñec’s room—Boñec on his bed in Nike basketball shorts, a tank top that showed off the muscles he worked on every morning, and unlaced sneakers; Jaime—dressed in a collared Polo and khaki shorts, legs criss-crossed on the floor—had only been in Guatemala for a couple of days. Was supposed to only be there for a couple of weeks. Guess his parents didn’t want him back. Boñec could understand why. He’d spent his entire time in Guatemala complaining about the lack of central AC, the cement floors, and the food, which he ate by the basket anyway. …. Read More
What is Lost is Not Lost
Date | Publisher |
September 30, 2020 | Joyland Magazine |
finished explaining the plan to my brother, detailing all the specifics of my mental blueprints—how we would avoid the creaky floorboards, get the car keys—but he wasn’t getting it. I peered into his dark-brown eyes, and he stared back at me blankly. I snapped my fingers in front of his face and said, “¿Entiendes?” Domingo shook his head no; his twelve-year-old brain could not make sense of why I wanted to sneak out of the house to visit a girl in the middle of the night.
“But ¿porqué?” he asked.
“Because I want to,” I said.
“Why can’t you go alone?”
That was a valid question, but I was fifteen and didn’t have time for reasoning. I had this stupid notion that if we got caught together, the blame would be split in half, or at the very least, the punishment wouldn’t be as severe. Maybe we could even just say that we were driving around when there were fewer cars on the road, practicing for my driver’s permit. “Because, man — look, you coming, or you gonna be a little puta?” …. Read More
Essays
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