“She had lived her youth in a farming village in Sonora, northern Mexico. As a young girl, she loved going to school and was shocked at age 12 to be told by her parents that she needed to drop out. Money being tight, they wanted her to start working. She helped out on a neighboring farm for ten hours a day, receiving eight cents for each hour of backbreaking labor under a scorching sun. At age 16, she had been smuggled across el norte – the U.S. border – and worked as a dishwasher and floor mopper. She had never had the opportunity to resume her education. She told John that if he had been there, maybe she could have stayed in school.”