H. Romero-Gomez
... a country of immigrants, a history of oppresion
THE FIRST LIGHT OF DAWN is the story of Mario Lopez, an undocumented immigrant working and raising a family in the United States, and his dream of someday returning to his hometown by the sea.
With page-turning action, the FIRST LIGHT OF DAWN takes the reader from a quiet seaside village to the deep jungles of Panama. From the favelas of a large city to the border towns in Mexico and the Rio Grande.
This novel is similar to 'The Underground Railroad' by Colston Whitehead, for its historical perspective, and comparable with Jeanine Cumings' "American Dirt" in its tone and pacing,
Mario returns home twenty years later with a great sense of loss from all he sacrificed when he immigrated to the United States. He returns to his hometown by the sea with his family, a much wiser and wealthier man than when he left, but with a clear understanding of what defines America.
Separated from his wife and child because of a death threat by a local street gang, a young father sets out on a perilous journey to the United States and a harrowing crossing of the U.S-Mexican border.
Kidnapped on the American side of the border and conscripted into forced labor in a produce farm in Florida, Mario must find a way out and get back to paid work to support his family back home. A ruthless farm owner with ties to a drug cartel and the swamps of the Florida Everglades stand between Mario and his freedom.
Mario travels to Mexico to bring his wife and son to live with him in the United States, but tragedy strikes at the border. With all hope and faith lost, Mario is crushed to dust and has lost his will to live. He rebuilds his life with the help of a Navajo shaman named Joe Tall Cloud.
Mario gets a second chance at having a family in Arizona, but his new wife has a relative involved in a street gang and they incur the wrath of Tony Palermo, the local county sheriff. He directs a military-style midnight raid on Mario's home, arrests his wife Clara, and separates him from their two children. Mario serves time and is deported to Mexico, and with the help of Joe Tall Cloud, he crosses back into the United States with his wife to reunite with their children.
An orphaned teenager travels atop The Beast - the Mexican cargo trains that carry thousands of migrants to the border - he is looking for his uncle, Mario. A widow and her daughter also head north to find Mario, as well as two brothers in a street gang send by a drug lord in El Salvador.
Undocumented
Unafraid
H. ROMERO-GOMEZ
After years of organizing community groups to protect immigrants' rights, Mario decides to move back to his hometown of Playa Negra. But first, he must rescue his son from the clutches of ICE, who has imprisoned him for obstructing deportations and organizing prisoners in detention centers.