H. Romero-Gomez
... a country of immigrants, a history of oppression
THE FIRST LIGHT OF DAWN is the title novel of a series about an undocumented immigrant living the United States. It begins with Mario's personal odyssey to reach the Mexican border, wading across the Rio Grande, and finding his first job at a produce farm in Texas.
Subsequent books in the series dramatize the reality of living and working undocumented in the United States, and having no home to return to because of social collapse.This places the hero in a nearly impossible situation, where he is persecuted by the government as if he were a criminal, while he looks for work to send money home to his wife and baby son. Ove the years, Mario is put in prison and deported several times, he is conscripted into forced labor and had his home raided by armed police in the middle of the night.
THE FIRST LIGHT OF DAWN is a story about a young man overcoming seemingly insurmountable odds in order to protect and take care of his family, most of whom eventually join him the United States. For nearly twenty years Mario and his family lived in the shadows of American society, working difficult jobs and raising children, always looking over their shoulder, and never feeling free nor welcome. As soon as he had his chance, Mario returned home with his family, but with many regrets and shattered dreams.
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 him and his wife Clara, and separates her from her two children. Mario serves time and is deported to Mexico, and with the help of his Navajo friend, Joe Tall Cloud, he crosses back into the United States with his wife to reunite with their children.
Undocumented
Unafraid
H. ROMERO-GOMEZ
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.
After years of organizing community groups to protect immigrants' rights, Mario decides to move back to his hometown of Playa Negra. The year is 2016 and he has had it with racism in the United States. But first, he must rescue his son from the clutches of the U.S Border Patrol, who has imprisoned his adopted teenage son for obstructing deportations and organizing prisoners in detention centers.