Odyssey to the North

Decades of civil wars in Central America, combined with the need for manpower in the United States, have the Hispanic migrant-worker a stock character in urban American life. This is the story of one such man, Calixto, who heads north 'with his stomach empty but his soul full of hope.' Award-winning author Bencastro creates a sensitive, caring portrait of Calixto as he seeks not only work, but safety from political persecution in his homeland. We feel both the heartbreak and humor of Calixto's misunderstandings as a stranger in a strange land. Through a literary mosaic of conversations, court transcripts, newspaper clippings, and intimate letters, Bencastro allows Calixto and his fellow immigrants-who have come from Guatemala, El Salvador, and even further south-to tell their own stories as they struggle to survive in the restaurant kitchens, crowded tenements, and detention centers that become their proving grounds.