Summary: Part II

Francisco reflects on his namesake, Saint Francis of Assisi (c. 1181–1226) (in Spanish, San Francisco de Asís), recounting the legend of the murderous wolf Saint Francis tamed through an act of mercy. Meanwhile, the stress of his work has caused Francisco to grind his teeth, leading to dental problems. He also dreams of clenching his jaws so tightly that his teeth crack. Eventually he transfers out of field work and into Sector Intel, hoping it will be easier on him.

At Sector Intel, Francisco’s new boss is an easygoing agent named Hayward who introduces him to his new coworkers and advises him to keep up appearances at all times in case the “Sector Brass” (people in the highest positions in the sector) come to visit his station. Francisco’s new job at Sector Intel is to research and catalogue all the migrants who pass through the Border Patrol’s system. He works in air-conditioning at a computer instead of patrolling the desert. Although he no longer interacts directly with migrants, he still sees their faces in the computer system and must examine images of dead bodies recovered by the Border Patrol.

Francisco again interweaves scholarly research with his personal experiences and his dream vignettes. The sources for the former all concern the violence of the border region and its historical roots. Some of these sources deal with the violence in general, but others are more specific and consider phenomena such as femicide or the methods of the cartels in dealing out violence. Another source suggests that there is a historical “hundred-year cycle” of violence in Mexican history, and that the drug war is only the latest wave of that cycle. Francisco also references the work of Dutch researchers on the “warrior gene” that attempts to explain some people’s predisposition to violence. Along with the scholarly sources, he cites creative works by writers including Mexican poet Sara Uribe (born 1978) and excerpts from a documentary about a cartel hitman (sicario).

Francisco’s mother visits him while in town to see a cardiologist, and they have a difficult conversation. She first tells him stories she heard from a rancher who lives along the border. The rancher claims there are criminals who buy land along the border to hunt and torture other people. The rancher is also furious that the Border Patrol lets people cross the border and allows them to die in the desert. When his mother asks if the story is true, Francisco reacts defensively. “Field agents don’t write border policy,” he tells her. Francisco admits that he feels conflicted about taking an easier job in Sector Intel. Sometime later, he receives an early-morning call from his mother because she learned that another agent, also surnamed Cantú, was shot while on patrol. Subsequently, Hayward tasks Francisco with writing a report on the assailants and sorting out the “scumbags” from the other migrants.

Francisco’s guilt over leaving fieldwork continues to plague him, to the point he imagines a falcon seen on a video feed accusing him of cowardice. Francisco goes with Hayward and some other agents on a mission to New Mexico; while there, he gets to know his coworkers and his boss better. After the mission, he stays in New Mexico to visit his uncle. Francisco reflects upon his family history and wonders if there is a history of violence in his blood. While getting closer to his coworkers, he agrees to watch a coworker’s dog, but while he’s away, the dog escapes and attacks another dog, which makes Francisco feel guilty.

Francisco is later deployed with Hayward and the others to the area of his old station. While on patrol, they discover a lost and exhausted migrant woman. Francisco tries his best to help her and cleans the blisters on her feet. When she thanks him for his compassion, he rebuffs her and denies he’s humanitarian. Francisco decides he can no longer work in the Border Patrol and tells Hayward of his decision to go back to school to get a master’s degree. Hayward fails to convince him to stay.

Analysis: Part II

Francisco’s transfer to Sector Intel is meant to relieve the emotional toll of patrolling. This fails partly because he feels shame at having run away from the desert and its hardships and partly because violence is inherent in the Border Patrol’s operations. In fact, Francisco is now exposed more frequently to the sight of dead bodies and cartel victims; distanced from suffering, he only feels more helpless. His new boss, Hayward, represents a potential path that Francisco ultimately rejects: to go deeper into the system by impressing his superiors and moving up the hierarchy.

Multiple allegories illustrate Francisco’s emotional turmoil. Francisco compares himself unfavorably to Saint Francis of Assisi: whereas the saint famously tamed a savage wolf, Francisco flinches at the savagery of the border. He also likens himself indirectly to the sicario (hitman) in the research-driven vignettes, who quit his work because he could not keep violence from bleeding into his family life. Francisco’s strained relationship with his mother shows a similar bleed-over effect. Finally, he considers the “warrior gene,” said to predispose its bearers toward violence if they suffer childhood abuse; he wonders whether an entire society can have their “warrior gene” activated. (This gene’s existence has since been largely discredited.)

Francisco’s mother’s earlier warning—that he was entering a system that devalued human lives—proves true, but he refuses to admit it. When she raises some criticisms of the Border Patrol, Francisco seems to take it personally, likely because he feels responsible for the deaths he and other agents fail to prevent. This loss of control is underscored by the incident with his coworker’s dog. When Francisco returns with Hayward to his old patrolling sector, he tries once again to help a migrant in need, but his reserved attitude toward the woman shows his mounting guilt.