After several years of not knowing anything certain from ‘Angel’, I eventually managed to get in touch with him at the beginning of 2007. The last thing I had heard about him was that he had tried to cross the USA border but American border patrol agents, - under the presumption that he was affiliated to a well known Salvadorian gang - detained him and deported him to El Salvador. Another myth that circulated among friends was that he had been incarcerated in Los Angeles, California over some gang dispute. I also heard that he had been murdered some time ago.
All sorts of rumours were constantly going back and forth before I finally met him again.
Luckily none of this was true. In fact, he had managed to enter the USA and was living in the State of Florida for some years where he worked very hard, like many migrants do, to support his family back home in Ecatepect, Estado de Mexico.
At the end of 2007, I was able to meet up with him at his home in the outskirts of Mexico City. Although most of his life was surrounded by tragedies and misfortunes, such as the tragic loss of his father, it was very surprising for me to see him still alive and eager to move on in life.
For the next two and a half years I embarked on a project to document Angel’s experiences - his life in Mexico, the journey he took to cross through the Texan desert and his ‘new’ life in that Country.