Mexikid: A Graphic Memoir

After the family has been in Mexico for three weeks, Abuelito is still not ready to go. The older children ask whether they can make the return trip home by themselves so that they can get back before school starts again. Pedro wants to leave with them, but they say no. Lila tells Pedro that it might be a while before Abuelito is ready to go and that he and Apá will need the support of the younger siblings because they are going through a tough time. She counsels Pedro that he will know how to help when the time comes, that it might be “something huge” or “something very small and gentle” (164). Before leaving, León and Noé play a prank on Pedro. They say that they have something to give him and then squirt him in the face with a plastic toy of a peeing boy. When he reacts angrily, they refuse to give him the real present they intended to give him: a small machete they bought in the Tijuana mercado. As Pedro watches his older siblings leave, he hopes that at least some of their skills have rubbed off on him. He calls Sal on the CB radio and asks Sal to put Noé on. Once Noé is listening, Pedro plays “Shapoopi” into the radio as a return prank.

The next day, Apá takes the younger children to the nearby city of Tepatitlán. Pedro notices that Apá is quiet, and he wonders if the time has come to be supportive. He gets distracted by a store that sells Pop Rocks, one of his favorite candies, and when Apá takes them into a boring store full of plastic flowers and pictures of saints, Pedro and his brothers slip out to find the candy store. When they return to the store where Apá is, the boys overhear him saying he needs to buy a child’s casket, and they are confused. A child comes up to them on the street, claiming to be their cousin. He asks for some of their candy, which they give him. Some of the Pop Rocks get caught in the mucus dripping from the child’s nose, creating bubbles. The boys are laughing hard when they see Apá walk by carrying a tiny casket.

On the drive back, Apá explains that Abuelito refuses to leave for the US until he knows that his animals have good homes, and his deceased wife is “safe” (178). Apá tells them that when he was 19, his mother died. Before that, four of her sons died, when they were still small children. Shocked to realize all his father has been through, Pedro knows that, as annoying as he finds his brothers, it would be tragic to lose them this way. He still confused about how they can help his grandmother, because she is already dead.

Back in Pegueros, Apá shows the children the cemetery where their grandmother is buried. An underground stream that has changed course will soon wash away the bones in the cemetery, and he has been trying to find someone to disinter her and move her remains to an above-ground tomb. No one is available to do it for months—so Apá says they will have to do it themselves. The next morning, the family goes to the cemetery, and a worker shows them where to dig. Pedro feels bad that his grandmother has been alone in the overgrown, neglected graveyard all these years. The coffins are buried in layers to save money, and so the family must move other coffins to get to Abuelita’s remains. Pedro thinks that Abuelito looks unusually frail as he begins to dig. Amá tells the boys that their father and grandfather are experienced at digging in this hard dirt, because they once had a rancho nearby. After a drought ruined their crops when Apá was about 16, he and one of his brothers snuck out to go work on a farm about 100 miles away, picking cotton so the family would survive. Pedro is dismayed at the hardships his family suffered.

As the men are digging, they find the rotted remains of a baby’s coffin and then another. They respectfully gather the bones and place them in a tub. Finally, the cemetery worker says that they have found Abuelita. The hole is filling with mud, but they begin extracting her bones. Pedro is overwhelmed with how sad and sweet it seems all at the same time. One of Pedro’s younger brothers announces that Adam wanted to go home and has headed off toward the highway. They find Abuelita’s skull and place it in the tub. Amá says a prayer over the tub of bones and then they take them into the motorhome where Apá and Amá place them into the casket Apá bought. As they drive back home, Pedro helps his grandfather keep the lid of the casket in place on the bumpy road. They find Adam curled up in bed at home. He claims to have just gotten too much sun, but Pedro knows that his brother is feeling sad and overwhelmed. He tactfully agrees that they all got too much sun and offers to split a soda with his little brother.

A few days later, Pedro’s aunt hosts a goodbye party for Abuelito. After a while, someone asks Hugo to play the guitar and Pedro and his brothers to sing. They protest that they do not know any Mexican songs, but the relatives assure them that it is fine to sing an American song they know. When Hugo says that Pedro has some songs memorized, Pedro begins to panic. All he can think of is “Shipoopi.” Fortunately, Abuelito interrupts and says that he will sing his favorite song, “Prieta Linda.” The sad and beautiful love song moves many of the adults to call out gritos. Other relatives sing similar songs, and after a while Pedro feels so moved by the bittersweet melodies and by his feelings of sadness from the cemetery combined with his happiness at the family gathering that he, too, tries a grito. When it ends up choked off in his chest, he worries that he is not “Mexican enough” to express himself in “a real Mexican fashion” (212). Late that night, the relatives all kiss Abuelito’s hand to say goodbye and load Pedro’s family up with gifts and food. Abuelito stands in the motorhome’s doorway, and Pedro thinks he is about to make a grand farewell speech—but all he says is “Hasta luego” (214).