DREAM NOVEL Takes place in present day Mexico. Tells the separate tales of two Mexican families.

s. One family is rich (The Padilla Family) and the other is poor (The Castorena Family). Both are trying get to America. Each for different reasons. o Poor family is being forced from their homes in the Mexico City slums by a real estate firm. In an attempt to escape their economic woes, the family plans to move in with cousins in Southern California in search of more hopeful, wealthier prospects. o Rich family is moving to America to escape the alienation, mundane habits, and absurdity that their lifestyle has created for them. Father works for real estate firm in the Torre Latinoamericana. Oldest son suffers from bipolar disorder and wants to go to America to be a writer. The Castorenas have a very strong family unit, which, aside from religious conviction, is their focal point and derivative of their strength. They are a very traditional. While the Castorenas may suffer economic disparity, because they have each other, they are spiritually wealthy. Although the Padillas have an abundance of wealth, as a family unit, they are alienated from each other and themselves. The Padillas suffer from poverty of the spirit. Though their lifestyles are very different, the two families are very similar in the fact that theyre both trying to go to America to escape the clutches of their current lives and seek something better for themselves and their families. Castorena family has to save up money to illegally immigrate to America, each family member from youngest (7 yearsold) to the oldest (17 years-old) must work together as

vendors in Coyoacan, a tourist oriented borough of Mexico City. They take part in the protest against sociospacial exclusion on the behalf of the vendors and artisans who are being driven from their place of work within the plazas. Before they can move, the Padilla family has to wait for their school-age children to finish their academic pursuits and find proper housing in the new country of America. After years of half-trying, Leon Padilla graduates from art school and is attempting to regain control over his life in spite of his mental illness, alcoholism, and relationship woes. During his attempts to do so, Leons former lover, Roxana Bustamante, kills the eldest of the Castorena family in a hitand-run accident on the way back home from a heated and violent argument at the Padilla residence. As a result, the Castorenas are driven to more desperate means of obtaining the money they need to begin a new life elsewhere. Castorena family must move from small apartment to Netzahualcoyotl, one of the colonias proliterias, which is a squatting settlement on the outskirts of town. Meanwhile, the Padilla family is attempting to cope with various substance abuse issues as well as social stresses. Leon is battling bipolar disorder and leads a chaotic, manic life fueled by alcohol and drug addiction. Engages in spontaneous travel and reverie amid Mexico Citys upper crust Mrs. Lupe Padilla struggles with her own drug addiction, albeit a more socially acceptable one, combining diet pills, pain killers, and alcohol. Mr. Carlos Padilla is a real estate executive and has to deal with putting people out of their homes in order to make money for himself and his family.

 After months of work, the Castorena family finally has enough money to make it up to Tijuana in order to hire a coyotaje to escort them across the border. The Padillas have secured housing in the Los Angeles area and Mr. Padilla has obtained employment with his real estate firms sister company. They prepare for the move. Upon arriving in Tijuana, the Castorenas find that they are unable to afford the coyote, however, they are tipped off by a cab driver, hired to recruit individuals attempting to immigrate illegally. He tells them that a group outside of Rosarito, a city to the south, can transport them by boat for a lesser cost. They are transported to San Diego by boat for the cash they have ($2000), but are informed upon arriving in San Diego that they owe an additional $4000. They hold Mrs. Castorena as collateral. The remaining members of the Castorena family attempt to raise the money as fast as possible with the help of their family that lives farther north in Pomona, CA. The Padilla family enjoys a leisurely drive from Mexico City to Los Angeles, CA and is allowed to enter America with a work visa and proper documentation. They establish residency as Leon attempts to begin a career as a writer with little luck. Mr. Padilla works hard as an executive for his real estate firm, which deals with commercial tourism between Mexico City and Southern California. The Padilla family slowly begins to fall back into the same routines that dictated their lives in Mexico City and find that they havent escaped the alienation of the human experience at all, but merely exchanged settings for their selfdestructive patterns of behavior.

 After seeking help from an indifferent mental health care system, Leon begins drinking, partying, and establishing unstable relationships again. Mrs. Padilla goes back to drinking and taking various pills with her new friends, and the younger children continue their desperate and often dangerous attempts at crying out for attention in vain. The Castorena family finds themselves living with over a dozen relatives in a small house as they seek employment. Mr. Castorena obtains work cleaning up for an HVAC company. His work exposes him to chemicals that create a respiratory disorder, preventing him from further work and leaves him unable to properly function. With his disability leaving him unable to work and procure the money for his wifes ransom, the family must sell their only vehicle and spend the last of their funds in order to buy her freedom. Mrs. Castorena is returned. Both families are left tired, broken, and disillusioned by the American dream. During a bender consisting of binge drinking and recreational drug use, Leon commits suicide by shotgun. The Castorena family finds that theyre unable to support themselves in their new country and havent escaped any of their economic woes. We cant escape anything and we cant escape ourselves and only through suicide is the protagonist capable of freeing himself of human bondage.