American Dirt Summary

When three gunmen storm his cousin’s quinceañera party, eight-year-old Luca and his mother, Lydia, are already in the bathroom. Lydia quickly pushes Luca into the shower, and they hide while three gunmen slay the 16 members of their family who were outside. The target of the attack was Lydia’s husband, Sebastián, an investigative reporter who writes about cartels, and the perpetrator is Lydia’s friend, Javier, jefe of the local cartel, “Los Jardineros.” When Lydia realizes Javier’s men will likely return to kill her and Luca, she prepares to flee. They travel around town gathering provisions and eventually check into a hotel under a false name. Once they head to their room, the front desk clerk uses a burner phone to alert an unnamed person of their arrival.

In flashbacks, the narration describes the origins of Lydia’s friendship with Javier, with whom Lydia began a flirtatious friendship after he bought two of her favorite books at the bookstore she owns. On the night of her 32nd birthday, Lydia and Sebastián discussed the relative peace Acapulco was enjoying at the time, which Sebastián speculates attributed to the new jefe of Los Jardineros. Something about Sebastián’s description of the man jogged Lydia’s memory, and she secretly looked through Sebastián’s notes and discovered that the new jefe was, in fact, Javier. Following this revelation, Lydia told Javier she knew the truth about him and ended their friendship.

In the present, Lydia wakes up at the hotel the next morning and orders room service. When the service delivery boy brings in the breakfast tray, he also offers Lydia a package: a copy of Love in the Time of Cholera and a note from Javier. Lydia realizes she and Luca are in danger, so they immediately pack up their things and flee, heading to the bus depot to purchase tickets to Mexico City. On the way to Mexico City, Lydia decides to get off the bus at Chilpancingo to avoid the cartels at the roadblocks.

At an Internet café, she looks up Sebastián’s friend, Carlos, and goes to see him. Carlos and his wife, Meredith, are involved in missionary work and help Lydia and Luca evade the cartels and escape Mexico by hiding in a church van transporting an American church group to the airport. At the airport, Lydia decides they will fly north, but she cannot purchase tickets because she is missing Luca’s birth certificate. Desperate to get out of the country, she decides they will attempt to travel via La Bestia, the notoriously dangerous system of freight trains that clandestine migrants hop to get to the border.

Lydia and Luca meet two migrants from Honduras on their walk to the tracks. One explains that new fences have been constructed around the train, requiring migrants to board while the train is already in motion. Lydia becomes discouraged, thinking the maneuver will be too dangerous. She and Luca eventually check in to the Casa del Migrante. That night, Luca sees a young man (Lorenzo) being kicked out of the Casa. The next morning, Lydia learns that the man sexually assaulted someone and is rumored to be in a cartel; Lydia fears he’s associated with Los Jardineros.

After leaving the Casa, Lydia and Luca meet two teenaged sisters from Honduras, Soledad and Rebeca. Soledad and Rebeca convince Lydia and Luca to jump onto La Bestia from an overpass, and they board for the first time.

The following day, Lydia, Luca, Soledad, and Rebeca head south to catch the train on the Pacific Route, which is supposedly safest. On the southbound train, Rebeca tells Luca that she and Soledad are also fleeing a dangerous man. On the train the following day, Luca spots Lorenzo. Lydia is unconcerned until she learns about his Los Jardineros tattoo. Lorenzo walks over and introduces himself. He recognizes Lydia from a photo Javier shared with him and tells her that it is a miracle she got out of Acapulco alive.

The next leg of the journey is dangerous, so the migrants disembark at Guadalajara and proceed on foot. Lydia is suspicious of Lorenzo, so she walks with him and asks him questions. He informs her that Javier’s daughter, Marta, hanged herself after reading Sebastián’s article. The news of Marta’s death fueled a grief-fueled rampage, and Javier murdered Lydia’s entire family in retaliation. Lydia is almost sad for Javier but vows never to forgive him.

La Bestia soon crosses into Sinaloa, a notoriously dangerous state for migrants. Soledad and Rebeca tell Lydia about the coyote (a person who smuggles migrants from Mexico to the United States) they will use to get across the border. Then la migra (the immigration police) appear, and all the migrants are detained. Soledad and Rebeca are separated from the group. When they rejoin the group, it is clear they have been raped. Lydia and Luca are the first to be released. Luca refuses to abandon Soledad and Rebeca, however, so Lydia uses the rest of her cash to buy their freedom.

When the group boards La Bestia again it stalls for three nights, narrowly escaping another encounter with la migra near the border. Back on the train the next morning, they see migrants riding on top of the southbound trains. A boy, Beto, hops off one of those trains and onto theirs. He approaches Luca and starts talking. He explains that the migrants on the southbound trains are recent deportees from the U.S.

When the train gets to Nogales, Soledad and Rebeca call the coyote, El Chacal. He is reluctant to take Lydia and the children along but concedes for a higher price. The group spends a couple days in an apartment waiting for the other migrants to show up; one of them ends up being Lorenzo.

On departure day, three trucks drive the migrants into the desert at sunset. On the way, they have to stop to pay off immigration officials. After three hours of driving, they begin the long hike to the border. On the first night, they are forced stop and hide to avoid Border Patrol, and later because vigilante trucks are parked at a trailhead. After many dreadful hours hiking in unbearably hot conditions, the group finally makes it to camp, and everyone falls asleep.

The group sets out again when the sun begins to set. Later, heavy rain causes a flash flood. Ricardín, one of the migrants, gets caught in the flood and breaks his leg. His godfather, Choncho, stays in the desert with him while the group continues their hike. Luca prays that Choncho and Ricardín are able to make it to the Ruby Road, where they will be able to get help.

At camp, the remaining migrants change into dry clothes and try to sleep. Later that night, Lorenzo tries to rape Rebeca. Soledad interferes and shoots him with El Chacal’s gun. Because the shot might have disclosed their presence, the group is forced to start their hike three hours early when it is still very hot. While they are packing, Lydia spots Lorenzo’s cell phone and brings it to his body. She turns it on and discovers that Lorenzo had been in touch with Javier the whole time. She decides to call Javier and ask him if he is disappointed that she and Luca are still alive. Javier tells her that he never wanted her dead in the first place—if he did, she’d be dead by now. Lydia then tells him that he had no right to do what he did.

When Lydia gets back to camp, the group has already begun walking. There are fewer than two miles to go, but it is still very hot. Beto, who is asthmatic, struggles to breathe and soon dies. Everyone is devastated. El Chacal promises to return for Beto’s body, and the group carries on. They make it to the campsite where two RVs have been waiting for them. The migrants say goodbye to El Chacal and begin the 45-minute drive to Tucson.

A few weeks later, Lydia and Luca are living in Maryland with Soledad, Rebeca, their cousin, César, his girlfriend, and his girlfriend’s mother. Lydia works as a house cleaner, and Luca is in school. Though her immigration status presents its own challenges, and though she and Luca continue to mourn the many friends and loved ones they’ve lost along the way, Lydia is grateful for the resilience that carried her and Luca to safety, and she resolves to make the best of their new life in the U.S.