The Other Side: List 1

by Juan Pablo Villalobos
In this collection of essays translated by Rosalind Harvey, Juan Pablo Villalobos records the true stories of Latin American teens attempting to immigrate to the United States.

This list covers "Where Are Your Kids?"–"I'd Rather Die Trying to Get Out."

Here are links to our lists for the book: List 1, List 2
30 words 632 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. immigration
    movement of people into a country or area
    When the immigration officer called me up, he said: "Do you have kids?"
  2. deportation
    the expulsion of a non-citizen from a country
    I didn't tell her that if they asked me to sign the deportation papers I'd say yes.
  3. abruptly
    quickly and without warning
    "Now I'm going to sleep for a bit," she says abruptly, and starts to stretch to make me get up.
  4. oblivious
    lacking conscious awareness of
    The kid was walking along, sweating big time, making out he was totally oblivious, as if he didn't realize he'd just crossed over from the other side.
  5. dapper
    marked by up-to-dateness in dress and manners
    He had a backpack on and looked very dapper, with his brand-new jeans and his shirt all freshly pressed—I thought I'd better take a look and see what he had in his backpack, why he was going around dressed up like that.
  6. snooty
    overly conceited or arrogant
    If it was down to me I'd have stabbed him in the gut by now, burst that snooty bubble of his—no one can walk around pretending they can't hear someone from the 18th talking to them.
  7. authorization
    official permission or approval
    Only thing is, I always get asked, "Who gave you authorization, who do you think you are, going above the guys at the top, you've got to take a good look at who it is before you take out your piece..."
  8. racket
    a loud and disturbing noise
    Yoni must have paused the film because the racket stopped and all I could hear was his voice as he replied.
  9. avert
    turn away or aside
    The kid averted his eyes, but he did start walking right away.
  10. cardiologist
    a specialist in the structure and function of the heart
    "I've got something wrong with my heart—I had to go to the cardiologist because I get tired really quickly and I start to sweat."
  11. exasperated
    greatly annoyed; out of patience
    Yoni clicked his tongue, exasperated by this point.
  12. blubber
    cry or whine with snuffling
    "Are you going to start blubbering now?"
  13. turf
    the territory claimed by a juvenile gang as its own
    "He's already gone to the other side," he told me.
    "To the Salvatrucha's turf?" I asked.
  14. sheer
    complete and without restriction
    We went up to the border but there were loads of federales, and immigration officers, and the sheer number of police spooked the guides, so they left us there, on the Mexican side.
  15. migrant
    traveler who moves from one region or country to another
    The immigration agents knew we were migrants, obviously, because we were in the desert, on the border between Mexico and the United States.
  16. sophisticated
    having worldly knowledge and refinement
    Over there, compared to our towns, it was completely different, really sophisticated.
  17. ration
    distribute in fixed allowances
    And we had to eat just a little and ration it out, because we didn't know how long we would have to wait.
  18. desperate
    arising from or marked by anguish or loss of hope
    I was already getting desperate, what with the days we'd spent in the desert, our skin all burned, unable to have a wash or anything proper to eat.
  19. hassle
    annoy continually or chronically
    I told her that they also used to hassle me outside school. The kids from the gangs.
  20. venture
    put at risk
    And that's why I had to leave. Even though it was really dangerous. But, like they say, nothing ventured, nothing gained.
  21. penalty
    a handicap or disadvantage that is imposed on a competitor
    We lost soccer to the kids from Honduras. But we won against Mexico on penalties.
  22. bleak
    offering little or no hope
    They were dirty, their clothes pretty ragged, but they didn't have that look of utter bleakness like children who have realized they have no future.
  23. generate
    bring into existence
    "To the border," replied the girl who, although younger, seemed to be the more talkative of the two—perhaps she had faith in her ability to generate pity; perhaps this was the strategy they used to get help.
  24. frenzy
    state of violent mental agitation
    The car behind switched its headlights into full beam and began honking the horn in a frenzy.
  25. gesticulate
    show, express, or direct through movement
    Suddenly he opened the door, the children stepped back to let him pass, and he walked over to where the other driver behind him was gesticulating, demanding he move his truck.
  26. prospect
    belief about the future
    They had been walking all day, and the prospect of sitting down while covering several miles, whichever direction it was in, seemed to her like a wonderful idea.
  27. oblige
    force somebody to do something
    The girl ignored him, and so he was obliged to follow her.
  28. clamber
    climb awkwardly, as if by scrambling
    The girl clambered over her brother, giving him a push so he would sit down by the door.
  29. industrial
    of or relating to commercial enterprise
    The man was driving confidently through a tangle of streets in what looked like an industrial park: factories, warehouses, vacant lots, gas stations with dozens of trucks and trailers parked out front.
  30. pothole
    a pit or cavity in a road produced by wear or weathering
    The man drove skillfully, avoiding the potholes, as if he knew the way by heart.
Created on Tue Sep 24 09:21:47 EDT 2019 (updated Tue Sep 24 13:16:59 EDT 2019)

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