Sinaola Cowboys

Amy La Jeunesse

English 1B

April 29, 2008

Sinaola Cowboys

Bruce Springsteen

     “One way ticket to Acapulco, please”.  These are words that we Americans rarely hear.  The uniqueness that this rich land holds - is an aphrodisiac to many.  The California dream described as mythologized life basking in a sunny the orange groves or on a sandy beach appeal to many different cultures.  In the old days they migrated in covered wagons as they endured disease, natives with blood marked hands, and the rough terrain of the trail west.  Yet the taste for gold was motivation enough to attempt the odds.  Mexicans cross the U.S. border daily as they leave their family’s behind for a taste of the better life.  Many die in the deserts or get caught by the increasing border patrol agents.  Some make it here alive just to find that the real battle has just begun. 

     We explore and dissect Sinaola Cowboys, a song by Bruce Springsteen, where he is a story teller in a journey of a migration from Mexico to California.  It begins with two brothers Miguel and Louis.  “They crossed at the river levee when Louis was just sixteen. And found work together in the fields of the San Joaquin”.  The fact that the lyrics state that Louis was just sixteen years old, shows two things.  First, that he migrated as a boy showing that even at a young age he had a strong desire to live a better life in California.  Second it shows that it was more important for him to leave his mother and father, a very brave move, to fulfill his dream.  They young brothers migrated at a young age with hope of a better life and found work in the fields.

    Since they came to California illegally, they did not have a social security card and could only find work in the fields.  “Doing the work the hueros wouldn’t do”.  The white man publicly states that he does not want illegal migrants in California.  Yet the white man also wants his suit pressed, his hotel room cleaned and his fruit picked.  All tasks that he needs done but he does not want and will not do.  The illegal’s are fine as long as they work they work like a ghost in the shadow.  The white man does not want to see or acknowledge them but he knows that they are there.  They all do the jobs that middle class society sees as beneath them.  The brothers were working in the fields making money working in the shadows of the white reflection.    

     Until some men, the Sinaloa cowboys, offered them a job working in Fresno country manufacturing methamphetamine.  The chemical composition that is used to create this harsh drug is very dangerous and is flammable.  The brothers chose the risk over working in the fields.  They could make twice as much in a ten hour shift as they would working in a field.  They knew the risk as they said that the drug lords would “leave you spittin’ up blood in the desert, if you breathed those fumes in”.  The brothers sold their souls to the devil who used and abused them.  Their work was a thankless act, as they were just labor, if they were injured or killed the drug lords would kick them aside and get a new laborer.[1]

     They worked hard mixing chemicals and saving their money.  They were doing their time to try to get onto their feet as they lived the American dream.  One early winter evening the flammable chemicals sparked and there was an explosion.  Miguel carried his brother Louis’s body down a swale where he watched his brother die.  He drove Louis’s body to a eucalyptus tree and wondered if this was still the California dream.       

     The migration and the choice to work creating drugs turned deadly.  Was the 10K worth his brothers life?  They came to California for a better life, but in the end Louis lost his life.  “There in the dirt he dug up ten thousand dollars all that they’d saved, Kisses his brother’s lips and placed him in his grave”.  In this quote I see symbolism and Irony of situation.  Symbolism because the brothers worked hard to save their money and in the end Louis was not able to spend the hard earned cash and lavish life style that they dreamed of.  The phrase is ironic because it says that he dug up ten thousand dollars which is a reality then he kissed his brother’s lips and placed him in his grave shows an opposite expectation.  The same hole with the same dirt held the money which was their dream.  That same hole and dirt now held the end of their dreams as it held Louis’s dead body.  They came for the California dream and life style that many of the songs that we researched described but in this case the California dream took a wicked turn.

     The purist of a dream is a journey.  Many people believe in following a rainbow and at the end is the pot of gold, California being the pot carrying all of the treasures.  Nothing can deny the desire to migrate to this land.  “One thousand Americans head for the same ocean each day” reported a 1962 Newsweek cover story.  Now 46 years latter even more people migrate to the golden state.  All of the songs that we researched described people as they journeyed to California.  “There are as many versions of the California dream as there are dreamers”[2]  They came for various reasons.  Some for a new start from a drug induced, drunken and abusive life, some to escape the mid-west or to get greater opportunities in America.  Regardless of the reason of migrating here all of the songs described their dream as Rawls described it when he said “California – Has Dreams Gone Sour?”[3]   To many the golden land of new opportunities becomes a place of “failed dreams and broken promises.”[4]  “California, land of romance, becomes California, Land of rampant immorality and sexual deviance.”[5]  In this disillusion many peoples dreams become shattered.  In the case of Miguel he lost more then a shattered dream he lost his brother.  Yet through the devastation Miguel is probably still happy to be a resident of California.  I believe that he will remain here and still believe in his California dream.  He believes that the California life and work -vs- dollar here supersedes Mexico.  I see now why there are few one way flights to - Acapulco.