From Children of the Land, a memoir published this month by Harper. Hernandez Castillo was born in Mexico and immigrated to the United States when he was five years old.

The butcher went to the other side. His son, the one with the amputated leg, also went to the other side. They settled in Georgia. The middle school math teacher went to the other side—her cousin swore she could make forty dollars in a single day picking oranges if she was fast enough. No math required.

She wouldn’t be fast enough.

The priest went to the other side and…