Fateful Premonition Wouldn't Dim Immigrant's Dreams

Susan Carroll (subscription required): PIEDRAS BLANCAS, Guatemala – Leonel Tipaz de León stretched out on the wood-framed bed in his parents' tiny adobe home, its peeling, aqua shutters closed to the stifling afternoon heat.

At 21, he already was tired of life, of toiling for less than $7 a day in the cornfields that surround his family's farm high in the Sierra de Chuacús mountains, of scraping by with odd jobs and selling natural medicines. He wanted nice things, Nike shoes, his own home.

He longed to leave this pristine, Mayan village and join his sister on a dairy farm outside of Amarillo, where he could make $400 a week feeding and milking cows and cleaning up manure. He could save money…