The Deportation of Wopper Barraza: a Novel by Maceo Montoya

Author:Maceo Montoya
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Hispanic Americans, Mexican Americans, California, Mexico, immigrants, deportation, immigration, emigrants
Publisher: University of New Mexico Press
Published: 2014-01-06T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Not too long after, Don Elpidio called together his competitors for a rare meeting. He sent Pilimón and Pilimón’s cousin Marcos to extend the invitation. First they went to Valentín Moreno of Moreno Concrete. He was so suspicious of any emissary from Don Elpidio that he spoke to Pilimón only through the gate intercom.

“What does he want this meeting for?” he asked.

“Don Elpidio just wants a general assessment of the situation,” Pilimón answered.

“What situation are we talking about?” Valentín asked.

“He wants to discuss the new representative from La Morada,” Pilimón replied.

“What is there to discuss?”

Pilimón sighed and said, “Don Elpidio asked me to stress the fact that this meeting is not to be an inquiry, but more like a meeting of minds.” These were the exact words his boss had instructed him to say, and he’d committed them to memory.

There was silence on the other end of the intercom. Finally, Valentín Moreno told the men to leave the details with his secretary.

Valentín Moreno had inherited the concrete company from his father, whose business skill far outmatched his son’s. In appearance they were the same, pale and slight, but the elder Moreno had flair, a winning personality. As intense as the competition for contracts grew, he never lost a friend or a competitor’s respect. Valentín, however, found the cutthroat nature of the business crippling. He never figured out how to maintain friendly relations, especially after losing a contract to two-faced backroom dealings. His ever fewer subordinates reassured him that the concrete business had become dirtier and dirtier over the years. His father never had to deal with this level of trickery and backstabbing. Moreno Concrete had slipped far behind Maya Brothers Concrete and was in danger of being pushed out completely when Valentín and his advisors decided a desperate change of tactics was required. They needed to branch out. They couldn’t go head-to-head with the now larger companies, because they’d lose every time.

It was around this period of strategizing that Licenciado Roberto Barraza, the new municipal representative from La Morada, approached Valentín Moreno about a business deal. Valentín didn’t question the representative’s youth. Instead, he saw it as a refreshing change; he considered himself young, or at least of a younger generation than his competitors, and he preferred to deal with someone open and willing to offer new ideas. Licenciado Roberto Barraza had just that. He explained that the residents of La Morada had asked that he make paving the primary school his utmost priority. This was not the new idea Valentín Moreno had in mind. He almost laughed out loud at the notion that his company would bid on such an insignificant contract. Had his company fallen that far? But the young representative told him straight-faced that there was to be no bid. This job would be done for free.

Again Valentín almost laughed out loud, but Roberto was quick to explain that residents of La Morada in the North eventually (very soon, in fact) desired to have all the streets repaved, and that once the money was raised the contract would go to Moreno Concrete.

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