HE TOOK HIS FIANCÉE TO HIS POOR HOMETOWN TO TEST HER—BUT THE PAPER SHE HANDED HIM LEFT HIM TOO ASHAMED TO MEET HER EYES

refused to replace. Diego had repeatedly asked her to move to Houston, but she always declined.

“I’m used to the smell of soil, the roosters, and fresh tortillas on the comal,” Carmen would say. “In the city, I wouldn’t know how to breathe.”

Diego loved his mother.

But he felt embarrassed by that house.

A week before the wedding, he made a decision.

He continue reading …