Coyote

by 1978- Hickey, Colin Daniel

HICKEY, COLIN DANIEL. Coyote. (Under the direction of Wilton Barnhardt.) Carl Marino is an all American college graduate, sporting two degrees from an eastern seaboard university, seemingly well adjusted; well prepared to ascend the new global economy’s capitalist ladder with the greatest of ease. However, as a result of his escapist mentality and a few seedy contacts, he has spent the year after his graduation smuggling illegal immigrants over the border between Mexico and the United States. As his lifestyle and mindset catch up with him, he is forced to see the chaos and tragedy that go along with the defiance of societal barriers he found so easy to tear down with his idealistic and reckless sentimentality. The tale begins with what seems like a routine crossing. Carl (or Carlos, as he is known by his fellow smugglers), executes a near flawless crossing in Nogales, Arizona, only losing two of the twelve illegal immigrants in the shrubby desert outside of the city, and then everything goes wrong. In the safe house in Phoenix, the crew is raided by a mysterious band of gun wielding kidnappers, beaten, and their shipment is stolen. What follows is a description of how the three grunts; Carlos, Omar, and Rene, do everything they can to reclaim their shipment of illegal immigrants, and get the money owed them so that their insidious and dangerous boss, Diego, stays dormant and not violent, which he is overtly capable of. In the end, Carl comes to find the violence and decadence of the border are both too much to stay with, and too much to get away from. He feels too strongly about the violence perpetrated against his friends to leave, while at the same time he knows that the selfsame violence is destined to fall upon his head. COYOTE by