Victor Flores has just finished work in his family’s fields for the day when his best friend, Rico Rivera, sneaks up on him. The fifteen-year-olds have grown up together in Los Árboles, the small Mexican village where Victor still lives, but for the past three years Rico has lived with his sister in Silao, where her husband works at the General Motors and Rico attends trade school.

Rico says he wants to show Victor a secret. He leads Victor through the nearby ruins of an old village to a wall covered with cactus. He says they have to crawl under the cactus. When Victor hesitates for fear of rattlesnakes, Rico calls Victor by his nickname, Turtle. Rico gave Victor this nickname in part because Victor was always a slower runner than Rico, but mostly because Victor is cautious, while Rico romanticizes adventure.

Under the cactus, Rico has hidden a jar filled with 1,500 American dollars. The amount astonishes Victor, who thinks, “My family could get by for more than a year on this much money” (4). Rico says the money comes from one of his brothers in the U.S, and that it is his “coyote money” (4).