Bullet’s Legacy Bittersweet for Family of Mexican Boy

Until April 18, life was a hopeless, never-ending cycle of poverty for Humberto Carrillo-Estrada.

On that day the Tijuana boy was shot in the back by a Border Patrol agent firing across the border. Along with the suffering that the agent imposed on the boy and his family, the bullet also brought opportunity.

After two hospital stays, Humberto, 12, is back at home in one of Tijuana’s most depressing ghettos, recovering from his encounter with Border Patrol Agent Edward D. (Ned) Cole, who shot Humberto while the boy was allegedly throwing rocks and bottles as Cole helped arrest Humberto’s brother on the U.S. side.

The incident produced international headlines, plus a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against the Immigration and Naturalization Service. And in a macabre way, Humberto’s brush with death brought him and his family fame and--compared to his surroundings--a modest fortune.

Tucked away in a box in a corner of the three-room tar paper shack that serves as a home for the family of seven is a new color television, a gift from Baja California’s governor. The set is a baroque gift out of place in the family’s impoverished surroundings, especially since the government has not yet installed electricity in the area.

The state government is going to build a new house for Humberto’s family, and they have received some money and other gifts.

Sitting in a small, darkened room, Maria Elena Estrada tells a visitor she is thankful that her son is alive, and for all the help she and her six children have received from U.S. and Mexican citizens since the shooting. Mrs. Estrada, who looks older than her 36 years, apologizes for the appearance of her home and the Spartan conditions that her family has to endure.

The house has a rough, concrete floor and no ceiling, and the family has stuffed rags in openings along the eaves to keep out the wind. It sits perilously close to the edge of a cliff in Tijuana’s Colonia Emiliano Zapata. About five years ago, the Mexican government ostensibly sold the lots in the colonia to thousands of poor families who flocked to Tijuana from the interior in search of work.

Purchasers were given 30 years to pay for the barren, rocky, hillside plots. But practically speaking, most of the families have laid claim to the land on the basis of squatters rights. The neighborhood is so impoverished and isolated that its residents suffer from a lack of amenities that Americans take for granted, such as electricity, running water and plumbing. The dusty streets that crisscross the colonia are unnamed. Residents give directions to their homes by referring to prominent landmarks in the area.

Baja California state officials recently began installing power lines in the neighborhood, and Mrs. Estrada hopes that electricity will be available when the state government finishes building a new block home for the family.

The new home, located directly below the old one, is the family’s biggest reward for Humberto’s sudden but unwanted fame. Mrs. Estrada and her son admit that were it not for Cole’s bullet, the family would still be living in hopeless poverty--with Humberto selling gum on Tijuana sidewalks and Eduardo, 15, hawking newspapers at the city’s intersections.

The boys, both of whom are small for their ages, supplemented the family’s income in other ways. Frequently, they could also be found among the hundreds of street urchins who line the car lanes on the Mexican side at the San Ysidro crossing, using dusty rags to clean the Americans’ windshields and hoping for alms in return.

But the new home is only one of several gifts that the family has received from government officials since the shooting. Baja Gov. Xicotencatl Leyva Mortera gave Humberto the color television for the day that the government provides electricity to the area. Until that day arrives, the set remains in the box it came in, brought out only to show the occasional visitor.

Government officials also gave the family 80,000 pesos, about $340, after the shooting, Mrs. Estrada said. With her six children ranging from 15 years to 4 years, she spent the money quickly if not prudently, she said. Mrs. Estrada, a single parent who supports her family by washing and ironing clothes, has been promised a job by the state. But a bad back and difficulty in finding someone to care for her three preschool children has thus far prevented her from taking the job.

Mexican officials, perhaps aware of the overwhelming poverty that engulfs colonia residents, avoid any discussion of their efforts to single the family out for help. Officially, they say that the government is helping the family “remodel” their old home and deny that the state is building the family a new one. But workers at the site told a reporter they were constructing a house that would have a much more solid foundation.

One official, however, said that the family represents “a special case” to the government. Luis Terrescoto, a state official in Tijuana, acknowledged that every resident of Colonia Emiliano Zapata probably needs the same help being given to Humberto and his family.

“We know that the poverty in that area is widespread and tremendous. But this is a special case. It may appear that we are singling out this family for special treatment, but it’s only the government’s way of helping its citizens. Many people say we exist only to tax the population. Well, once in a while we can do something like this for our very poor. Believe me, I wish we could do the same for every resident (of the colonia),” Terrescoto said.

Because of the help that the family has received since the shooting, neighbors believe that the family has become wealthy overnight, Mrs. Estrada said.

“As you can see, we are a very poor family. But we are together. And although we don’t have much in the way of nice things, we are a family,” Mrs. Estrada said. “Some of our neighbors think that we are now rich because of the gifts we have received since Humberto was shot. But we’re not. I would prefer not to receive these things, because my son had to suffer greatly for this.

“If my family were to enjoy a new-found wealth, I would prefer that the money come from the job promised to me by the government or by winning the national lottery.”

On April 18, Cole, 34, fired three times across the border at Humberto--hitting him once--after the boy and a girl playmate allegedly tossed rocks and bottles at him and other agents over the 9-foot border fence. Cole was helping two other agents arrest Eduardo Carrillo-Estrada, who was returning to Mexico through a hole in the fence after walking to a fast-food restaurant in San Ysidro to buy a hamburger.

Humberto and Eduardo say that Cole arrived at the scene from out of nowhere. The agent got out of his vehicle and fired at least three times, pausing only long enough to pick up his spent cartridges before driving away, the boys said. Border Patrol officials say that Cole was the only agent to draw his service revolver. The other two used their night sticks to subdue Eduardo and arrest him for illegal entry into the United States.

San Diego County Dist. Atty. Edwin Miller later decided not to prosecute Cole.

Humberto, a frail-looking youth, says that he remembers vividly the heat of the .357 magnum bullet as it entered through his left shoulder, bouncing off a rib and ripping across his torso before the slug lodged under the skin below the right shoulder. The bullet, said the boy, cut through his insides like a hot knife cuts through butter.

“I cheated death,” he said. “Sometimes, when I’m alone and think about the shooting, I close my eyes and see the bullet hitting my sweater. It makes a small hole and then another as it goes through my shirt. Then I feel the heat. It’s a hot line that runs through my body, from shoulder to shoulder.”

Humberto, whose story was widely reported in the Mexican press, says he is taken aback by all the attention he has received.

“I’m embarrassed by all the photos that I have seen of myself, particularly the ones that show me when I was wounded. My friends tell me that I’m famous and a celebrity. But I don’t feel that I am. Everyone wants me to repeat the story. I try to avoid talking about the shooting,” Humberto said.

The boy is shy by nature, but with a quick sense of humor. When discussing the incident, Humberto denies that he and his playmate pelted the agents with rocks, and he jokes about the Border Patrol’s account of the shooting.

“If you believe la migra , you’d think that my friend and I were throwing rocks the size of watermelons at them. Well, I wish they had thrown rocks at me instead of shooting me,” he says with a laugh.

Humberto and Eduardo say that the shooting has made them aware of how powerless poor people are against an authority as big as the U.S. government. Both boys say they want to take advantage of an offer by a Mexican senator, who offered to arrange for government scholarships for the two so they can get a university education.

“I want to be an attorney. I want to help people like my mother. Even though she is very poor, she has challenged the American government by suing them. I know she is going to win, because we are in the right,” Humberto said.

A week after the shooting, Los Angeles attorney Marco Lopez filed a $3-million claim against the Immigration and Naturalization Service on behalf of the boy.

As for the agent who shot him, Humberto says that he does not hold any ill feelings for him.

“Tell Cole that I don’t hate him for what he did. I only want him to tell the truth. He knows that I did not throw rocks at him. Tell him to tell the truth. But still, I don’t hate him because he’s not telling the truth,” he said.