Word: tostado
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Thus ended last week one of the worst tragedies in the long and tortured history of illegal crossings of the U.S.-Mexican border. The lone survivor, Miguel Tostado Rodriguez, 21, told how he promised to pay $400 to a "coyote" (the term for smugglers who grow wealthy by sneaking Mexicans into the U.S.) for help in rafting the Rio Grande and hiding in a freight train headed for Fort Worth. All but two of his 18 companions had agreed to make similar payments. Those two were guides, working with the coyote...
...been close to 100 degrees outside when the doomed passengers entered the car. After four hours, Tostado said, they began suffering from lack of air and water. Many ripped off their clothes. As the train rumbled along busy Interstate 10, the men screamed for help, but their delirious cries could not be heard. When their supply of water ran low, Tostado recalled, many "started fighting with each other because they were desperate to breathe and drink. They didn't know what they were doing...
...Tostado found a crack in a corner of the floor, crouched and sucked in the life-saving air. He watched the smuggler's two aides dig at the floor with the spikes. "They ran out of strength, and they were the first to die." Others took up the task, but never completed it. "People started dying, little by little," he said. Desperate for more air, Tostado hacked away with one of the spikes and finally punched through the wood. He dropped to the floor, gulping drafts of air. Tostado was now alive but alone, surrounded by bodies...
...until 7 a.m. on Thursday that Agent Saathoff heard the faint plea for help from Tostado. The coyote was believed to have fled back to Mexico. William Harrington, assistant chief of the El Paso Border Patrol, conceded that "we may never get our hands on him." The closest Harrington may come is the coyote's two confederates, whose sordid business led them to death in the boxcar that became a coffin...
Lawry's built the 14-worker, $500,000 factory because the firm could not keep up with the strong demand in Western Europe for taco and tostado shells and seasonings, which it has been shipping from the U.S. to Sweden, Britain, Germany and other European countries for years. According to Lawry's officials, the Dublin facility is the first Mexican-food factory in Europe. Says Executive Vice President Thomas Fuelling: "We feel that Mexican food is the next step for European tastes. It is fun, it is healthy, it is easy to prepare, it is tasty...