oosters start crowing in Jamay at 5 a.m. By this time the thunderstorms that come almost every summer evening are over, but the dirt and stone streets are still wet and muddy. From a churchyard, high on the hillside overlooking Jamay, you can see a distant lake, and the reflection from the morning sun turns the lake shore a soft pink. As the town awakes, small donkeys walk down the narrow streets, huge steel milk containers strapped to their sides. Small stands border the roads with people selling an assortment of bananas, mangos and fish‹fish so fresh from the lake their gills are still moving. Women line up outside a small building, el molino (the grinder), carrying plastic buckets full of soaked maize they will grind to make tortillas. Next to the women, a man fries churros in an oil-filled cauldron. The sweet, fatty smell fills the air.

My friend, Manuel Lopez, had met me the day before at the Guadalajara airport. Collecting my bags, we walked a quarter mile to the highway and waited patiently in the hot sun to flag down a bus to Jamay, about 90 kilometers down the road.

In San Francisco, Manuel had always talked about the small town in Mexico where his parents came from and where he spent his summers. I called Manuel the day he was leaving the city and asked if I could visit him in Jamay. Yes, he said, but why?

I wasn't sure myself. I explained to Manuel I wanted to find out about a country, a culture, a people I knew nothing about. I wanted to see with my own eyes what conditions in Mexico drive so many to El Norte.

• Economic Forces
  ‹"We see cousins come back from the North; they have nice clothes, maybe even a car. They tell us living is very good up North. You can make a lot of money, buy many things. But they are presenting something‹a life‹that's not true."‹Nato, 24, in Sacramento.

• The Border
  ‹"I was lucky. I was able to come over legally. I know the conditions there that drive so many North."‹United States Border Patrol agent Marco Ramirez.
• Jose Lopez and Family
  ‹For many, going North is the first time they've ever been on their own, made their own decisions and made their own way. But Jose is worried about the running, the hiding and the bad people his son Hector will meet on both sides of the border.
• El Presidente
  ‹"The government made a big mistake when they took that loan. We should not have taken a single U.S. dollar. It would be better that our government falls than we owe the Americans anything."‹ Javier Jimenez Banuelos, Mayor of Jamay.
• Victor
  ‹Victor Zuno, 16, raises fighting cocks and is expecting to go to a University. He also wants to invade the United States.
• Trini
  ‹"It's so hard here being young. It's so poor, parents aren't home, and without nurturing, watering and pruning, the children grow in all the wrong directons."‹ Trinidad Organista Roque, 67, of Guadalajara.

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