"This story takes place in Mexico City." "And in this city, as in many others in the world, cars have no space to move." "Over 15 million souls and 3 million vehicles, seek a daily route to reach their destination." "And then one day the construction of an elevated freeway began, the longest elevated freeway in the history of the city." "Digging, dust, steel rods and concrete... and workers, so many construction workers, the protagonists of this tale." "The freeway was to be called "The Second Deck" Mexico City 2003-2006" "To my children" " How are you doing?" " I'm okay." "I see." "Make a knot around your waist, and tell us when you're ready." " Slowly." " Yes." " Are you okay, Nabor?" " Yes." "Any major construction needs... souls in its foundation." "Like fertilizer in the fields." "So many things have happened here." "Things that..." "Inexplicable things, people don't believe us when we tell them." "You want to tell someone... but they don't believe you." "It's very sad." "Here you're just another one... of so many in the city." "What can I say?" "IN THE PIT" "It's gonna be a nice day today." "Not too cold, not too hot." "Like the song goes:" ""Not too cold, not too hot"" "Shorty comes to work!" "Hurry up!" "They're leaving!" "I'm going to change." "It's getting late." "My feet don't stink." "No, no!" "No way!" "I'm very clean." "I'm very well known in the world." "High heels and everything." "My name is Chabelo." "I do a little bit of everything." "Up and down and all those things." "Yeah!" "The same place..." "Go to hell!" "I'm feeling disillusioned today." "But I'll be fine later." "I already spent 15 years in this hell." "And yes, it's a hell!" "You break your back, and who gets the glory?" "When I get home, I'm angry." "And it's not my mom's fault." "My name is José Guadalupe Calzada, at your service and I always will be, 'cause you're my friend." "Sons of bitches!" "I do anything and everything." "I mean, I work like a..." "I'm a mechanic, a builder, a machine operator, everything." "Except a faggot." "That's going too low." "For me, life has been a good thing, a good thing." "It has so much to offer." "So much to offer." "You only have to know how to enjoy it, that's all." "If it rains, it rains." "If it's sunny, it'll be hot." "Whoa baby, shake it!" "Hey, G?" "era!" "Looking younger every day!" "Damn!" "Fuck you!" "I need your ass!" "You're not gonna live long." "You want to know what my life was like before?" "Look!" "My wallet was this full." "Full of five-hundred-peso bills." "Like this!" "You couldn't even close it." "Come meet him, meet him!" "Come meet him, guys!" "I want to do better in life... to take care of his sister." "What are you saying?" "I only earn 300 dollars a week and it's never enough." "I keep three women and... and I also want his sister." " Let's see if the others agree." " What you like is dick!" "They're gonna get married." "Knock it off." "Every Friday, I used to party with expensive hookers... with Mariachis." "Fucking great parties." "You'd never believe it looking at me, huh?" "I was always well stocked." "I'd have a huge wad of coke... hidden here, pal." "Dressed in sweats, tennis shoes." "Who'd ever think I was a Mafioso?" "In Mexico you won't succeed... unless you corrupt yourself." "There's money here, but only in corruption." "Honesty... only gets you beans and eggs." "That's the truth." "I know robbers, rapists... engineers, doctors, lawyers." "I know the ways they're going to steal from me." "They only study to learn how to steal." "So tall and slender" "Your beauty provokes me" "Your nose, your mouth" "Your body, your waist" "I wouldn't change you for anyone else" "Even if you were prettier" "Let's see what's on display." "Only legs today." "Too bad!" "There, there!" "They don't want to get off here!" "Damn it!" "See ya!" "I only worry about working." "Well, and eating." "That too." "And you?" " Enjoy your meal!" " Thanks." "Have a bath, son of a bitch." "He likes to stink." "He wants to save water." "Just get two buckets of water and wash him." "I'll wash him but with diesel and a match..." "Maybe it'll get rid of some of the muck." "Oh, baby!" "How about one of these chicks?" "For at home." "Tomorrow morning" "I'll go down to the well" "To see if my honey's there" "And I'll catch her by her shawl" "They're so smart but they don't know what they're doing." "It won't rain." "I fucking bet you it won't rain." "My week's salary against yours." "My week against yours." "Chicken shit!" "I know it won't rain." "It'll be cold." "But it's not gonna rain." "I'm not God, but I know it won't rain." "Look, man." "We're going to be fucked." "This shit-hole is gonna fill up with water." "See?" "Grab it!" "Grab it, you fucker!" "Let's go, let's go!" "Move it, a destroyer's coming!" "C'mon, keep moving." "It's a big one." "Move it, move it, you motherfucker." "Here they've made a goddamn mess." "Hey, Tsuru." "Wait, wait!" "Stop it!" "Shut me up, jerk." "Move on, move on." "As if this candy wasn't heavy." "When this is over," "I'm taking off to Acapulco for 15 days!" "Get out of this cave." "I've been divorced lot of times." "Because of this." "It's these long hours." "Of course, if I found someone..." "I had a girl in high school." "Someone like her," "I'd marry her in a wink." "No doubt about it." "Maybe that's it." "Maybe I've been looking for her in every woman I meet... and I haven't found her." "Because of how she was." "That's life." "A few have passed by... showing their undies." "I shout to them, "Dirty girl!"" "Sure they like it." "Take it easy, asshole!" "Wait, wait." "You're an asshole!" "Short, ugly, dumb and smelly!" "Son of a bitch!" "I really think a dead dog reeks less than you!" "The motherfucker doesn't even take a shower!" "What are you writing down?" "Are you checking up?" "Let's go to hell!" "Let's go!" "It's true I don't love you" "Desperate with all my heart" "I love the night." "I prefer night to day." "I don't like the light." "I don't know why." "I just now have come to believe in God... and the Devil." "And yes, it is true." "Because both of them have spoken to me." "And the Devil told me:" ""You either go with him or you come with me. "" "They appeared to me, very clear, like this." "The two of them." "When I began to pray, the Devil started to disappear... like a whirl in my room... and he left." "Things happen in a moment." "A taxi and a van were racing each other." "There were cones up closing the street." "And they went right through them." "In each one of... these main columns... someone's soul must be laid to rest, in order to... to hold up the freeway." "I gotta hunch it could have happened to me." "My head aches." "They say I reek like death, but no..." "They say it smells like death" "That soon I'll be in my grave" "But the guy hasn't been born yet" "Who's gonna put me away" "Can you see that?" "Hey, honey, come on up!" "See how it feels!" "Hoochy mama!" "Take off your coat!" "You say you love me, and look how you treat me!" "You promised to feed me." "Bitch!" "Liar." "This is iron, not cotton." "This story's gonna be called:" ""How the iron men suffer."" "This is what we like." "We can't live without the iron." "We live off the iron, right, pal?" "We can't live without the iron." "We live off the iron." "No iron, no work." "No work, no food on the table." "My life's a mess right now... on the one hand." "But on the other..." "Hold on!" "Hold on!" "On the other hand... it's good to be alive, to know how to live." "Fuckin'" "A!" "This makes my skin crawl." "Feels great to be here!" "Hey, Grande!" "You're just as dumb as you're big!" "You're useless." "Chabelo's gonna beat you!" "I have to remove the concrete... from these 10 steel rods." "But move it man!" "Chabelo's beating you!" "My name is Vicencio Martínez." "I'm the foreman of the ironworkers." "I want to retire by the time I'm 32." "Then go take care of the cows." "Down on the ranch." "$2,800 dollars." "Shit." "It's not enough!" "This race is going for $3,000 dollars!" "Have some." " Is it rubbing alcohol?" " Just drink it!" "Loosen up." "You'll feel him better." "You move those steel rods." "I already told you." " All those?" " Yes!" "I'm gonna go eat." "Why should I worry?" "Work's never gonna end." "The end is gonna be for us." "Check out this fucking great ladder." "Oh, my God!" "My mom sends me peaches, mangos, pears." "But I told her to change the flavor." "I'm sick of the same thing every day." "Because I like good food... fruits, salads, nice things." "You know?" "It'd be better to bring my lunch up here." "My mom wasn't talking to me anymore... but yesterday she sent me... yesterday I gave her money for two weeks, so now she's talking to me again." "Grande!" "Are you done yet?" "Almost." "I just need to..." "C'mon!" "I don't want any more noise down there!" "I'm gonna start putting in the rods." "With or without your permission!" "So look out!" "Because I go there!" "Don't be scared." "I already walked there." "You get used to it after two or three days." "Yesterday was my first time up here." "Aren't you afraid of being up here so high?" "No." "Fuckin' fear can kiss your ass!" "They say those born in a flowerpot... never leave the terrace." "Well, yeah, but..." "I'm more scared of not eating." "Right?" "We're more scared of not having anything to eat on Saturday." "He asked if we're not scared..." "I told him we're more scared of not having anything to eat on Saturday." "I'm gonna take a leak!" "To the back of the line!" "They wish they had my luck." "Why am I gonna get in line?" "I'm not buying tortillas." "I'm not buying tortillas." "Let me eat." "Stop bugging me." "Here it is!" "I like to get coked as a crocodile" "High as a kite" "Look." "I won again." "Every time I get wasted" "I stuff myself like a pig" "I might come with bags under my eyes" "Or I might die on the road" "I was feeling so good resting here!" "You can get used to anything... except work." "Nobody gets used to work." "From what I know." "You wake up in the morning, and just want to stay in bed, keep sleeping." "But you gotta get up." "Nobody gets used to work." "Nobody says at 3:00 in the morning" ""Great!" "Let's go to work"" "Nobody." "That's why I say... a man gets used to everything, except work." "You want me to sing the one about the dead man?" "They say it reeks like death" "That soon I'll be in my grave" "But the one hasn't been born yet" "Who's gonna put me away" "Wait, wait!" "We fucked up." "This doesn't fit there." "Son of a bitch!" "See you tomorrow." "The owner of all this... must have made a pact with the Devil." "And what the Devil wants is souls." "A lot of people have died here... and that's why." "A lot of my co-workers have actually seen them." "And they're already dead." "They're suffering... right here on the freeway." "Those souls... did not leave... in peace." "Those souls... you could almost say they were sold." "I say they should be working 24 hours." " They are working 24 hours." " Oh, yeah?" "That's good." "But it's still annoying." "I wouldn't like to be in their shoes." "On the other hand, take my uniform... and stand here a moment, and see how it feels... with everybody insulting you all day long." "It's hell, really." "What do you think about God, Chabelito?" " Do you believe in God?" " Yes I do, I do!" "I do." "There is a God." "For everybody, not only for me." "It helps to think there is a God." "Yes, yes, yes." "But we can't see Him... because we're nobody... to be able to see Him." "There was a lot of traffic, and the car overheated." "That one's a goner." "I can't drive anyway." "I only want to see what's left of it." "You're looking for your keys." "The keys to your place." "Some day we'll see God, but who knows when." "One day, but who knows when." "That day's gonna come." "Yeah, that day's gonna come." "We've got time." "There's time." "Beauties, aren't they?" "But they're fake." "You can get them downtown... and I sell them." "I like to put lots in my teeth, that way people see them and ask, "How much?"" "I sell them cheap, 5 cents... and they buy them up." "You have to invent anything for a living!" "A little paint job." "Thanks for the polish." "A few words for the president, please." " What can I say to him?" " Hey, Mr. President." "At your service, Members of the Parliament." "If I was president... everybody would have everything!" "Everybody would have dough." "Make a lot of money for everybody." "Lots of dough, good idea!" "Day and night, my machines working, churning out the dough." " Lots of work?" " Lots of money." "Would you take from the rich to give to the poor?" "No." " Even if you were president?" " No, no, no." " Is that wrong?" " I'd make more money to give to others!" "You'd make the money?" "Jobs and well-paid." "Well-paid jobs." "53, 54, 56, 57, 58..." "Get a bucket to put them in." "No buckets?" "Not even one?" "Oh, well." "A politician?" "No." "I like to talk a lot and to be in everybody's business." "I have those talents to be a politician... but I don't want to." "It's too dirty." "There are no good presidents in the world." "Everybody has to look after himself." "What do you think?" "You can't come through!" "A big piece is coming!" "Times are bad." "It's tough everywhere." "But you can't complain." "There are others a lot worse off." "So long as there are enough beans on the table." "You can't complain." "Look, let's not fool ourselves." "Everybody... is just looking for a way to grab their share... a way to get rich." "No politician really wants to work for us." "They're all looking for money." "That's the way it is." "We all have the hopes that things will get better, but I don't think so." "The only way I think it can happen, is through culture... the education passed on... from parents to children." "Keep moving!" "As I was saying... the key is how you communicate with your children." "My name is Isahín Octaviano Simón." "My hands are just like yours." "Don't you think?" "Here you get a nickname... as soon as you get here." "My brother's is "Ugly"." "Mine's better." "He's El Guapo. (handsome)" "'Cause he hits on all the girls." "That's why he's El Guapo." "The magazine!" "You know what El Guapo says?" "I haven't had a girlfriend." "First comes work, then everything else." "There's no time." "What is happening, son?" "They are taking pictures!" "Why not go to take pictures of Grandpa too?" "Yes, we are going to see him!" "My Grandpa!" "We are tired now." "All the aches." "In the feet." "No more walking." "Good for nothing." "No more." "My lungs work only little, my head." "Because I worked so much in the fields, always with a baby on my back." "In the harvest, crops in a bundle and a baby on my back." "Now, no." "My lungs..." "They hurt now." "I feel them beating." "They hurt." "They hurt." "There's more money in the city than here." "Here you work a whole day for 5 dollars." "Your open arms search for me" "I want you to feel like a woman only with me" "Today I long for you" "Today I long for you" "I want to quench the thirst of my soul with your lips" "I want to wake up by your side every morning" "Love?" "Fine, fine." "Everything's fine." "And you?" "I don't want anything to do with love right now." "I was once in love." "But it wore off." "Why?" "'Cause I'm old." "Yeah, I'm an old man." "I can't even hold it in!" "She's still young, 26." "She was like 15 or 14 years old when I took her away." "Let's go, I said." "That's the way it is." "Hello?" "Yeah, "Pug Face" is sleeping right here." "Move it, you lazy ass!" "If you love Jesus who died on the cross for so many..." "Yes, he did!" "Respond." "Edit." "Did you call her yet?" "She finally called." "She sent me some messages." "Just a trim, boss." "How much?" "Long, short?" "Regular." "I won't get married." "That's not for me." "I don't like marriage." "Turn it off." "I get embarrassed." "Everybody knows me as "Chómpiras."" "And my nickname Shrek?" "It's from a picture in the newspaper." "I got it from there." ""Shrek."" "How did you meet your wife?" "She talked to me." "I just went with the flow." "Flow how?" "Why?" "What did she say to you?" ""Let's go to a dark corner," she said." " And what did you say?" " I said, "Let's go!"" "Do you like music?" "Let's see if you like this." "We decided to go to the movies." " Were there movies back then?" " Yeah." "What type of movies?" "Black and white?" "Black and white." "You went to sleep?" "Then what did she do?" ""Wake up," she said!" ""Wake up, honey!"" "And you, what did you say?" "Let's go, I said." " And you didn't stay to see the end?" " No." "Does it look bad?" "Look." "Look at it." "I was in the papers." "'Cause I hit my wife." "Why did they put you in jail?" "I got a little bit drunk." "And drunk, everything seemed so easy... and then the punches flew." " And the next morning when I woke up..." " You were locked up." "When I woke up, I looked around and said, "Son of a bitch, this isn't my room!" "I'm in the wrong room!"" "We had a lot of problems... and I don't have much patience." "I take it and take it, but I finally lose it." "This time I only gave her a bloody lip." "The time before, she couldn't even open her eyes." "Well, one of them." "Let's go inside." "Come on in." "Look." "This is the kitchen." "This is the kitchen." "And this..." "This is the bathroom... the shower." "This is my daughter's room." "She's the one in the picture." "This is the guest room... for whenever you'd like to visit." "Come visit and warm up the bed." "That's it." "My home." "Your home." "Happy Birthday, Shorty!" "He's gonna cry!" "Filthy bastard!" "Give el Grande a piece." "Don't be stingy." "Take a bite!" "Be careful with his mustache." "It could get burned!" "Sometimes I just don't get it." "It's only when I stop and think... that I say, "I fucked up."" "But by then it's too late." "I already hurt someone." "Now I'm paying for it." "We're in hell here, paying for our sins." "Once you're gone... the maggots will have a feast on you." "The maggots say: "Bring on the fat one!" "The skinny one's no good!"" "You surprise yourself." "Sometimes you don't even know what you're doing." "You don't want to do something and before you know it, you're doing it." "Other times, you want to do things, and you don't do them." "I just don't understand why." "There's no use crying anymore." "There's no use crying anymore." "I'd like to be tough." "Not to feel anything." "But it hurts." "I don't know... if I'll see... all of this finished." "When I have... a premonition about something... it happens." "I feel like..." "I don't know." "Are you okay?" " You all right?" " Yes!" "Stay calm!" " Legs." "Hands." "Everything okay?" " Yes!" "We'll get you out soon!" "Turn around." "Take it easy, Nabor!" "Stay calm." "Take it easy, Nabor." "There you go!" " Anything hurts?" " He says:" "Everything!" " Do we call the ambulance?" " Wait, wait." "First, let's take a look." "You're almost here, Nabor." "We've got you." "Hold on, hold on." "Don't let go." "We've almost got you." "One hand, then the other." "We've got you!" "What hurts?" " My foot." " Where does it hurt?" "On the bottom." " I think it's broken." " You're going to be okay." "Don't worry." "Are you cold?" "A huge construction like this... can't avoid it." "Inevitably... it's going to take lives." "And not only one, but many." "And what's still to come." "My baby says I have no life." "I even dream about the girders I move." "To live?" "Well, you have to live the moment." "We don't know what the future holds for us." "You should try to do... whatever you can right then." "Because you never know... if you'll have the chance to do it tomorrow." "You really want me to tell you" "I'm a soul without a master" "I lack nothing" "To me, life is a dream" "My dear friend, stay and photograph all the people if you like, but this bird is flying." "It's late." "Are you going down or you are staying?" "I'm staying." "Let's go!" "Come kiss your daddy good-bye." "Shorty!" "Here it comes!" "Here it comes!" "Now we'll have to walk." "Let's go!" "It's looking really nice." "Too bad I'll never use this fucking freeway because..." "I don't even have a bicycle!" "There's not one single good president in the world." "Everybody has to look after himself." "You're ugly, but your sister's really hot." "I wanna meet her!" "Some people don't even care." "They just look at it and keep going." "Even I don't care about the freeway." "Even I don't care." "I'm somewhere else." "I'm somewhere else." "I'd like to be a pimp." "But for that... you have to be good-looking." "And I'm ugly." "I just want to be an ironworker." "Nothing else." "I'm like the wind." "I go wherever I choose." "If I was president... everybody would have everything!" "Everybody would have dough." "This is going to end." "We won't see each other again." "Give me a picture to see you often." "I'll hang it up in my living room and scare off the rats." "You should come to the ranch to visit." "It's beautiful." "There are some hills like that." "Hoochy mama!" "This is like a trip." "It has to end sometime." "What else can I say?" "Translated by Andrea Martinez Crowther."