E4: Greetings from California

Linda builds a new life in California but news from home keeps chasing her. Members of Pueblos Unidos were detained in Michoacan, carrying an arsenal of weapons from the U.S. Linda’s fate depends on the U.S. asylum system, where Mexicans rarely win cases. She’s safe for now but her future in the U.S. is still unclear — a fate thousands of other asylum seekers share.

Linda and her family finally arrive in California. Their journey to safety has finally ended, but the one towards a new life has just begun, together with a case for asylum. Everything is new… New tortillas, a new language, new people, new schools.

After leaving Ixtaro hidden in a truck under blankets with her family, Linda crashes into a new wall — U.S. migration policies at the border. Memories and grief haunt her. But the help of Beto, a man from a shelter, became a lifeline through her journey to safety.

When a new vigilante group took over under the promise of protecting Linda and her community, she felt relieved. But things only got worse… before she knew it, almost every household owned a gun, most of which were smuggled from the US. In February 2021, she experienced the kind of paralyzing pain that led her to flee the only home she ever knew.

Avocado consumption has exploded in the U.S. over the past decade. But what’s rarely seen is the rotten underbelly of this industry, controlled by armed groups in Mexico who use smuggled weapons from the U.S. to keep control over this lucrative business. Meet Linda, who lives in Ixtaro, a small avocado producer town. She experienced unimaginable horrors while under the siege of narcos.

Caliber 60, a limited series podcast about the flow of avocados, guns and people, drops on March 15th. Subscribe to Caliber 60 to follow Linda’s story.