José Orduña is an essayist from Veracruz, Mexico, who immigrated to Chicago when he was a child. His work has appeared in McSweeney’s Quarterly, TriQuarterly, The Nation, and the NACLA Report on the Americas. His first book, The Weight of Shadows: A Memoir of Immigration and Displacement, was published by Beacon Press in 2016. Follow his writing at joseorduna.com.