90 Miles to Havana

Angelita and Pepe take Julian down into their tunnel to the outside fields. There, Julian sees field workers picking from tomato vines. He, Angelita, and Pepe each take a basket and start picking to earn money; they will earn two dollars a basket. Julian finds the work to be difficult, and Angelita says she wants him to experience it so that he will not take his life in the camp for granted. She says the workers are also “tired and lonely, but they just swallow it and keep going. They have to” (122).

When they turn in their full baskets, Julian sees the tomatoes being sorted by a mechanical contraption made out of random items and connected to an old truck engine. The inventor of this machine, Tomas, calls it the “Toma-Tron.” It reminds Julian of the machines Bebo used to build. They all have lunch with Tomas, who lets Julian taste some of his “Tomas-ade” made out of oranges, limes, and sugar. Tomas is selling the drink to save up money to fix his boat. When the Toma-Tron starts to sputter, Julian uses a trick Bebo showed him: he readjusts a small screw using a dime.