User:Armilne/Lunar Braceros 2125-2148

= Lunar Braceros 2125-2148 = A 2009 science fiction novel written by Rosaura Sánchez and Beatrice Pita set in a future where a single corporate government controls the majority of the Western Hemisphere, the planet is heavily polluted, and all the unemployed are sent to live in Reservations controlled by the government.

Characters
Pedro Ho - The son of Lydia and Frank and audience for Lydia's stories. He is raised in one of the last enclaves not controlled by the Cali-Texas government or in complete environmental collapse. While most of the novel is intended for an audience of Pedro as a child, by the end he has reached 18 and leaves to help his parents in their resistance efforts.

Lydia Vallejo - Born in the Fresno Reservation and chosen to receive university education in the sciences along with her older brother. Lnater, arrested for her part in student activism and decides to join a Waste Management crew for a four year contract on the moon to end her sentence earlier. After she and Frank escape from the moon, they utilize one of the frozen embryos stored by her and her deceased partner, Gabriel, to have their son Pedro.

Frank Ho - Raised outside of the Reservations as part of a family which owned and operated multiple restaurants after the government claimed their land. A member of the Waste Management crew at the same time as Lydia and later her husband and Pedro's father. Unemployed after completing his education as a geologist, Frank follows in his brother Peter's footsteps and volunteers to join a Waste Management crew on the moon.

Plot
The novel is told as a series of history lessons about the past of the adults surrounding him, primarily that of his mother Lydia, and the history of their world to Pedro. Presented as an alternative to the approved version of history embraced by the totalitarian regime of Cali-Texas (encompassing most of the Western Hemisphere), the novel describes how conflict lead to a shift in borders and the total control of corporations.

Growing up in one of the Reservations created by the government for the unemployed and their families, Lydia is given the opportunity to leave when she and her brother are selected to receive advanced science education. While completing graduate coursework, she decides to join a student activist group and is ultimately arrested for her part in their resistance actions for which she is sentenced to a prison term. There, she is assigned to work with a computer program which is searching all digitized historical accounts to identify those which run counter to the version preferred by the Cali-Texas government and destroy them.

After several years in prison, she accepts the opportunity to spend four years working as part of a crew to transfer and store hazardous waste on the moon rather than on Earth for high pay (to help her parents and younger sister pay their debts and leave the Reservation) and an end to her sentence. While she and the others are there, they discover that the previous crews, including the one with Frank's brother, Peter, were killed to free up more space for resources to be transported back to Earth. They make a plan to escape, recruit some of the other workers to assist in their flight, and return to the planet with proof of the corporation's actions. After they return, Lydia and Frank spend some time raising their son outside of the reach of the corporations governing the world before leaving him in the care of others they trust to start resistance movements elsewhere.

Environmentalism
After the planet begins to run out of space with which to store toxic waste, the government decides to concentrate the poorest people in Reservations to free up their land for future waste dumps. These people serve as a concentrated labor pool which can be used to complete any task the leaders consider necessary. When the Cali-Texas regime begins to transfer its toxic waste to the moon for storage, many of those recruited have ties to the Reservations and are drawn with the promise of higher wages than they could receive on the planet.

Motherhood
Despite being Pedro's mother, Lydia is not involved in her son's life in the manner typically associated with motherhood. After her time on the moon, she is unable to give birth to a child even using the frozen embryos from before her time there, so her friend acts as her surrogate. She does tell Pedro stories and work to teach him about what she views as important, such as an understanding of history and ancient literature, in addition to encouraging his interest in science. Later, she leaves Pedro behind to start resistance movements in other places, although she attempts to maintain contact with him.