Institute History
Description
Mexico, 2020 A.D.
The dreams of the information revolution have been realized.
A high-speed, transnational internet covers the globe, tying distant people and places together.
But Jorge Cruz lives on the fringe of this futuristic Global Village.
Jorge is a young Mexican peasant, struggling with his family to maintain a small plot of land in the face of drought and debt. His family needs him, but he has dreams of something better, of leaving, of finding a new life, maybe even in America.
When tragedy strikes and his family is killed, Jorge has only one option: to flee north and seek the new life he's always dreamed of.
When Jorge arrives at the U.S./Mexico border of the year 2020, however, he's stunned. He discovers that instead of crossing the border, as many migrant Mexican workers used to, the migrant workers of this future cross the border in a new way—they use the internet. Using the internet of the future, these tele-migrants work in America, as they remotely control robotic workers from the computer terminals of Mexico.
In this brave, bizarre new world, Jorge builds a new life.
He discovers a black market of border hackers who patch illegal connections to American jobs. In this underground economy, he finds and falls in love with a tough, smart girl named Victoria. And through the internet, he finds work and new friends in America.
But as the digital vigilantes and the hi-tech INS begin to crack down on these netbacks, Jorge and Victoria's lives are put at risk. As he gets closer and closer to realizing his dreams, Jorge is forced to choose between his American future and his Mexican reality.
A bold, stark story of immigration, human struggle, and the power of the American Dream, The Sleep Dealer brings timeless themes into the new world order.