Yesterday, I drove around a suburb of Phoenix searching for a Oaxacan café that served chapulines, fried grasshoppers.

The store had closed. I was disappointed, because I  had wanted to write about people who eat chapulines for my book. Grasshoppers are eaten by indigenous Mexicans, and they’re a great source of protein.

I swear I’m not making this up,  but the very next day I met a source for an interview. As he walked in the room, he carried a little plastic tub full of fried, salted chapulines.  His dad had brought them up to Arizona from the Mexican state of Guerrero.  Here is a picture I took of the tub of grasshoppers.

Photo by Terry Greene Sterling

The man told me that female grasshoppers taste  better than male grasshoppers because female grasshoppers are fattier. This is a picture of a male and female grasshopper he picked out of the tub.

Photo by Terry Greene Sterling

“Eat one,” the man told me,  ”but first pull off the legs because they are like splinters and get caught in the throat.”

“OK,” I said.

I chose the guy grasshopper.

It took me a couple of tries, but I finally got the little fellow  in my mouth.

I forced myself to chew. The chapulín tasted clean, salty and crispy.

God, I love writing this book.

Are undocumented Mexican immigrants hiding out in the shadows?

Or are they hightailing it to Mexico in the wake of the recession?

And does stepped-up enforcement affect their numbers?

This July, two contradictory reports claimed to have the answers.

The Pew Hispanic Center says the flow of migrants into the USA from Mexico has decreased, but the flow of migrants back into Mexico has held steady since 2007. Long story short: not as many Mexican migrants are coming to the USA, but those who are here are staying, for the most part. You can read the report here. Note the center used data from the Mexican government, the Border Patrol and other sources.

Then, once you’ve absorbed it, read the report by the Center for Immigration Studies, which opposes illegal immigration. The CIS says fewer undocumented immigrants are coming to the USA, and more are going back to their countries of origin. The reasons: stepped-up enforcement and the recession.  The researchers used Census Bureau data and cited declines in remittances of money sent to Mexico. You can read the report here.

OK, so one study says undocumented immigrants are hightailing it to the border, the other report says they’re staying put.

Do your observations  square with either of the two reports? Why?