Juan Casar-rubias, his 9-year-old sister, Mary, and their parents live in a circus tent at a Red Cross center. Rain has moistened the ground below, and a chill wind blows through the open flaps.
Eighteen-year-old Juan spends most of his time sitting alone in his car.The Jan. 17 earthquake forced the family from their San Fernando Valley apartment into a Balboa Park lean-to. From there, they moved to the more substantial shelter of the tent.
Frightened by the strong aftershocks, Juan's mother, Reyna, insists the family remain there instead of moving into the gymnasium at a school nearby.
His father, Carlos, has spent two days standing on line, waiting to fill out forms and make appointments to see if the Federal Emergency Management Agency might help.
Juan is looking even further ahead.
"She wants to move back to Mexico City," he said of his mother Wednesday. "I think my father will want to go, too, once he is through with the lines. . . . I don't think my future's back in Mexico."
He paused, scratching his chin with a hand marked with the red code that allows him to eat in the Red Cross line. "No, I wouldn't go," he said. "I wouldn't be able to surf."