The Distance Between Us

Author : Reyna Grande

Genre : Memoir

I have empathy for those who want to come to the United States looking for a better life, and also want them to go through the process legally. This memoir tells one girl’s journey out of poverty and her capacity to forgive and love.

Reyna is two when her father leaves the family in Mexico and crosses the border into the United States, hoping to earn enough money to build a home in Mexico when he returns. Then he sends for his wife and leave Reyna, Mago, and Carlos behind, who experience hardship, extreme poverty and abuse from their father’s mother. Their mother returns with a baby sister and the children have on-again and off-again contact with her. When their father (who is not with another woman) returns after an eight-year absence and takes the children with him, a new window of opportunity opens. However, they must deal with their father’s alcoholism and starting school in a country where they don’t speak the language.