Review: The Distance Between Us By Reyna Grande

Enrique’s journey from Honduras to the U.S. unveils the innate loyalty of a loving child to their mother and presents the dangers that a migrant faces on the road with consistent angst; nevertheless, it supports the idea that compassion shown by some strangers can boost the retreating confidence within a person. In Sonia Nazario’s “Enrique’s Journey,” he seeks the beacon of light that all migrants hope to encounter; “El Norte.” Like many children before him, it is the answer to the problems of a hard life. While being hunted down “like animals” leading to “seven futile attempts,” he is

Alma feels afraid, trapped, and insecure about this unknown country, America, when she comes here for the first time. It all makes Alma dreadfully homesick for her friends, neighbors, and family in Mexico because of those bad conditions and the unfamiliar place. She does not know how to speak English; therefore, she has not known any neighbor to talk with. Also, the things do not occur like expectation. In fact, the life in the U.S. is worse than in Mexico. However, even if she knows that, she still makes up her minds to move here. Alma starts missing her former home in Mexico, for her and her husband lived there since they were born. When she stays home by herself, the feeling of missing is stronger than any other

In the film “Mi Familia,” we follow the story of the Mexican-American Sánchez family who settled in East Los Angeles, California after immigrating to the United States. Gregory Nava and Anna Thomas introduce the story of this family in several contexts that are developed along generations. These generations hold significant historical periods that form the identity of each individual member of the family. We start off by exploring the immigrant experience as the family patriarch heads north to Los Angeles, later we see how national events like the great depression directly impact Maria as she gets deported, although she was a US citizen. The events that follow further oppress this family and begins separate identity formations. These

The North may sound beautiful from afar but once you hear about this unique adventure into the North you may think twice about how beautiful it really is. Luis Alberto Urrea, the author of Into the Beautiful North shares a unique story about a group of girls who travel into America on a very important journey. This story begins in small town in Mexico known as Tres Camarones, where there are very little men to be found. There is a young girl named Nayeli who works with a man named Tacho that owns a restaurant within this town. She has two best friends named Yolo and Vampi who also live in Tres Camarones. One night Nayeli is inspired to go on a quest into the north to bring her father and other men back to their town. Nayeli gathers her two best friends and Tacho together and convinces them to go with her on this quest. On this adventure into the north they come across many difficult situations; they are caught crossing the border, attacked multiple times by strangers and separated throughout the story. Eventually Nayeli crosses the States and discovers her father despite the troubles she faces. Although the girls and Tacho run into many problems, they were able to gather men on their way through America. Urrea shares this story and creates a relationship with his audience through imagery and diversity. The author constructs this novel on Mexican magic realism, this novel should be read by a high school aged audience and older because of the real life subject told in a way

In the memoir, “The Distance Between Us,” by Reyna Grande, Natalio makes a decision which cost him to lose everything he once had. Natalio leaves Juana and his three kids to make money in El Otro Lado to build his dream house in Mexico. Since he couldn’t make enough money on his own, he takes the mother of his three kids as well. This decision creates a distance between all of them, because no matter how close by they are in Los Angeles after they migrated to the United States the harmony amongst his family is never established. Mago, Carlos, and Reyna get humiliated as they are left with their wicked grandmother Evila. They are looked down on as orphans. Their economic status in Mexico makes them want to give up on school. As the father dreams

In the novel Enrique’s Journey, Sonia Nazario demonstrates the onerous journey of illegal immigrants. Sonia Nazario aims for the readers to make them understand what most of the immigrants go through during their journey to the United States. By appealing to ethos and pathos throughout the book, Sonia Nazario portrays the path that Enrique undergoes to reunite with his mother.

During the family's split, Reyna and her siblings lived in a cardboard box with in rags as protection all while under a watchful eye from their grandparents, whom relatively argue that they treat them as outdoor pets. These horrible living conditions were endured until Reyna and her siblings were finally able to cross the boarder to reunite with their father. After their successful crossing to the United States, Reyna and her siblings found themselves with better opportunities and higher education was easier to obtain. Despite the pressure that Reyna's father forced upon her and her siblings to do well in school or be sent back to Mexico, she was able to make it from the fifth grade and succeed in obtaining a college degree in writing. Though Reyna and her siblings

Each year, thousands of Central American immigrants embark on a dangerous journey from Mexico to the United States. Many of these migrants include young children searching for their mothers who abandoned them. In Enrique’s Journey, former Los Angeles Times reporter, Sonia Nazario, recounts the compelling story of Enrique, a young Honduran boy desperate to reunite with his mother. Thanks to her thorough reporting, Nazario gives readers a vivid and detailed account of the hardships faced by these migrant children.

The Distance Between Us a memoir written by Reyna Grande, she tells a coming-of-age story and experiences on her hometown, Iguala, Guerrero, Mexico to relocate to Los Angeles, California in order to have a life with full of opportunities. Grande was part of the serial immigration, so she was following her parents coming to the United States, “El Otro Lado, the other side”(4). Grande uses Spanish diction, rhetorical questions, and visual rhetoric to provide ideas about her experience as an immigrant trying to adapt into Mexican and American societies, in order to draw the reader into her world. Through literary devices, Grande makes the reader to identify with her immigration story even if they are not Mexicans or immigrants. The Story is

The book The Distance Between Us: A Memoir by Reyna Grande provides an account of Reyna Grande’s life in Mexico and later in the United States. When she is two, her father leaves the family for the United States hoping to earn money for building a house in Mexico. Later, he sends for their mother, Juana, leaving behind three children – Reyna, Mago, and Carlos. The children experience abject poverty and others hardships under the unforgiving care of their paternal grandmother, Abuela Evila (Tobar). Her mother returns with another child, Elizabeth, and establishes an on-again and off-again relationship. Later, their father, for whom they have almost forgotten, returns and takes them on a terrifying journey to the United States ' border (Grande 317). Overall, the book narrates a child’s journey to overcome poverty and deal with the absence of parents through forgiveness and love.

After Juana’s father is forced to leave Mexico for more economic opportunity, the family is faced with numerous obstacles as they wait to hear word from him. Thinking they were abandoned, the family starts to fall apart as they deal with the psychological struggles of not knowing the truth. This theme extends throughout the novel as Lupe Garcia ends up in prison for committing murder, later spiraling into a depression and eventually losing her sanity as she continues to wait for her husband and children to return.

Enrique’s Journey recounts the unforgettable quest of a Honduran boy looking for his mother, eleven years after she is forced to leave her starving family to find work in the United States. Braving unimaginable peril, often clinging to the sides and tops of freight trains, Enrique travels through hostile worlds full of thugs, bandits, and corrupt cops. But he pushes forward, relying on his courage, hope, and the kindness of strangers. He attempts the dangerous journey eight times before he succeeds. During his first seven attempts, he is severely beaten, robbed, and humiliated. However, he never gives up. The struggle that Enrique and other immigrant make to reach el norte is harder than anyone can expect.

This is further stressed by the fact that they live in single parent homes, and don’t even have a healthy relationship with the parent that they live with. They have the memories mentioned of the narrator’s mother in Confetti Girl, and the baseball belonging to the narrator’s father in Tortilla Sun, but they physically have the other parent, at least in confetti girl, the dad is there, but mentally somewhere else. In Tortilla Sun, the mom will be leaving soon for another land. In both stories the parents make decisions the narrator’s disagree with, making them feel abandoned or insubstantial, ultimately creating major tension that develops over the course of the

“Si habia dinero para las tortillas, no habia para la leche. Si habia dinero para la leche, no habia para la mantequilla,” Eloisa Ramirez remembers. Abandoned by her mother at eight years old, married by eighteen, five children by twenty-five, and with only an eighth-grade education, Eloisa waited for a month after attempting to cross the Mexican border into the United States because “immigration was getting a little tough to get around”. Eventually, she illegally,

as the kids fell on the floor of the base, Miwa was the first one to stand up from the pile of her friends. Miwa was the first one to look around as the other start to follow her. Later on, they learn that they were born with an animal spirits or the powers to the orphaned children. The mentor told them that they have an extra personal tool life for hold their fates as a Ranger. All of them fight together due to having an extra personal tool life in order to protect their home from the enemies of the Rangers. As the orphaned children turned in the loving family, they learn that nothing can stop their loves for other people and their parents that they never met before. Even the years went by, the family of the orphaned children has extra personal tool life like their parents in the past as a Power Ranger.