Reyna Grande - The Distance Between Us: Young Reader Edition

ALADDIN

An imprint of Simon & Schuster Childrens Publishing Division

1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020

www.SimonandSchuster.com

First Aladdin hardcover edition September 2016

Text copyright 2012, 2016 by Reyna Grande

Modified for a young audience

Jacket illustration copyright 2016 by James Gulliver Hancock

Back cover photograph courtesy of author

Interior photographs courtesy of the author

All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

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Jacket designed by Laura Lyn DiSiena

Interior designed by Steve Scott

The text of this book was set in ITC Cheltenham Light.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Grande, Reyna, author.

Title: The distance between us / by Reyna Grande.

Description: Young readers edition. | New York : Aladdin, Simon and Schuster Childrens Publishing, [2016]

Identifiers: LCCN 2016024959 | ISBN 9781481463713 (hardcover)

Subjects: LCSH: Grande, ReynaChildhood and youthJuvenile literature. | Mexican AmericansBiographyJuvenile literature. | ImmigrantsUnited StatesBiographyJuvenile literature. | Abused childrenUnited StatesBiographyJuvenile literature. | MexicoEmigration and immigrationSocial aspectsJuvenile literature. | United StatesEmigration and immigrationSocial aspectsJuvenile literature. | Mexican AmericansCaliforniaLos AngelesBiographyJuvenile literature. | Los Angeles (Calif.)BiographyJuvenile literature. | Mexican American women authorsBiographyJuvenile literature.

Classification: LCC E184.M5 G6652 2016 | DDC 305.8968/72073dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016024959

ISBN 9781481463720 (eBook)

To my sister, Mago, my little mother

Dear Reader,

In recent years, more than 200,000 children have arrived at the U.S. border asking for permission to stay. Most are from countries such as Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala, and some from my own countryMexico. They come escaping violence, poverty, persecution, corruption, but some also come to be reunited with their parents.

You see, in countries with extreme poverty and limited opportunities, many parents are forced to leave their children behind to go to a place where they can find a better life. Many of these children are left for years and years not knowing if they will ever see their parents again.

This is exactly what happened to me and my brother and sister. We were left in Mexico by both our mother and our father when they came to the U.S. to find better jobs. The years passed, and our desperation and fear grew. What if they forgot us? Or worse, what if they replaced us with American-born children? What if we never saw them again?

There were times when we thought about running away from our hometown to come and find our parents. We wanted to ask them, Do you still love us? Do you still want us? Luckily, we never had to make that journey alone. My father did return for us eventually. And one day I found myself running across the U.S. border with my dad and two siblings, putting my life at risk to finally have the family I dreamed of.

The immigrant children of today who have been arriving at the U.S. border have not had the same luck as me. They have been forced to flee their hometownsoften by themselvesto pursue their dream of having their parents by their side. Or worse, they come because their lives back home are in danger due to the instability and violence raging throughout Mexico and Central America.

I wrote The Distance Between Us because I believe that immigrant children have important stories that need to be told. I thought that maybe if I told my story of being a child immigrant it would help shed light on the controversial issue of immigration. I hope that those who read my book would show compassion, understanding, and love toward all immigrants, especially child immigrants.

This book was first published for adult readers, but I wanted to share my story with young readers as well, immigrant and nonimmigrant alike. Ultimately, The Distance Between Us is about survival and triumph, of learning that no matter how difficult our childhoods might be, we owe it to ourselves to look toward the future with hope, and to not let anything or anyone keep us from becoming the kind of person we want to be.

Where do you want to go? Who do you want to be? What do you want to achieve?

Hold on to your dreams, dear reader. When times get tough, hold on tight and dont let go.

Abrazos,

Reyna Grande

I wont be gone long.

How long? I wanted to know. I needed to know.

Not too long, Mami replied, closing her suitcase. She was going to a place most parents never come back from, a place that had already taken my father, and was now taking my mother.

The United States.

My sister, Mago; my brother, Carlos; and I grabbed our bags of clothes and followed Mami out the door of the little house wed been renting. Mamis brothers were packing our belongings for storage. Just as we were about to step into the sunlight, I caught a glimpse of Papi. My uncle was putting a photo of my father into a box. I ran to take the photo from my uncle.

Why are you taking that? Mami said as we headed down the dirt road to Papis mothers house, where we would be staying while Mami was gone.

Hes my papi, I said, and I clutched the frame tight against my chest.

Your grandmother has pictures of him at her house, Mami said. You dont need to take it with you.

But this is my papi! I said. She didnt understand that this paper face behind a wall of glass was the only father I knew.

Papi had left for the United States two years before. He wanted to build us a housea real house made of brick and concrete. Even though he was a bricklayer and could build a house with his own hands, he couldnt find work in Mexico because of the weak economy, so hed left to go to the place everyone in my hometown calls El Otro Lado, The Other Side. Three weeks earlier hed called Mami to tell her he needed her help. If were both here making dollars, it will be faster to buy the materials for the house, hed said, then they would come back to Mexico to build our house.

But in the meantime he was leaving us without a mother.

Mago (short for Magloria) took my bag of clothes so I could hold Papis photo with both hands. The dirt road was full of rocks waiting to trip me, but that day I was extra careful because I carried my papi in my arms, and he could break easily.

My hometown of Iguala de la Independencia in the southern state of Guerrero is surrounded by mountains. My grandmother lived on the edge of the city, and as we walked to her house, I kept my eyes on the closest mountain. It was big and smooth, as if covered by green velvet. During the rainy season a circle of fog wrapped around its peak, like the white handkerchief people tie around their heads when they have headaches. This was why the locals had named it the Mountain That Has a Headache. Back then I didnt know what was on the other side, and Mami didnt either. Shed never been anywhere outside of Iguala. Until that day.

We didnt live far from Papis mother, and as we turned the corner, her house came into view. Abuela Evilas house sat at the bottom of the hill. It was a small adobe house painted white with a terra-cotta tile roof. Bougainvillea climbed up on one side. The vine, thick with red flowers, made the house look as if it were bleeding.