“Papi had left for the United States two years before. He wanted to build us a house—a real house made of brick and concrete. Even though he was a bricklayer and could build a house with his own hands, he couldn’t find work in Mexico because of the weak economy, so he’d left to go to the place everyone in my hometown calls El Otro Lado, ‘The Other Side.’ Three weeks earlier he’d called Mami to tell her he needed her help. ‘If we’re both here making dollars, it will be faster to buy the materials for the house,’ he’d said, then they would come back to Mexico to build our house. But in the meantime he was leaving us without a mother.”

Reyna Grande’s family is separated due to their financial difficulties, introducing the theme of The Challenges of Family Separation and Reunification. Reyna’s mother and father must leave their children behind in Mexico for the United States to make the money they need to build their new home. These circumstances are confusing and overwhelming to Reyna, who is still a child at the time. However, her parents’ absence when she is little introduces her to loneliness from a young age and establishes her complex family situation for the rest of her childhood.

“Mago and I sat on the dirt floor, and she told me about the day I was born, exactly the way Mami used to tell it. She pointed to the circle of rocks and a pile of ash and told me that during my birth a fire had been burning. When I was born, the midwife put me into my mother’s arms, and Mami turned to face the fire to keep me warm. As I listened to Mago now, I closed my eyes and felt the heat of the flames and heard Mami’s heart beating against my ears.”

The story Mago tells Reyna about her umbilical cord makes Reyna fall in love with The Power of Education and Storytelling when she is a little girl. This tale also helps her feel connected to her mother whenever she is absent. The cord is symbolic of Reyna’s longing for love and family and her desire to have her parents back (See: Symbols & Motifs).

“I wished I had a picture of Mami. I wanted to tell her I missed being with her. I missed going to the canal and sitting on the washing stone while she scrubbed our clothes and told me stories. If the water was low, she would let me get in and chase after the soap bubbles as she dunked the clothes into the water to rinse.”

Reyna’s childhood is defined by her family’s separation. While living in Mexico with her grandmother, she often thinks about her mother and tries to hold on to the few memories she has of her.