Summary of Reyna Grande's The Distance Between Us

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 The United States is a much more powerful entity than La Llorona, the weeping woman who takes children away. It takes away parents, not children.

#2 When my mother left to sell Avon products, I would often go with her. But when she said she wouldn’t be gone for long, I knew it would be different. I never imagined that not too long would turn out to be never, because I never got my mother back.

#3 I was too young to understand the risks my mother was taking, but I could see how she had changed walking down the street. She no longer looked down at the ground because she was afraid of the rocks tripping her.

#4 My grandmother’s house was located in a poor town in Mexico called Iguala de la Independencia. The house was surrounded by a corral. To the east of the house was an unpaved street that led to the church, the school, and the tortilla mill. To the west was a dirt road that led past Don Rubén’s house and curved east to the dairy farm, the canal, and the highway.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Aug 27, 2022
• ISBN: 9798350017595

IRB Media

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Insights on Reyna Grande's The Distance Between Us

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The United States is a much more powerful entity than La Llorona, the weeping woman who takes children away. It takes away parents, not children.

#2

When my mother left to sell Avon products, I would often go with her. But when she said she wouldn’t be gone for long, I knew it would be different. I never imagined that not too long would turn out to be never, because I never got my mother back.

#3

I was too young to understand the risks my mother was taking, but I could see how she had changed walking down the street. She no longer looked down at the ground because she was afraid of the rocks tripping her.

#4

My grandmother’s house was located in a poor town in Mexico called Iguala de la Independencia. The house was surrounded by a corral. To the east of the house was an unpaved street that led to the church, the school, and the tortilla mill. To the west was a dirt road that led past Don Rubén’s house and curved east to the dairy farm, the canal, and the highway.

#5

I was taken to visit my grandmother, Abuela Evila, every week after that. My mother would leave me with her while she went to work, and every week, Abuela Evila would ask Mami how long I would be staying with her. Mami would always say that it would be for as long as necessary to save up the money for the house.

#6

Mami left to join Papi in El Otro Lado, and I cried because I wanted her to stay with me. I promised my sister that I would take care of her and her brothers for her, and she promised to come back.

#7

I watched as a taxi took my mother away, leaving a cloud of dust in its wake. I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned to see Mago standing behind me. Come on, Nena, she said. I wondered if, when Mami asked Mago to be our little mother, it had also meant she was not allowed to cry.

#8

My grandfather’s room was next to the alley. We could hear everything that went on in the alley, and sometimes we heard men coming from the cantina down the road. They would yell obscenities and sing borracho songs.

#9

One day, Mago and I were passing by the baker’s house on our way to the tortilla mill when we saw him coming out wearing