Diversity Book Club: Books about Crossing/Mexico/Mexican-Americans

The Diversity Book Club in my office seeks books that will help open up our discussions with each other about race.  We've mostly chosen books based on recommendations from members or books that seems to be in the news.  In my quest to find good choices, I've also picked up a few books that I might not otherwise have read.  Here are just a few on the top of crossing the Mexico-United States border, and families living lives in the in-between:

The Distance Between Us by Reyna Grande: This is the memoir of Reyna Grande, whose father left her, her mother, and her siblings behind in Mexico, while he crossed the border in search of a better life.  Shortly after, he sends for his wife, but Reyna and her siblings are left in the care of their seemingly unloving grandmother.  Unable to care for them, Reyna's grandmother is dependent on the money sent to her by Reyna's parents in the United States.  Reyna is made to feel like a burden to her family in Mexico, while she lies awake at night wondering if she has been abandoned, or whether her parents will ever come back for her.  Ultimately, Reyna makes her own journey to "El Otro Lado" (the other side), with all the trauma, heartache, and unfulfilled promises that brings.  This is a true story of what it means to be a child left behind, and raises the questions - so prevalent in all these books about crossing - of what price is too high to pay for the destruction of family bonds, and how desperate must a parent feel to be willing to give up so much - or to feel like there is no other choice.

Across a Hundred Mountains by Reyna Grande:  After reading her memoir, I was interested in reading Grande's fiction.  It's clear that she writes what she knows, and even after reading the emotionally exhausting The Distance Between Us, I was still moved by this fiction account of two women - one crossing to the United States to find her father, and one following her husband across the border into Mexico.  Like her memoir, this book raised even more questions about the journeys people make for love.

Enrique's Journey by Sonia Nazario:  This memoir begins in Honduras, but ultimately requires the brutal crossing from Mexico into the United States.  Like Reyna Grande, Enrique's mother leaves him behind when he is only five years old, so that she can make her way north to a better life.  She promises to send for him, but the years pass, and his mother can only tell him to be patient.  Life without his mother is excruciating, and at the age of 16, Enrique decides to take matters into his own hands.  With only a phone number for his mother (in North Carolina), Enrique sets off to make the dangerous journey.  What becomes clear through this narrative is not just the conditions that one chooses to leave behind when they make the decision to cross, but truly the horrific trauma that people endure in the journey alone - from extreme weather conditions to physical and sexual assault to brutal robberies and near starvation, there is nothing glamorous or easy about getting to the border, much less across it.  This is an incredibly written account - one that I wish everyone would read - particularly anyone who just thinks people are coming across without exploring every other option available - for those who think for even a second that the decision is easy or that the separations of family isn't completely devastating and detrimental for generation upon generation. Enrique's Journey was first published in 2005, but it is an important book for understanding and better developing a conversation about immigration issues, and how greatly our humanity is implicated in our treatment of children and families.