Again, she finds solace in words, holding fast to her vision of becoming a writer, only to discover she knows nothing about what it takes to make a career out of a dream. Although her acceptance is a triumph, the actual experience of American college life is intimidating and unfamiliar for someone like Reyna, who is now once again estranged from her family and support system. With so few resources at her disposal, Reyna finds refuge in words, and it is her love of reading and writing that propels her to rise above until she achieves the impossible and is accepted to the University of California, Santa Cruz. What she found instead was an indifferent mother, an abusive, alcoholic father, and a school system that belittled her heritage. Words that were written by Reyna Grande, an immigrant like many of us who came to the U.S when she was young in search of a new life and a better future than she could have had in Mexico. When Reyna Grande was nine-years-old, she walked across the US Mexico border in search of a home, desperate to be reunited with the parents who had left her behind years before for a better life in the City of Angels. 1 Reflective essay of A dream called home by Reyna Grande Immigrants are artists because they create a life, a future, from nothing but a dream. (Oct.Summary: 'From bestselling author Reyna Grande whose remarkable memoir The Distance Between Us has become required reading in schools across the country comes an inspiring account of one woman's quest to find her place in America as a first-generation Latina university student and aspiring writer determined to build a new life for her family one fearless word at a time. This uplifting story of fortitude and resilience looks deeply into the complexities of immigration and one woman’s struggle to adapt and thrive in America.

After winning a PEN fellowship, marrying, and publishing her first novel, Grande discovered that writing her story could help her make sense of her troubled past and gain the courage to create a stable life for herself and her new family. Grande explores the complicated relationships of her uprooted family, dissecting a history of abuse (her grandmother verbally and physically abused her mother, who in turned abused Grande and her siblings) and vowing to break the cycle.

She worked hard in school, graduated with honors from college, and landed a teaching job in L.A. to help her and two older siblings get to L.A. Grande then recounts her difficult childhood: her parents divorced and left her with her grandmother in Mexico at age nine, after two failed attempts, Grande made it across the border with the aid of her father, who returned from the U.S. The memoir opens with Grande leaving Los Angeles to attend UC Santa Cruz at age 21, on her way to becoming the first in her family to earn a college degree her parents, both naturalized citizens, were not educated beyond elementary school. Novelist Grande ( The Distance Between Us) writes with strength and passion of her life’s journey-from her birth in a shack in the poverty-stricken Mexican town of Iguala, to success as an author in the U.S.