A review by readingthebacklist
Children of the Land by Marcelo Hernandez Castillo

5.0

Marcelo Hernandez Castillo's memoir relates his experience of growing up undocumented, the strained relationship with his father, toxic masculinity, memory, and the conflict of fractured identity. The warring feelings of seeking to “fit in” a place that seemingly does not want you and the guilt upon realizing what has been forgotten in the attempt to belong, “…although I didn’t know English at the time, my memories of those days are peppered in English now. My mother handed me a taza, not a cup; she poured café, not ‘coffee’…I see her handing me a ‘cup,’ and the ‘cup’ is now in English even though no one is speaking.” Marcelo's prose felt alive; he has a beautiful segment about the fleeting place of being between languages, “…in that very short window of time, when I could understand things better—clearer. Perhaps I never really left and was always moving back and forth between languages, reaching for something I would never fully attain.”
This book tackles the impact of policies on individuals, a necessary read to personalize the immigrant experience.