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A review by yarnylibrarian
A Dream Called Home by Reyna Grande
5.0
I just finished Grande's The Distance Between Us and checked my library catalog to find her novels... and realized that in 2018, she published this sequel to the memoir. I grabbed this instead so I could learn what happened to her after she went to college.
This chapter of Grande's life continues with many of the same themes from her first book, like conflicted feelings about family, the immigrant experience, financial insecurity, and longing for love and acceptance. Reyna's struggles are not over, to be sure, but in this book she learns how to better advocate for herself and to recognize and stick with people who can help her in her journey. These mentors frequently have the best quotations in the book. Marta, Reyna's Spanish for Spanish Speakers teacher, tells her: "If they treat you differently in Mexico it is because you are different... You are now bilingual, bicultural, and binational. You are not less. You are more" (96). Micah, an influential writing teacher, advises "Reyna, sometimes you have to write the book that you want to read" (127).
Before long, Reyna is expressing wisdom that would be good advice for many. At one point, she makes a difficult decision that no one in her family supports: "I would go back to school because loving my child didn't mean I had to destroy myself" (210). She invests in one tough year of time-consuming classes so that she can leave her job teaching middle school and begin one teaching "adult school" to ESL students. The new job was less taxing, more rewarding, and provided time for her to write and spend more quality time with her young son. As she settles into this job she opines:
Things really start to come together in the final pages of the book. Reyna visits her hometown, Iguala, with her 2-year-old son (Nathan) and her boyfriend (Cory, a middle-class white American). Instead of being scared away by Reyna's past, Cory doubles down and moves in with her and Nathan. He takes them to his family's home in Racine, Wisconsin, where the Grandes are welcomed and cherished - but they return to Los Angeles where they are building a life together. Reyna even makes a new kind of peace with her mother, who finds increased economic security by having endless yard sales in Reyna's front yard. Reyna and her closest sister, Mago, reflect as young mothers on the choices their own mother made. And Reyna publishes her first novel!
All is not rosy in this book. Reyna is conflicted about her attraction to the consumerist lifestyle in America and chooses to spend much of her money on clothes and hair, rather than sending to to her impoverished family in Mexico. There are other moments like this and I appreciate that she shared them rather than brushing them under the rug.
In the end, those conflicts only increased my enjoyment of the book, which alternately brought tears to my eyes and made me want to stand up and cheer. I loved that it contained so many family photos (like her first memoir). This time when I return my book to the library, I'll be checking out her fiction. Reyna Grande is such a great find!
This chapter of Grande's life continues with many of the same themes from her first book, like conflicted feelings about family, the immigrant experience, financial insecurity, and longing for love and acceptance. Reyna's struggles are not over, to be sure, but in this book she learns how to better advocate for herself and to recognize and stick with people who can help her in her journey. These mentors frequently have the best quotations in the book. Marta, Reyna's Spanish for Spanish Speakers teacher, tells her: "If they treat you differently in Mexico it is because you are different... You are now bilingual, bicultural, and binational. You are not less. You are more" (96). Micah, an influential writing teacher, advises "Reyna, sometimes you have to write the book that you want to read" (127).
Before long, Reyna is expressing wisdom that would be good advice for many. At one point, she makes a difficult decision that no one in her family supports: "I would go back to school because loving my child didn't mean I had to destroy myself" (210). She invests in one tough year of time-consuming classes so that she can leave her job teaching middle school and begin one teaching "adult school" to ESL students. The new job was less taxing, more rewarding, and provided time for her to write and spend more quality time with her young son. As she settles into this job she opines:
I discovered that if as a society we want to help children, we need to help their parents as well. When we give parents the opportunity to learn English, to improve their work skills, to get better jobs, to be exposed to new experiences and nurture their minds, they are in a better position to provide for their families. They are able to help their children with homework, or at least able to understand the demands of being a student. Also, their children respect their parents even more, seeing them fight for an education. (245)
Things really start to come together in the final pages of the book. Reyna visits her hometown, Iguala, with her 2-year-old son (Nathan) and her boyfriend (Cory, a middle-class white American). Instead of being scared away by Reyna's past, Cory doubles down and moves in with her and Nathan. He takes them to his family's home in Racine, Wisconsin, where the Grandes are welcomed and cherished - but they return to Los Angeles where they are building a life together. Reyna even makes a new kind of peace with her mother, who finds increased economic security by having endless yard sales in Reyna's front yard. Reyna and her closest sister, Mago, reflect as young mothers on the choices their own mother made. And Reyna publishes her first novel!
All is not rosy in this book. Reyna is conflicted about her attraction to the consumerist lifestyle in America and chooses to spend much of her money on clothes and hair, rather than sending to to her impoverished family in Mexico. There are other moments like this and I appreciate that she shared them rather than brushing them under the rug.
In the end, those conflicts only increased my enjoyment of the book, which alternately brought tears to my eyes and made me want to stand up and cheer. I loved that it contained so many family photos (like her first memoir). This time when I return my book to the library, I'll be checking out her fiction. Reyna Grande is such a great find!