Abuela Evila

The main characters of the book are Reyna and her older sister Mago and her older brother Carlos. She has two half siblings Betty and Leonardo, but they are not as close to her as Mago and Carlos. When Reyna was two years old, her father named Natalio left their hometown of Iguala in Mexico to find work in El Otro Lado to build his dream house for his family. However, two years later her father told her mother Juana, to come to Los Angeles to help him make money for his dream house. Reyna, Mago, and Carlos were devastated that both parents were leaving them in Mexico to go find work in the United States. The three siblings had to live with their father’s mother Abuela Evila. Their Abuela Evila was in my opinion one of the bad characters of
Growing up Reyna always wanted to have a normal family. She wanted to be with her parents in the same country together. However, things did not turn out like she had hoped for. Her father found a new woman in the United States, and that caused her mother to leave and go back to Iguala. After her mother came back to Mexico, her mother started coming in and out of her and her siblings’ lives. The kids started to see their mother less and less, till one day she just abandoned them completely. When their father came to bring them to the U.S., Reyna thought that this would be the moment where she would finally get the family she always wanted. However, things started to change when she realized the father she made up in her head, and the stories that her sister would tell of their dad; was not the father she excepted. Her dad was mean, abusive, and would strike at any given moment. The family she always longed for was not a reality. She said, “Immigration took a toll on us all” (Grande 472). I find this interesting because getting to read about the characters and how they changed when they got to the U.S, one can see that migrating did change these characters lives. Carlos gave up everything he worked hard for, for a woman. Mago wanted to become more Americanized, and she wanted to forget where she came from. Natalio gave up on his dream house, and
It was based on the author’s real life, and the reader can connect to the main character. I would recommend this book to anyone that is interested in what a transnational family goes through, or anyone that wants to understanding the struggles that migrate individuals have. I would absolutely read another book like this. I think this book has helped me get an understanding of what I might deal with in the future. I want to be a Social Worker for the immigration field, and getting to know the stories behind why people migrate to the U.S. and learn about their emotions is