Across a Hundred Mountains
Across a Hundred Mountains Notes and Quotes
Summary • Eleven-year-old Juana lives with her Amá and Apá in their little shack at the outskirts of their village in Mexico. • On the night of a flood, which enters their shack, her mother leaves Juana on top of the table holding the baby, Anita, to go look for her husband. • Juana falls asleep and loses hold of the baby, which drowns. Now in debt again to the wealthiest man in the village, Don Elías, who paid for the funeral, Apá decides to risk everything and go to America to earn the money to pay off Don Elías. • When no word comes from Apá – Miguel Garcia – the other villagers taunt Juana and her mother, Lupe, with the hideous word: abandoned. But there’s still Don Elías to pay off, and there’s only one thing he’s asking for and one thing Lupe can give: her body. • As her mother declines further into guilt, depression, craziness and alcohol, Juana never gives up hope that her father is just across the mountains, that he hasn’t forgotten or abandoned them. Her determination to find him sees her travel to Mexico City, where she meets Adelina, who helps her find the coyote that helped her father cross the border
Characters
• Juana: A 12 years old girl with black hair, she was thin, very innocent, poor, aggressive and honest. She had a hard life and always felt guilty of the death of her little sister. Her purpose was to find her father in “El otro Lado”. She is the main character of this book and she will live the hardest times of her life trying to find her missing father.
• Adelina: A more less 17 years old girl, she works as a prostitute, she lives in Mexico. She run away from his house because she fall In love of her boyfriend, and he was the one who introduce her in the prostitution business, she is a friendly, good, honest and poor person.
• Miguel Garcia (Apa): He was a campesino and he worked in the fields planting and harvesting crops. He felt guilty of
Summary • Eleven-year-old Juana lives with her Amá and Apá in their little shack at the outskirts of their village in Mexico. • On the night of a flood, which enters their shack, her mother leaves Juana on top of the table holding the baby, Anita, to go look for her husband. • Juana falls asleep and loses hold of the baby, which drowns. Now in debt again to the wealthiest man in the village, Don Elías, who paid for the funeral, Apá decides to risk everything and go to America to earn the money to pay off Don Elías. • When no word comes from Apá – Miguel Garcia – the other villagers taunt Juana and her mother, Lupe, with the hideous word: abandoned. But there’s still Don Elías to pay off, and there’s only one thing he’s asking for and one thing Lupe can give: her body. • As her mother declines further into guilt, depression, craziness and alcohol, Juana never gives up hope that her father is just across the mountains, that he hasn’t forgotten or abandoned them. Her determination to find him sees her travel to Mexico City, where she meets Adelina, who helps her find the coyote that helped her father cross the border
Characters
• Juana: A 12 years old girl with black hair, she was thin, very innocent, poor, aggressive and honest. She had a hard life and always felt guilty of the death of her little sister. Her purpose was to find her father in “El otro Lado”. She is the main character of this book and she will live the hardest times of her life trying to find her missing father.
• Adelina: A more less 17 years old girl, she works as a prostitute, she lives in Mexico. She run away from his house because she fall In love of her boyfriend, and he was the one who introduce her in the prostitution business, she is a friendly, good, honest and poor person.
• Miguel Garcia (Apa): He was a campesino and he worked in the fields planting and harvesting crops. He felt guilty of