Chapter 6 to Chapter 14 pg. 48-111
Grande, R. (2012). The Distance Between Us: A Memoir. (pp. 48-111) New York, NY: Washington Square Press.
Day 2:
Chapter 6 began with Reyna starting school and Mago explaining the flag ceremony. Right at the beginning, you get a sense of Reyna's pride in her heritage as Mago explains how their hometown was key for Mexican independence and was the first place the national anthem was sung. I could tell that, despite the terrible conditions she lived in, she still loved her hometown and her country in the best way a 5 year old girl could. It was at this point that I could tell that whenever Reyna did make it to the US, it was going to be a difficult transition. I recognized that she would likely struggle to hold onto her roots and I wondered when she began to learn English, as it certainly wasn't during her first grade schooling in Iguala.
Reyna also continues to explain some Mexican superstitions. She's left-handed and her teacher scolds her about using her left hand to write. This is because the left side is "the side of evil." This is what she is told by her grandmother and teacher, but her mother explained it as a gift from a left-handed family member who had died a week before Reyna's birth. Reyna will later be quite defiant to her teacher and purposefully write with her left-hand. This is likely due to the attachment she feels to her mother and, as such, her mother's words overpower those of everyone else. Reyna also explains an instance of superstition when Mago wants to eat a mango that a boy had dropped to the ground. The superstition is that food that falls on the ground has been kissed by the devil, though this one is valid as it is unsanitary to eat food off the ground and the superstition likely developed when people made a connection to illness and having eaten food fallen on the ground.
I wanted to make a note of a statement in Chapter 8. Here, Reyna's father has begun construction on his dream home on a corner of their grandmother's property. It doesn't even have one wall by the time they have to stop sending money for construction but before this Reyna foreshadows something. She writes "if only he had realized he was making a mistake, building a house on a property that was not in his name" (pg 59). I have not read far enough to know why this became a mistake but I do know that it means something big and negative will happen in connection to her father and his house.
In Chapter 10, Reyna's mother returns, pack them up, and takes them to her mother's house. At Abuelita Chinta's home, which is nothing more than a shack, we learn why she returned. Reyna and her siblings, as hopeful children, believe that she has come to take them back to the US with her. However, she has returned because her husband, Reyna's father, has left her for another woman. This has broken her and we know this by the fact that even young Reyna notices that her mother is not the woman she was when she left them over two years ago.
Day 3:
Reyna's mother, Mami as she is called by her children, attempts to restart her life in Iguala. She has given up on her past job, selling Avon products, because she does not want to face the shame that would come from interacting with everyone that she had left. So she begins to sell snacks and cigarettes at the social club located on the edge of the poor neighborhood they now live in. This club, essentially an extravagant country club right next to a shack neighborhood, hosts multiple events on weekends in which many poor families attempt to win the sympathies of the rich families attending in order to make a little money. One night, Mami decides to try selling things within the building (her and everyone else are supposed to stay outside but every now and then someone will try their luck that the hosts won't kick them out). Reyna and her siblings, there to serve as a pathos appeal, get distracted by the beautiful swimming pool on the grounds of the club. When Mami returns, she gets nostalgic. Reyna's father had tiled that pool and the workers were given a day for them and their families to use it upon completion. Mami couldn't swim but her husband assured her that he wouldn't let go of her and he didn't then. But now, he had not only let go of her, he had thrown her aside and that nostalgia morphs into anger and sadness.
Chapter 12 opens with the story of why Mami left. Her husband announced that he was in love with another woman, refused to let her take their youngest child (Elizabeth, born an American citizen), and kicked her out. Mami kidnaps her baby and is threatened by her husband with a gun to give her back. They both all end up back in Mexico but her husband simply sneaks back across the border a week later, leaving Mami and four children stranded on their own. This is not the story that her children will hear until they are older but they know he abandoned them and Mami. In this same chapter, Mami leaves behind her children again, with a new boyfriend who dreams of being a wrestler.
Once again left without their parents, Reyna and her siblings must readjust to living without Mami. This time, the grandmother they are with is much more caring and loving. They eat better and are better taken care of, despite Abuelita Chinta having less money than Abuela Evila. At this point, they have little true hope in their parents. Reyna compares her father's dream home to the story of the 3 little pigs, a place he wants to protect his family from the wolf. But with the news of the death of a young cousin in a large storm, Reyna begins to worry that something will happen to her or her siblings before Papi returns or that he may never return at all.
¹image retrieved from http://www.wikiwand.com/es/Iguala_de_la_Independencia
Day 2:
 |
| The Mexican flag over Iguala. ¹ |
Reyna also continues to explain some Mexican superstitions. She's left-handed and her teacher scolds her about using her left hand to write. This is because the left side is "the side of evil." This is what she is told by her grandmother and teacher, but her mother explained it as a gift from a left-handed family member who had died a week before Reyna's birth. Reyna will later be quite defiant to her teacher and purposefully write with her left-hand. This is likely due to the attachment she feels to her mother and, as such, her mother's words overpower those of everyone else. Reyna also explains an instance of superstition when Mago wants to eat a mango that a boy had dropped to the ground. The superstition is that food that falls on the ground has been kissed by the devil, though this one is valid as it is unsanitary to eat food off the ground and the superstition likely developed when people made a connection to illness and having eaten food fallen on the ground.
I wanted to make a note of a statement in Chapter 8. Here, Reyna's father has begun construction on his dream home on a corner of their grandmother's property. It doesn't even have one wall by the time they have to stop sending money for construction but before this Reyna foreshadows something. She writes "if only he had realized he was making a mistake, building a house on a property that was not in his name" (pg 59). I have not read far enough to know why this became a mistake but I do know that it means something big and negative will happen in connection to her father and his house.
In Chapter 10, Reyna's mother returns, pack them up, and takes them to her mother's house. At Abuelita Chinta's home, which is nothing more than a shack, we learn why she returned. Reyna and her siblings, as hopeful children, believe that she has come to take them back to the US with her. However, she has returned because her husband, Reyna's father, has left her for another woman. This has broken her and we know this by the fact that even young Reyna notices that her mother is not the woman she was when she left them over two years ago.
Day 3:
Reyna's mother, Mami as she is called by her children, attempts to restart her life in Iguala. She has given up on her past job, selling Avon products, because she does not want to face the shame that would come from interacting with everyone that she had left. So she begins to sell snacks and cigarettes at the social club located on the edge of the poor neighborhood they now live in. This club, essentially an extravagant country club right next to a shack neighborhood, hosts multiple events on weekends in which many poor families attempt to win the sympathies of the rich families attending in order to make a little money. One night, Mami decides to try selling things within the building (her and everyone else are supposed to stay outside but every now and then someone will try their luck that the hosts won't kick them out). Reyna and her siblings, there to serve as a pathos appeal, get distracted by the beautiful swimming pool on the grounds of the club. When Mami returns, she gets nostalgic. Reyna's father had tiled that pool and the workers were given a day for them and their families to use it upon completion. Mami couldn't swim but her husband assured her that he wouldn't let go of her and he didn't then. But now, he had not only let go of her, he had thrown her aside and that nostalgia morphs into anger and sadness.
Chapter 12 opens with the story of why Mami left. Her husband announced that he was in love with another woman, refused to let her take their youngest child (Elizabeth, born an American citizen), and kicked her out. Mami kidnaps her baby and is threatened by her husband with a gun to give her back. They both all end up back in Mexico but her husband simply sneaks back across the border a week later, leaving Mami and four children stranded on their own. This is not the story that her children will hear until they are older but they know he abandoned them and Mami. In this same chapter, Mami leaves behind her children again, with a new boyfriend who dreams of being a wrestler.
Once again left without their parents, Reyna and her siblings must readjust to living without Mami. This time, the grandmother they are with is much more caring and loving. They eat better and are better taken care of, despite Abuelita Chinta having less money than Abuela Evila. At this point, they have little true hope in their parents. Reyna compares her father's dream home to the story of the 3 little pigs, a place he wants to protect his family from the wolf. But with the news of the death of a young cousin in a large storm, Reyna begins to worry that something will happen to her or her siblings before Papi returns or that he may never return at all.
¹image retrieved from http://www.wikiwand.com/es/Iguala_de_la_Independencia
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