Author Reyna Grande speaks about immigrant experience
By Luisa B. '20, Global Scholar candidate; photos by Ann Diederich
Poly's Global Initiatives Program hosted Reyna Grande to speak about her novels, “The Distance Between Us” and “A Dream Called Home.” Grande told the story of waiting eight years in Mexico for her parents to return after working in the United States. After their return, she begged her parents to take her with them on their trip back to the U.S. Grande shared her own experience of crossing the border when she was 9 years old. She described to the audience, which included a combination of students from Partnership For Success! and Poly, the emotional fear she faced as a child worrying that her parents would forget or replace her during their eight years in America while she was raised by her siblings in Mexico.
Today Grande writes about border crossings in both a literal and metaphorical sense and derives inspiration from her childhood experiences. Grande compared her development as a writer to the life cycle of a butterfly: The caterpillar stage is when she wrote to survive by understanding her life and surroundings, followed by her pupa stage in which she wrote to learn how to become a storyteller. In Grande’s emerging stage, she sought to turn writing into a career. Finally, Grande considers her current stage the “taking flight” phase as she works on writing to change the world.
Grande’s empowering narrative highlighted the importance of representation. She referred to an influential teacher at Pasadena City College who used to say, “If Sandra Cisneros, Isabella Montez, and other Latina authors could do it, so can Reyna Grande.”
Grande mentioned the dismaying trend that uses immigrants’ language and cultural differences to marginalize certain groups of people. She encouraged the audience to fight for representation and equality. Grande found a home in writing, and her dedication to education and writing is clear as she answered the audience’s questions about inclusivity in the U.S., how she assimilated as an immigrant, and how she learned to write honestly.
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Poly's Global Initiatives Program hosted Reyna Grande to speak about her novels, “The Distance Between Us” and “A Dream Called Home.” Grande told the story of waiting eight years in Mexico for her parents to return after working in the United States. After their return, she begged her parents to take her with them on their trip back to the U.S. Grande shared her own experience of crossing the border when she was 9 years old. She described to the audience, which included a combination of students from Partnership For Success! and Poly, the emotional fear she faced as a child worrying that her parents would forget or replace her during their eight years in America while she was raised by her siblings in Mexico.
Today Grande writes about border crossings in both a literal and metaphorical sense and derives inspiration from her childhood experiences. Grande compared her development as a writer to the life cycle of a butterfly: The caterpillar stage is when she wrote to survive by understanding her life and surroundings, followed by her pupa stage in which she wrote to learn how to become a storyteller. In Grande’s emerging stage, she sought to turn writing into a career. Finally, Grande considers her current stage the “taking flight” phase as she works on writing to change the world.
Grande’s empowering narrative highlighted the importance of representation. She referred to an influential teacher at Pasadena City College who used to say, “If Sandra Cisneros, Isabella Montez, and other Latina authors could do it, so can Reyna Grande.”
Grande mentioned the dismaying trend that uses immigrants’ language and cultural differences to marginalize certain groups of people. She encouraged the audience to fight for representation and equality. Grande found a home in writing, and her dedication to education and writing is clear as she answered the audience’s questions about inclusivity in the U.S., how she assimilated as an immigrant, and how she learned to write honestly.
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