In Reyna Grande's The distance between us, we are able to see a piece of life in Mexico from a first person point of view: Reyna's own experiences. One of the things that stood out to me in the beginning of her memoir was the poverty that she and her family struggled with. Though they had some money, (barely enough for school), they were proud of who they were and where they came from. Two moments stood out to me especially: one, the moment when the children stare in awe at the dollar bills, and two, the moment Reyna and the others stand straighter as their flag passes by them during the singing of their national anthem at school. Though Reyna is just in 1st grade at this point in life, the fact that she and the other children have not seen money before is a bit of a culture shock. The idea of "money trees" on the "other side" doesn't seem that far off when thinking about the differences in wealth between these two countries. Also, when the children are singing their national anthem and we learn that Mago told Reyna about the history of Iguala, I was both happy and sad when Reyna stood taller to show her pride in her city. She was proud of the fact that she was from the place that drafted the treaty for the Mexican War of Independence, as well she should be. However, I was sad because of her innocence as a child; the ugliness of discrimination and selfishness of adults and governments had not touched her yet, and she was yet unaware of the vast differences between Mexico and America. She may know that "the other side" is a different place, but the unfairness of it all had not occurred to her yet. In retrospective, Reyna's story touches more hearts because she tells her ENTIRE story, from the beginning when she was a child and still experiencing the distance between countries.
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