Trisha's Reviews > Where We Come From

Written by a Mexican-American author who was born and raised in the border town of Brownsville, Texas, this novel focuses on people whose lives hinge on what happens to them at the border.

The book is set in Brownsville where 12-year-old Orly has been sent to spend three weeks with his father’s aunt Nina, who is caring for her bed-ridden mother. Behind her house is a small pink “casita” that Nina has, against her better judgement, agreed to be used as a way station for immigrants that are being smuggled across the border. When Nina sees a news report about the arrest of the coyotes that had been involved she thinks her troubles are over. But during the Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid one of the immigrants, a young boy named Daniel who had been traveling alone managed to escape and find his way back to Nina’s house where he hopes she can provide a safe haven for him until he is able to contact his dad who lives in Chicago and is awaiting him.

“Never in a thousand years could she imagine doing anything like this, sending this young boy off to all the dangers awaiting him in this merciless world. . . But then there is so much she can’t imagine. Having to leave her child because there isn’t enough to feed him, promising to bring him soon and knowing that soon won’t be soon enough and then learning he is in danger if she sends for him but in more danger if she doesn’t.”

Daniel like Orly is also 12 years old and at first Nina manages to keep his presence a secret. But soon Orly finds out and some of the book’s most moving scenes have to do with the friendship that emerges between the two boys even though it cannot last.

Much of what makes this book so poignant happens because the author has succeeded in helping us feel the emotional impact of immigration: “…. what it’s like to be illegal not because you’re doing something you’re not supposed to, but only because you want to be with your family and because they want to keep you safe. What it feels like to always be hiding and feeling like you can be caught at any minute, even if after the crossing part you haven’t done anything else illegal. What it feels like to know that someone is thinking day and night about how they can get you back.”

Throughout the book we’re given brief glimpses into the lives of many of the minor characters who show up for only a short time but whose backstories are also part of the drama and heartbreak of immigration. It’s just one more reason why this book deserves to be widely read especially by those of us who need to be more aware of what’s happening at the Mexican border.