Migration

Through the memoir’s portrayal of different characters’ responses and reactions to migration, the memoir offers a range of perspectives on migration. As a result, Knitting the Fog encourages readers to see migration through a more balanced perspective than the sensationalized and sentimentalized versions sometimes presented on the news or in the media. Instead, Knitting the Fog shows that the experience of migration is one marked both by loss and gain, by hope and sorrow, and by pain and joy.

Part II of the memoir, which chronicles the family’s journey north, shows the many ways in which Claudia and her family attempt to process their decision to leave Guatemala and their journey northward. Claudia and her sister Consuelo are the most optimistic about the journey, as though their youth allows them to understand the family’s journey in only the most simplistic of terms. Their naïve...