Mexico, 1980s

Reyna grows up in Mexico in the 1980s in great poverty after a horrific recession. The houses are constructed like fragile shacks, food is scarce, jobs are few, and women marry young and birth more children than they can feed. Mexicans look at their northern neighbors across the border in the United States with envy and moving there is the most coveted opportunity. Reyna lives in Iguala, a village surrounded by mountains in Guerrero, one of the poorest states in Mexico. Life is described as communal and children play outside, women come out and embroider cloth napkins and talk, men come out and have a beer with their friends.

Abuela Evila’s House

At first, Reyna and her siblings are sent to live with their paternal grandmother, Abuela Evila, whose house sits at the bottom of a hill. It is shaped like a box and the...