Neither of my grandmothers told us that there is something more powerful than La Llorona—a power that takes away parents, not children. It is called The United States.
-- Narrator (Book 1, Prologue )

Importance: This is one of the earliest statements the author makes in this memoir and it sets the tone for the story that is to follow. The experience of the children abandoned by their parents, who leave Mexico in search of opportunity in El Otro Lado, is essential to her memoir.

Had she realized then how much I would need her? Had she known that without her strength and unwavering love, I would not have survived what was to come?
-- Narrator (Book 1, Chapter 1)

Importance: In this passage, Reyna thinks back to the moment that their mother left them in Mexico and commissioned her older sister Mago to act like a "little mother" to her. This is the beginning of the dynamic in Mago provides the emotional...