Reyna Grande > Quotes

“And I didn't stop hating my name until many years later, when I realized that it wasn't a name to be ashamed of, but one to live up to.”
― Reyna Grande, The Distance Between Us

“We were already living in some kind of Hell in this strange place of broken beauty.”
― Reyna Grande, The Distance Between Us

“Just because they aren't with us doesn't mean we don't have parents anymore.”
― Reyna Grande, The Distance Between Us

“immigrants are artists because they create a life, a future, from nothing but a dream.”
― Reyna Grande, A Dream Called Home

“What's the border, Papi?'
'Hills,' Her father whispered. 'Hills and bushes, that's all it is. But we must walk across it.'
'Papi, if it's just land, why can't we take the bus all the way there. Why must we walk across?'
'Because we don't have papers, Carmen. And even though it is just land, it represents a wall. We must go like thieves.'
Juana wished she could ask what the father meant by that. Hills and bushes, that's what the border was. How strange.”
― Reyna Grande, Across a Hundred Mountains

“You are now bilingual, bicultural, and binational. You are not less. You are more.”
― Reyna Grande, A Dream Called Home

“went home thinking about the duality of being an immigrant, our split identities, the cleaving of our hearts and bodies—half of our heart remained in our homeland, the other was here with us. One foot remained rooted in our native soil while with our other foot we dug into American soil to anchor ourselves and weather the storm.”
― Reyna Grande, A Dream Called Home

“She saw a roach pass by her foot, and she instantly lifted it up and brought it down on the roach. She didn’t want anyone to see her shame. Not even roaches.”
― Reyna Grande, Across a Hundred Mountains

“But then Mago touched my belly button and added something to the story my mother had never told me. She said that my umbilical cord was like a ribbon that connected me to Mami. She said, "It doesn't matter that there's a distance between us now. That cord is there forever.”
― Reyna Grande, The Distance Between Us

“I made a choice and I must live with it.”
― Reyna Grande, Across a Hundred Mountains

“Juana ran her hand over her mother’s face. “One day”
― Reyna Grande, Across a Hundred Mountains

“I’d rather be poor but together,” he said. I thought about my own father, and the choice he’d made to go north, the price we’d paid for that decision. Was my uncle right? Was it better to be poor but together? Or was it better to try to find a better life, even if it meant breaking up your family?”
― Reyna Grande, The Distance Between Us: Young Readers Edition

“Some things can't be undone.”
― Reyna Grande, Across a Hundred Mountains

“college honors, honors in my major, and Phi Beta Kappa.”
― Reyna Grande, The Distance Between Us: Young Readers Edition

“Some spit fire out of their mouths and others juggled balls or pins, their faces painted to look like clowns. Juana wondered if they did that to hide their real faces and not feel ashamed.”
― Reyna Grande, Across a Hundred Mountains

“Closing her eyes briefly, she felt grateful for the heat of the sun warming her skin.”
― Reyna Grande, A Ballad of Love and Glory

“Nothing happens unless first we dream.” —CARL SANDBURG”
― Reyna Grande, The Distance Between Us

“But Anne got lucky when she was adopted by people who let her be who she wanted to be, who loved her and praised her for her talents, and who were not afraid to tell her they were proud of her.”
― Reyna Grande, The Distance Between Us: Young Readers Edition

“One foot remained rooted in our native soil while with our other foot we dug into American soil to anchor ourselves and weather the storm.”
― Reyna Grande, A Dream Called Home

“Anzaldúa wrote: “I am a turtle. Wherever I go, I carry my home on my back.” It was then that I understood what I needed to do. If I could become a turtle and build a home that I could carry on my back, I would never feel homeless again.”
― Reyna Grande, A Dream Called Home