Reyna Grande’s “Distance Between Us” and Your Family’s History
1) The first challenge Reyna faced was her age. She was only four years old, the youngest of the three children, including her brother Carlos and sister Mago, who her mother left behind in order to be with her father in “El Otro Lado.” Yes, Reyna’s mother told them their father had sent for her and her only justification for leaving was that, “My husband needs me at his side.” (Grande, 7) Truthfully, a child as young as Reyna desperately needs a mother’s love, comfort and encouragement. Reyna’s sister Mago tired to fill the gap as best she could, but she was merely a young girl herself and also needed her mother’s love.
The second challenge was that all she had ever known of…show more content… Evila clearly showed her discontent for the children from the moment their mother brought them to the gate, as she stood there apparently not wanting to open the gate to let them in. When the children were sent home from school because of lice, Evila sent Mago to buy kerosene and she then scrubbed their hair with it and, when they failed to leave the towel soaked in kerosene on their heads all night, she had her uncle cut Reyna’s hair short like a boy, humiliating her in this compassionless treatment. There were many instances of neglect and abuse, the lack of proper nutrition, worm-infected bodies, ridicule, outright neglect, inadequate clothing and many other needs unmet, not to mention the emotional and physical abuse these poor children suffered at the hands of this tyrannical…show more content… In 1894 they had their first son, Melvin Nelson, my grandfather, who resided in Colorado until he was about 23 years old and then moved to Emery, Utah, in 1917. By 1929, Melvin moved to California and that’s where he met and married my grandmother, Evaland Blanchard. The couple had three children, of which my father Ronald was their youngest. My dad was born in 1939 and married my mother, Geneanne Floyd from Berkley, California, in 1958. My parents moved from Oakland to Sonoma, California, during the late 1960s and resided there for many