Industry News
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Why I Write about the Immigrant Experience
Contributed by Reyna Grande, Author
I learned to read in English in the 8th grade. As a child immigrant from Mexico struggling to adapt to the American way of life, I had a hard time finding my experiences reflected in the books given to me by my teachers at school or the librarian at the public library. Closest were the works of the Chicana writers I’d read in college, such as Sandra Cisneros and Helena María Viramontes, where I found bits and pieces of myself. But I did not find books that spoke directly to my experience as a child immigrant.
I did find books about adult immigrants and the struggles that adults—like my parents— experience when they arrive in the United States: low paying jobs, abuse and discrimination in the workplace, fear of deportation, struggles to assimilate and learn English, and the hardships of navigating and understanding the nuances of American culture and society. But as a child, wasn’t I as much a part of the immigration narrative? Weren’t my pain and heartbreak, struggles and triumphs, also worth telling? Didn’t I also risk my life and fight just as hard for my dreams?
Why weren’t children’s voices being heard?
I read and I read, though I’d always felt a void—a yearning, a missing piece that I desperately wanted to find. What I wanted most of all: to not feel invisible. Where was the book that spoke to the trauma of being a child immigrant; to being separated from your parents when they go in search of opportunities, leaving you behind as you wait for years; to being afraid that your parents have abandoned you or replaced you with American children; and to running across the border, attempting to evade the ever-watching eyes of border patrol and knowing if you’re caught, you’ll never be reunited with your parents? Where was the book that spoke about the effects of separation and how immigration can turn both parents and children into strangers?
When I complained to my creative writing teacher, she said something that I’ll never forget: “Reyna, sometimes you have to write the book that you want to read.”
And I went home, visualizing that book. I knew in my heart what it was, yet I was frightened. What if I was incapable of writing it? What if I wasn’t a good enough writer? Perhaps I should leave the project to someone else. Surely, one day, someone would write that book. It just couldn’t be me.
One day, the UC Santa Cruz creative writing department hosted an event for Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and invited her to speak about her work to an auditorium full of literature majors and aspiring writers. Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston was the very first author that I met in the flesh! Seeing her on stage made my dream of being a writer feel more real. There she was, a real author standing under the bright stage lights. She was tiny, just as small as I was at 5’0”, but she held herself with such confidence and spoke with such conviction that a minute into her talk, I stopped seeing her as small. She was larger than life and I clung to her every word as she spoke about her memoir, Farewell to Manzanar. Though it was about the effects of the Pearl Harbor bombing on Japanese-Americans, I still related to the story. As a woman of color, I knew what it was like to be marginalized, to constantly have to prove how American I was, and to always have to fight for my right to remain.
When Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston spoke that night, something changed inside me. Watching her talk about how she found the courage to write about her experiences in an internment camp, hearing her answering our questions, then sitting at a table while we all lined up to meet her, shake her hand, and have our books signed, I felt completely and utterly inspired. It was this moment—her book, her words, her presence—that I felt empowered as a woman and writer of color.
Many of the students waiting in line were in tears—especially those students who were Japanese-American—and kept telling her, “Thank you for writing our story. You’ve inspired me to keep fighting.”
And I went home that night thinking about the book inside of me that I wanted to write but was afraid to. I remembered what my creative teacher had said to me, and I knew then that I needed to find the courage to do it.
Now, when I visit school campuses to speak about The Distance Between Us, I am proud to be the writer up on stage inspiring young people to tell their stories. Through my books, I hope I can empower a new generation to find the courage to write the books that they want to read.
Reyna Grande is an award-winning novelist and memoirist. She has received an American Book Award, the El Premio Aztlán Literary Award, and the Latino Book Award. Her second novel, Dancing with Butterflies, received critical acclaim. In 2012, she was a finalist for the prestigious National Book Critics Circle Awards for her memoir The Distance Between Us. Her works have been published internationally in countries such as Norway and South Korea.
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