Reyna's mother leaves for America, and Reyna and her siblings are sent to live with Grandmother Evila.

Mago shows Reyna where her umbilical cord is buried, saying it keeps her forever connected to their mother.

The children learn their mother is pregnant, deepening their fear that their parents will never return to Mexico.

Reyna's mother returns to Mexico with baby Betty, and the children move into Grandmother Chinta's house.

Reyna's mother leaves without saying goodbye to move to Acapulco with her wrestler boyfriend.

Reyna's father returns to Mexico with new wife Mila and agrees to bring all three children to America.

After two failed attempts, Reyna and her siblings successfully cross the border and arrive in Los Angeles.

Reyna starts school in America and is placed in a corner with non-English speakers, told to drop her mother's surname.

Reyna's father reveals that their mother has been living in Los Angeles for months without telling them.

Reyna pushes her father away from Mago and screams at him to stop beating her for missing school.

Reyna wins first prize in a school writing contest but her father refuses to take her to the Queen Mary.

Reyna's father beats her bloody in the parking lot when Mago comes to visit after moving out.

Reyna's father beats Mila so severely she is hospitalized and the police arrive and arrest him.

Reyna moves in with Professor Diana Savas, who introduces her to Chicano literature and encourages her writing.

Reyna arrives at UC Santa Cruz, walks to the ocean, and imagines letting go of her father's hand.

Reyna's memoir begins with the devastating moment her mother leaves for America, forcing Reyna and her siblings into the care of the cruel Grandmother Evila in Mexico. Through years of poverty and abandonment, Reyna clings to the hope that her idealized father will rescue the family, and eventually he returns to take the children across the border illegally into Los Angeles. Life in America proves just as difficult, as Reyna navigates school, a language barrier, and a father whose violent mood swings destroy the hero image she had built in her imagination. As Reyna grows, she fights for her place in education and earns writing prizes while her father shows no interest, until his violence drives her away from the family home entirely. Through a college mentor she discovers literature that reflects her experience, and she ultimately earns her independence. The memoir closes with Reyna letting go of both her father's hand and the pain of her difficult upbringing.

The major milestones of Reyna Grande's journey from Mexico to America.

Neighbor children call Reyna an orphan, and she throws a coin at one of them in a rage.

Reyna's parents send clothes too small for the children, who wear them outside anyway, laughing and crying at once.

Construction begins on the family's dream house in Mexico but stops abruptly when the money runs out.

Elida's mother visits from America for Elida's quinceañera and brings news that Reyna has a new baby sister.

A scorpion stings Reyna inside Evila's house, and Tía Emperatriz takes the day off work to care for her.

Reyna's father shoots a bystander during a drunken confrontation with Reyna's mother and accepts voluntary deportation to avoid prison.

Reyna's young cousin Catalina drowns during severe flooding, and Reyna watches her body hung upside down to drain.

Mago boards a moving train while selling food and nearly disappears; Reyna runs after the train in a panic.

Reyna's mother makes Carlos sleep outdoors for weeks to guard a land claim, and he falls gravely ill.

Reyna's father discovers Carlos has wet the bed on Halloween and throws him fully dressed into cold bathwater.

Reyna's father dumps a plate of spaghetti over her head when she refuses to eat it.

The children call Santa Claus and run up a large phone bill; their father beats them and locks the phone.

Pepe, Mago's crush, throws rocks at Mago and Carlos with his friends and calls them wetbacks.

Carlos breaks his leg playing soccer and Reyna's father refuses to take him to the hospital.

Mago arranges and finances Reyna's quinceañera party entirely on her own because their father cannot afford it.

Pool 2 captures the vivid moments of hardship that defined Reyna's childhood in Mexico, from the sting of being called an orphan to the trauma of a scorpion bite, ill-fitting gifts from absent parents, and a cousin's drowning during a catastrophic flood. These events illustrate the daily struggle of children left behind, living in poverty under relatives who could not replace what was lost. Once in America, Reyna faces a new wave of difficult incidents, from her father's explosive temper erupting over wet bedsheets, uneaten food, and a phone bill, to the racism and violence her siblings encounter at school. The pool also covers the ways Mago and Carlos search for belonging and love with painful and sometimes violent results. Together, these events build a picture of a family navigating poverty, cultural displacement, and the lasting scars of parental abandonment.

The hardships and incidents that shaped daily life in Mexico and early America.

Mago, overwhelmed by her parents' absence, fills tortillas with human feces and offers them to a neighbor's sons.

When a teacher forces Reyna to write right-handed, she defiantly grips her pencil in her left hand.

After their mother's second abandonment, Carlos begins following Tío Crece as a father figure and dismisses Mago's authority.

On Christmas, Mago kicks their mother in the face and then writes a letter begging their father to return.

Reyna's mother returns to Mexico after her wrestler boyfriend dies in an accident but remains emotionally distant from her children.

Reyna's mother refuses to let Betty cross to America, and Reyna says goodbye and chooses to go with her father.

Reyna sees the ocean for the first time and feels reassured when her father grips her hand and does not let go.

Reyna pretends to be Mila's daughter Cindy at the dentist and impulsively calls Mila 'Mama Mila' before being corrected.

A teacher dismisses Reyna's Spanish-language story at a writing contest, and Reyna silently vows to one day succeed as a writer.

Reyna visits Mexico as a teenager, fights with Mago, and is mocked by old friends for sounding like a pocha.

Mago moves out without saying goodbye after their father declares she will be dead to him if she leaves.

Reyna narrowly escapes a fake modeling agency and then confronts her father to announce she is enrolling in college.

Reyna reads Sandra Cisneros's The House on Mango Street at Diana's home and feels understood for the first time.

Reyna's father reveals he has agreed to reunite with Mila only if Reyna and her siblings stay away; Reyna packs immediately.

Reyna's family gathers at her father's deathbed and agrees to remove him from life support; Reyna holds his hand.

Pool 3 traces the turning points that most directly shape Reyna's inner life and identity, beginning with acts of childhood defiance and grief that reveal the toll of parental absence on the children left behind. The reunion with her father shatters the heroic fantasy she has carried for years, while her mother's recurring failures to prioritize her children deepen a wound that never fully heals. In America, Reyna experiences quieter but equally significant revelations: the longing she feels when pretending to belong to another family, the helpless rage of having her writing dismissed, and the pain of watching her sister drift away and her father reject her accomplishments. As she moves into adulthood she confronts her father directly and seizes control of her own future, eventually finding in literature a reflection of her own experience that gives her both comfort and purpose. The pool closes at her father's deathbed, where Reyna's act of holding and finally releasing his hand signals her hard-won emotional freedom.

The key decisions, discoveries, and emotional shifts that define Reyna's growth.