TRAVESÍA

The true story of a 15-year-old migrant girl’s formidable trek across the U.S.–Mexico border.

The memories contained here belong to Gricelda, who crossed la frontera alongside her mother and younger brother to reunite with her father and older brother. She related her story in Spanish to bilingual author Gerster, who shares it here, with the English and Spanish text on facing pages. Following a poignant prayer circle with extended family, Gricelda and her family headed to a squalid Tijuana hotel, where an unexpected stranger came to their hotel door. The trio soon found themselves in a house filled with other families. Unable to escape from the men who bartered over their upcoming journey or the ones drinking and doing drugs in the living room, they waited uncertainly until the day to cross the desert arrived. The trek across the desert proved hard even though a man called El Güero provided them with protection and encouragement. A short epilogue details how Gricelda and her mother and younger brother faced unanticipated challenges adjusting to the U.S. and their new lives, at first sharing a crowded apartment with unwelcoming cousins. Gerster, who has personal experience of family deportation, makes a noble, precise effort to represent Gricelda’s voice. Full of subdued blues, yellows, and oranges, Dunnett’s artwork captures the hazy scrapbook feel of memories, honoring Gricelda’s story and its nightmarish cadence.

A confident chronicle from a young voice at the margins.