Summer 2025      Volume 53, Number 3

“What’s the Difference Between Documented and Undocumented Migrants?” Tearing Down Borders to Build Belonging
By Elvira Pichardo

Document: Article  

Introductory Paragraph:  My 10-year old biracial 5th-grade son, Lucas, paused as he read the young reader version of The Distance Between Us by Reyna Grande (2024) and asked me, “What’s the difference between documented and undocumented migrants?”I took a deep breath, contemplating how I would answer the question. I have been preparing myself for this, for having conversations about both his identities: his Dominican identity and his White identity. We had previously discussed the African diaspora when he discussed his Black identity in 1st grade with his classmates and was met with silent stares. After reading some books on Martin Luther King, he was curious about his relationship with Blackness through his Dominican-American mother. The books and selected readings allowed us to discuss identity, including how he identified himself and how others identified him and my own Afro-Latindad. They allowed us to have courageous conversations.  Having had this experience, I chose a middle grade novel for us to read together to humanize and provide a counternarrative to some of the discussions around migrants and newly arrived immigrants that he had been exposed to during the 2024 election. The book, The Distance Between Us (Grande, 2024), follows Reyna as she lives in poverty in rural Mexico. Because of the lack of economic opportunities, her father migrates to the United States, crossing the border. This starts the cycle of migration for Reyna’s family. Since her father cannot come back to see his family, her family is separated, and she becomes increasingly reliant on her mother and her grandmother Evila. When her mother migrates to the U.S. to join their father, 4-year-old Reyna and her older siblings stay with their abusive Abuela Evila. The book details the hardships faced by Reyna and her siblings as they wait for their parents and then cross the border themselves.

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.33600/IRCJ.53.3.2025.13

Page Numbers:   13-18