Ready to have your heart ripped out? If you haven’t clicked off yet, you’re my kind of people. And my kind of people are about to get wrecked by the latest book I just finished.

We are not From Here by Jenny Torres Sanchez looked like the perfect novel to add to my 6th grade library. Since the primary focus of my curriculum explores immigration from Latin American countries to their experience living in the US both legally and illegally, I’m always looking for a good border crossing story.

The story is told through two perspectives, that of Pulga, a teenage boy in a semi-urban town in Guatemala, and that of Pequeña, a teen from the same barrio. The two are like family, although not related by blood, a very latino trope of how community becomes closer than genetics due to the fact that the fathers are either beyond borders, beyond caring, or both. 

Along with their friend Chico, the two main characters find themselves between a rock and a hard place when the local gang boss infiltrates their lives.  They have no other choice but to flee to el norte atop the death train known as la bestia. En route, they are exposed to the limitations of their humanity and loose themselves in the poetry of Sánchez’s mystic prose. Ghosts seep into the dark narrative. Shadows hunt for bodies and souls.  Death seeks those who wish to go on living. 

Due to profanity and an all-to-real treatment of corruption, I knew that this book wasn’t going to make it onto my 6th grade shelf. This story, which echoes the experience of millions of immigrants, placed itself heavy on my shaky, torn-to-shreds heart.

Most Americans underestimate what illegal immigrants have to suffer in order to survive. The danger they face, the courage they show, and the sheer pain they must endure should make us wonder, “Just how bad is it in their native countries that they’d be willing to risk their lives to come here?”

Read the book We are Not From Here and find out.