A Dream Called Home

Reyna describes her mother’s relationship with Betty. Shortly before Reyna left Los Angeles, her mother sent Betty to live in Mexico to punish her for getting involved with gangs, having sex, stealing, and dropping out of high school. Reyna interprets Betty’s bad behavior as a reaction to her traumatic childhood, which included physical and emotional abuse. Reyna’s mother claims that Mexico will provide Betty with a different kind of education. Instead of the high school curriculum, Betty will “learn how to be a woman” (42). In other words, her female relatives will teach her to cook, clean, and obey her future husband.

Reyna sympathizes with her sister and decides to travel to Iguala over winter break after learning that Betty is having an affair with a married man. She pays for the trip with a grant she received to research a collection of short stories. The trip is Reyna’s second visit to her birth country since immigrating. Her anger toward her mother builds during the taxi ride from the airport in Mexico City to the bus station. Reyna never forgave her mother for abandoning her—first when she moved to the US to live with Reyna’s father, and second when she ran off to Acapulco with a man.