Super Short Summary

In The Other Side: Stories of Central American Teen Refugees Who Dream of Crossing the Border, Juan Pablo Villalobos presents a collection of vignettes based on real accounts from pre-teens and teenagers who fled Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras and faced numerous challenges crossing the Mexican border into the US. The stories highlight the perilous journey and the struggles children face, such as Kevin and Nicole being detained at San Ysidro and Miguel Angel grappling with the choice of staying in El Salvador or searching for his father in New York. Villalobos uses stylistic techniques from his fiction to convey the harrowing immigration process, deliberately omitting the long-term consequences to focus on the immediate dangers these children endure. Accounts include experiences in detention centers like "the freezer" and detail physical and sexual violence commonly faced by young women on this journey.