Where We Come From

By Oscar Casares

“Quien eres?” Who are you? She realizes she’s saying it no louder than a whisper because she’s only saying the words to herself. She realizes this is the first time she’s ever asked herself this question. “Quien eres?”

Oscar Casares has given us a brief snapshot of life on the border in Brownsville Texas. The protagonist is a twelve-year old boy, Orly, from an upper-middle class family in Houston who has been subjected to a summer with his grandmother, in their family home in Brownsville. His father, who has worked his way out of Brownsville and into a successful life in Houston fears his son is losing touch with the family’s roots. He wants him to experience more of life than what he finds behind the screen of his laptop. And so we follow this man-child out of his life of school sports and shopping malls to a world where refugee children struggle for survival.

We watch as Orly struggles to understand what is expected of him in this unexpected summer. He negotiates family members, coming of age challenges and living in a world where survival depends on secrets. Prior to reading this story I had seen the images of immigrant caravans, of children in cages, of terrified and fatigued refugees. But I hadn’t felt into their experience as deeply as I did reading this book. The characters and scenes drew me more into the heartache of fractured families and life-or-death choices. By viewing it all through the eyes of a twelve-year-old boy I also saw his naive innocence shattered, and struggled a bit more with my own lack of awareness. Casares writes a simple, poignant, matter-of-fact account. And the facts are heart wrenching.

But the true hero of the story is Nina, the grandmother to Orly, the caregiver to her ailing mother, the one who held it all together. The one who inadvertently stumbled her way into providing refuge for desperate people from Honduras through Mexico, fleeing one danger by subjecting themselves to another at the hands of ruthless, mercenary coyotes. From her first love with a confused and confusing young boy to her transformative experiencing connecting a lost child with his father, Nina walked her path of survival with courage and could summon up love and tenderness with an open heart. And in the end, in the end, she finally accomplished something which made her return her gaze to herself. To contemplate her own being, without all of the needs she had grown accustomed to attending. Who was this woman who had accomplished the impossible? And if she could do that, what else could she do?