American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins is FIRE! I can’t honestly do this one justice, so I’m not going to try.
I work in a community that is 97% Hispanic. I work in a school with students that have fled countries that were no longer safe. I work with students that I don’t know a single thing about because they are too fearful to air any personal information to others. I work with students that have lost their most loved people due to gang affiliation and the cartel.
If you live in Houston, read this book. If you live outside of Houston, read this book. If you are a Republican or a Democrat or anything in between, read this book. Discover what it’s like to lose everything to a jefe that you personally know and see the goodness and potential deep within. Travel alongside a mother and her son as they flee their hometown of Acapulco in hopes of making it safely to El Norte. Slowly unravel the process and the skills and the emotions that it requires to ride La Bestia without selling your soul to the devil.