Reflection on Reyna Grande

On March 21, I had the privilege to attend a GIP event featuring Reyna Grande, a prolific Mexican author and immigration advocate. She shared her experience of coming to the United States as a young child to meet her parents who had left their family to find work in America. She explained the disconnect she felt when reuniting with her parents and how her upbringing impacted her writing in the future. Grande often incorporates the topic of immigration and the complexities of growing up in a new, almost hostile environment. Throughout the event, she discussed the phases of her writing and her advancement to becoming the influential writer she is today. She associated her journey with writing to the metamorphosis of a butterfly, an evolution from writing to escape her reality to writing to change reality for the better. She described her beginning phase, the caterpillar, simply as a way to express herself through writing with no regard to style or eloquence. Transitioning to her pupa stage, she progressed in fluidity and her writing ability became more refined. When Grande decided that her future and career lied in writing, she emerged from her cocoon. Here she discussed the importance of going out of one’s comfort zone in order to develop and grow as a person. As she left the shelter or “cocoon” of familiarity she was able to enter into a new phase of writing, the transformation into a butterfly and taking flight. Grande also touched upon the necessity in exposing students to the stories of minority authors because as they share their stories they have the ability encourage other minority students to follow a path that they might not have known was available because of a lack of representation. Reyna Grande has joined those that once inspired her and has become a role model for many young writers as she presents her story and growth into the person that she is today.