There are passages in this book that pierced me right through the heart, because I relate to so many of the feelings, the pain, the confusion, and the searching that the author refers to. And oh gosh the prose is just stunning… Reading Children of the Land is holding a beating heart in your hands, traveling along the veins and the arteries, digging into the hidden murmurs that the author directs us to, understanding what it means to have to hold everything inside, one foot on either side of a border that you don’t remember even crossing. It’s a view into what it means to grow up undocumented in the US, knowing one country as your own, but never being allowed to really belong there. 

Marcelo Hernandez Castllo was brought to the US when he was 5 years old. His father was deported when he was 13, and it is only when he is granted a special permit thanks to his DACA status in 2013 that he is able to travel back to Mexico for the first time, to see his father and the country of his birth again. Children of the Land is the story of growing up undocumented, of a difficult, complicated relationship between father and son, of navigating an immigration system when you supposedly don’t exist, of navigating growing up in a country you call home but will never allow you to feel safe. It is also the story of a mother who does everything to ensure her children grow up safe and happy, and of the choices she has to make to do so.

I loved how the story moves between past and present, vivid memory stories and personal thoughts, facts, and beautifully honest descriptions. This book is a work of art. 

There is so much of my life, and the lives of those  love, that mirror a lot of what the author describes in his memoir, most of which I won’t detail in this essay, too personal and too long and some stories belong to my significant other more than me, so I felt every page, every sentence, every word profoundly. I can’t thank Marcelo Hernandez Castillo enough for pouring so much of himself into this memoir - It helped me in so many ways to read it, as I’m sure it has helped so many others. I have to admit that I read most of the book with tears in my eyes and/or actually bawling my eyes out, especially in the moments that I remember so well (green card interview, drinking/sobriety, saying goodbye to my mother and sister and not knowing when we would see each other again, knowing that my children will not have the relationships with their grandparents that I had with mine etc). I felt such a personal connection with the author and his words. 

I’m sure there are many people in this country who want to understand why people come here, who want to understand how convoluted and difficult their immigration system is, and also want to hear these stories from the people who have lived them. This is why we must, must showcase memoirs such as this one, read them, and talk about them. We are all human beings, multi-faceted, flawed, and beautiful, and we all deserve our voices to be heard, no matter where we are born, and where we end up.