DREAMS & NIGHTMARES

By telling my story, I feel at peace, unburdened. Everything that was on my mind, all of my suffering and all of my dreams—my destiny—now are kept safe in this book.

                                                                     --Liliana Velásquez

SUMMARY

After planning her escape from her village in northern Guatemala at fourteen, she traveled through Mexico alone, was robbed by narcos in the mountains of Chiapas, rode the boxcars of La Bestia, and organized thirty of her fellow Central American bus passengers to convince the Federales who had arrested them to allow them to continue on their way. Finally, she made it to the US border, where she was caught by US Immigration in the Arizona Desert. After four months in a detention center, she was shipped to Philadelphia and placed in foster care while the courts decided whether to deport her. After having to recount her story several times, the judge determined it was too dangerous for her to return home and finally granted her a green card. She spent a year in a horrendous foster situation with a family that took her in for the money, and eventually landed on her feet with a family that loves and protects her. She is now in high school, while she works to support her family back home and makes plans to go on to nursing school.

Liliana has a remarkable memory, and fills her story with rich descriptions, scenes and dialogue. She also dares to share painful feelings and memories, to reflect on her experience and what she has learned, and to believe that she has control of her future.

DREAMS AND NIGHTMARES : SUEÑOS Y PESADILLAS

I fled alone to the United States when I was fourteen