Reyna Grande

The Distance Between Us is about being left behind in Mexico as a small child when both parents crossed into the United States, and about what Grande found when she eventually followed them. A Ballad of Love and Glory is a novel about the Saint Patrick's Battalion, Irish soldiers who deserted the American army during the Mexican-American War to fight for Mexico, most of whom were put to death for it. She crossed the border without papers at nine, learned English as a teenager, and reached university before anyone else in her family.