Mojada

Book excerpt: As a young girl growing up in a small town in Honduras, Keyla Sanders imagined her own version of the American Dream. The reality involved dangers, suffering and sacrifice during an overland journey through Guatemala and Mexico, including arrests, deportations and kidnapping. For the first time, there is a first-person account from an undocumented immigrant from the Northern Triangle countries of Central America. Keyla tells what inspired her to embark on a dangerous journey, what the journey was like, and the years of struggle she endured after attempting to navigate the U.S. immigration system. She uses her own experience to demonstrate how this broken system is as reliant on circumstance and luck as any lottery. She recounts the struggle of an undocumented immigrant while also dealing with high school, young adulthood, and eventually having her own children. Keyla's story adds the voice of an undocumented immigrant to the conversation, demonstrating that the hardships expended in achieving one's American Dream are what unite all those striving for a better life, regardless of where they were born or how they got here.