Separation And Reunification Among Immigrant Families, By Reyna Grande

The distance, separation from one another, and difficulties caused by growing up at a young age without parents causes depression in children. Children are supposed to grow up with their parents and spend time together as a family, children look up to their parents or caregiver most of their childhood lives, having love, validation, and security. Children who grow up separated from their parents tend to react in a depressive way since they adapt to not being with their family. In many cases, families who migrate to El Otro Lado known as the United States are separated or lose the connection between each other that they once all had as a family. Reyna Grande was an example of a child separated from her parents when they migrated without her.

The article “Making Up For the Lost Time: The Experience of Separation and Reunification Among Immigrant Families” by Carloa Suarez-Orozco et al. states that families who undergo the immigration process such as leaving to go to a new country causes separation between their children, emotionally, psychological, and behavioral. For instance, Grande’s father, Natalio left his family to work in the U.S. to provide for his family, Grande being at the age two years old and having no memory of him but the man behind the glass, was separated from her father at a young age. This indicates that while the Grande family was separated for a long period, they had all lost the connection they once had between them, the bond. Growing up, Grande’s parents were never around, her siblings, Mago and Carlos experienced separation at a young age. They state that reunification is a state of “relief and joy” but since Grande and her siblings were away from their parents for a long period, children may describe “feeling like they’re meeting a stranger” (Suarez-Orozco et al. 635). This shows what Grande felt when her father reunited, they were like strangers to each

In the article “ Control, Attachment Style, and Relationship Satisfaction Among Adult Children of Alcoholics,” Denise Beesley, and Cal Stoltenberg explains that children growing up with alcoholics in the family tend to have attachment issues later on in life, where they try to solve the conflict on their own, “chaos”. Grande and her siblings were looking for validation, security from their parents. Trauma bonding, ambiguous loss, and grief were part of Grande’s and her siblings' experiences growing up. For instance, they all shared trauma bonding, Carlos would follow Tio Crece and would see him as a “father figure” since their father was never around. In a way, children who are separated from their parents for a long period, try to detach themselves from their parents. Mago, Reyna’s sister, the oldest, was seen as the parental figure in the book, where she was responsible, looking out for her siblings. Reyna and her siblings were all suffering from mental health, and they were rejected by multiple people. Reyna and Mago would always compare themselves to other girls such as the girls who have nice clothes, pretty skin, and hair. Reyna and her siblings were brought to the United States to get a good education and their father had high expectations of them. Reyna was the only one out of her siblings to attend and graduate college, her dad stated that “In this country, you have to get an