>> reyna grande what is. [speaking spanish] >>guest: i corrupt thinking it was a reference to the united states. but because i grew up in a town surrounded by mountains and i did not know where the united states was to meet it was the other side of the mountain. when my parents were gone working in the u.s., i will beget the mountains and sake my parents were of the other side of the mountains. that is what it was to me. >>host: wear reborn? >>guest: did mexico, southern mexico in a little town nobody has heard of that when i mentioned an odd couple quote but it was three hours from there. >>host: when did your parents come to the united states? how old were you? >>guest: and my father came 1977 and i was three years old and sent for my mother a few years later said she caved 1981 i was four and half. >>host: when did you come? t. when i came to the.states 1985. in may. i was nine and a half going on than. >>host: what can you tell us about coming to the united states? >>guest: i was separated from my father

big dreams, and unfortunately, he had a lot of issues that he was dealing with as well. >> host: reyna grande the guest, "the distance between us" the book, and tim from california, you're the first caller. hi, tim? >> caller: this is tim johnson in palm desert. reyna when we speak of hispanic politics or hispanic culture in general, of course, the elephant in the living room is the age-old social and economic status that characterized his spannic culture with the legions of those at the bottom and a few landing patrons at the top. how do you see this playing out in hispanic politics of our day? >> guest: you know, i think that we're living in a point right now here in the country where people with becoming more aware of the latino presence, and the importance steps that latinos are playing right now, especially in politics, you know, the latino vote very important in getting obama re-elected, and now, you know, the event that the republican party, it seems, that they really do need to change their thinking with latinos, and the issue important to us like immigration. i am very excited about,

. >> host: what happens when you get caught, reyna grande? >> guest: we got loaded up into a van when we got caught. but everyone also got caught. then we are taken to the border control officers. i don't remember a lot. because we were children, we were not talked to by the border patrol. they would take my father into an office to talk to him. and i remember waiting for him in the hallway. the border patrol people were very nice to us. they even offered to get us a soda. we were drinking our soda and waiting for our dad. so was this mixed feeling where we were being treated very kindly by the border patrol, but at the same time, knowing that they were keeping us from crossing and from being able to have a chance at having our father back in our lives. >> host: what happened the third time. >> guest: the. >> guest: the third time we cross the border was very scary. my father decided to try it in the dead of night, hoping that the guardsmen would protect us and help us across. and he was right. we couldn't see where we were going a lot of tim