The Book of Unknown Americans

by Cristina Henríquez

What I didn’t understand—what I suddenly realized now—was that if I stopped moving backwards, trying to recapture the past, there might be a future waiting for me, waiting for us, a future that would reveal itself if only I turned around and looked, and that once I did, I could start to move toward it.

People do what they have to in this life. We try to get from one end of it to the other with dignity and with honor. We do the best we can.