My mother became a citizen in 1987 and she's been gone two years now. I played this song and heard her voice in it — she used to say America never asked her what she came from, only what she'd build. My reach was my daughter. I told her the whole story, the crossing, the little candle Grandma kept on the windowsill every single night. She's 15 and she cried and then she asked to hear the song again. Some reaches go backward and forward at the same time.
— Marisol, El Paso, TX
Shared July 2, 2026
