Just Like Us: The True Story of Four Mexican Girls Coming of Age in America

“Marisela would have to solve the question of how to create a meaningful life in the United States without a green card or Social Security number. She still had no answer for this riddle, and because she was the kind of student who was accustomed to having the right answers all the time, being without a response to a query of such vast proportions filled her with unease.” 

Marisela had always been an excellent student, and she had been determined to pursue a college education. However, her undocumented status put her in a challenging situation—one that she had no solution to as she approached the end of high school. As a result, she felt troubled and ill at ease. 

“‘I was born in the United States, but I’m Mexican inside, you know?’” 

Elissa was born in the U.S. because her mother simply walked across the border and gave birth to her in an El Paso, Texas, clinic. However, while this action on her mother’s part made a huge difference in her life, it is the result of a technicality. Elissa is still raised by Mexican parents, as the other girls in the book are. 

“The furor over immigration occupied a hulking presence in the emotional geography of the two girls, much in the way that the Rocky Mountains dominated the physical landscape.” 

The author uses the looming Rocky Mountains as a metaphor for the way in which Marisela’s and Yadira’s unclear immigration status continues to plague them. Just as the Rocky Mountains allow people in Denver to navigate their world, people’s immigration status allows them to navigate living in the U.S. As the girls have not yet figured out their status, they can’t quite navigate their world and their future.