The Distance Between Us: Book One: Chapter 16 Summary & Analysis

One afternoon, Doña Caro comes to the door and tells Abuelita Chinta and the children that they have missed a call from Mami—she often calls Doña Caro’s house, as she has one of the only phones around. Caro tells Abuelita, Reyna, Mago, and Carlos that Mami and her boyfriend have been in a car accident—Mami only has some cuts and bruises, but her wrestler boyfriend is dead. Soon thereafter, Mami returns to Iguala, though she is even more despondent than she was when she first returned from El Otro Lado. She keeps Reyna and her siblings up many nights with her sobbing, and becomes irate when the young Betty doesn’t seem to recognize her. Privately, Reyna wonders if her mother would have returned if the wrestler hadn’t died.

Abuelita Chinta performs a ritual cleansing on Mami to help heal her sorrow, and the next day Mami begins taking good care of herself again, bathing, putting on makeup, and heading out to find a job. She returns just a little while later and announces that she’s gotten her old job at the record store back. To celebrate, they all head into the town center along with Tía Güera and Lupita, and as Reyna plays with her siblings and cousins, she is filled with happiness and hope that things will at last return to normal.

Things are great for a while—Mami takes Reyna and her siblings out to movies with the money she makes at her job, and Reyna connects deeply with a movie about a poor orphan boy whose rich father lives in El Otro Lado. Reyna feels closer to Mami than ever, and is on board when Mami comes home one afternoon and announces that the government is giving away parcels of land nearby to anyone who occupies it. Mami, Mago, Carlos, Betty, and Reyna all set off for a meadow on the other side of a river, and quickly stake out their land. Mami brags that soon, she will build her own dream house on their new property.

Mami and the children wait together for a representative from the government to come with a deed, and Mami urges everyone to think of things as an adventure. They dream aloud about their house for a while, but when everyone starts complaining about feeling hungry and tired, Mami takes everyone but Carlos back to Abuelita Chinta’s. She urges Carlos not to move from their spot, lest they lose their claim to the land.

For days, Carlos remains on the staked-out land with the other squatters while Mami brings him scraps of food. Carlos cannot even leave to go to the bathroom, and is miserable all day every day. Mami assures him that the government officials will come deed the land soon, and begs him to hold on just a while longer. After two weeks, though, no one has shown up. Mami insists that Carlos must stand his ground, even when he develops a cough from sleeping outside each night. At home, Mami joins Mago and Reyna in drawing pictures of their dream house and hanging them up around the shack. 

One day, Carlos’s cough has become so bad that the other squatters complain to Mami when she comes to visit. She gives Carlos cough syrup and VapoRub, but makes him stay put. As the days go by, Carlos worsens; the next time Abuelita Chinta goes to check on him, he is burning up with fever and has wet himself. Abuelita Chinta picks Carlos up and brings him home, even as he protests that he wants to stay and help Mami get her dream house. When Mami gets home that evening and hears what has happened, she rushes over to the meadow, but it is too late—someone else has taken their land. She comes home and pulls the drawing of her dream house off the wall, tearing it to shreds as Carlos apologizes profusely for letting her down.