Dalia

Lost Youth

Before she is even five years old, little Dalia has the responsibility of helping her mother and looking after her two younger siblings. Dalia washes the family clothes, collects buckets of water to wash their clay cooking pots, and feeds the animals. There is never a moment of rest for her in El Cortez, Mexico, as the first female born into her family. Enduring beatings and never hearing a kind wordlife is hard. When Dalia is twelve years old, a stranger kidnaps her and forces her to live with him and his family. Even though her father is a harsh man, Dalia misses her home. During this time, she often wishes for death. Her life becomes even more complicated, when at age thirteen, she gives birth to her baby girl Maribel. Fearing for her life and the life of her child, Dalia runs away. Alone and afraid, she travels north. Dalia, a novel, follows one little girls journey from her childhood home in Mexico as she tries to make a new home in the United States. Its a story filled with pain and heartache and hope for a better life.