Broken Ground (34 page)

It wasn't too long after I began work on the book that a black-and-white picture popped up on the Web and stopped me short. It showed a crowded train station and cattle cars filled with people. World War II, I thought, the death camps. But then I looked at the caption and read for the first time the word “repatriation,” and my understanding of history, as well as my novel, began to change. After some searching, I found other related photographs of displacement and deportation. It took me longer, however, to find credible written sources that confirmed what the pictures showed. There simply hasn't been a whole lot written about this event in U.S. history.

For this reason, I want to begin by thanking Francisco E. Balderrama and Raymond Rodríguez, the authors of
Decade of Betrayal: Mexican Repatriation in the 1930s
, an account that is both substantive and evocative and proved to be my greatest resource of information for
Broken Ground
. Many thanks to the Instituto Cervantes of Chicago as well, particularly Salvador Vergara, who welcomed me into their wonderful library and encouraged me in my research there.

Needless to say, I love libraries, and I think it's about time I expressed my gratitude to the Wheaton Public Library, too—second home of my childhood, go-to workspace of my adulthood. In these last years, I've most often set up shop in the Quiet Reading Room, a room with a view that is not at all my own and all the more precious for that fact. My gratitude also extends to the First Congregational Church of Glen Ellyn, in particular to the Reverend Lillian Daniel, who let me spend time in Sunday school again when nobody else was there. I accomplished a fair amount upstairs in the Temple of Light. And surrounded as I was by the many wooden story figures, the silence there always felt companionable.

I've been privileged to work on two books with Beth Adams. Without Beth these two books would not have come to be. Thank you, dear editor, for being the great guide you are—for listening well, thinking clearly, reading between the lines, and keeping your sense of humor. And to Amanda Demastus, Bruce Gore, Katie Rizzo, and all the terrific folks on the team that is Howard Books: many, many thanks for believing in the manuscript that was and seeing it through to the book it is.

Sandra Bishop, as an agent and advocate, is simply the best. As a friend, she's better yet. Thank you, Sandra, for being courageous and empathetic and wise in the face of every challenge and change.

I am indebted to my friends who are writers, in particular those with whom I meet once a month to hash things out. Beth Franken, Eve Gayley, Sherrie Lowly, and Jack Zimmerman, I'm so glad for you in this season of life.

Joni Klein and Jan DeVries, thank you for Sunday night dinners, ongoing conversations, and a whole lot of music and laughter. Thank you, Cheryl Hollatz-Wisely and Kate Gray, for your deep understanding of what this process takes. Thank you, Cookie Murphey, for opening doors to the past. And thank you, Randi Ravitts Woodworth and Mark Woodworth, for journeying with my family and me down so many roads and over so much broken ground.

And as for my family . . . Magdalena and Teo, thank you for being your beautiful, unique selves. You two are there behind every word of this book. Greg Halvorsen Schreck, thank you for the sacrifices you've made and the support you've given so I could keep on trying, word after word. Thank you beyond words, dearests. I love you.

Finally, to those who live the unofficial stories, and to those who speak what some may prefer suppressed: thank you.

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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author's imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2016 by Karen Halvorsen Schreck

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First Howard Books trade paperback edition May 2016

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