Nine-year-old Betita and her parents fled Mexico after her uncle was killed by the cartels, and settled in Los Angeles seeking political asylum and safety in what her father calls Aztlan, the land of the cranes; but now they have been swept up by the government's Immigration Customs Enforcement, her father deported back to Mexico, and Betita and her mother confined in a family detention camp--Betita finds heart in her imagination and the picture poems...

"Betita, de nueve ąos, sabe que es una grulla. Papi le cont̤ la historia desde antes que su familia emigrara a Los ℓngeles buscando refugio de la guerra del narco en M̌xico. Los aztecas proced̕an de un lugar llamado Aztl̀n, en lo que es hoy el sureste de Estados Unidos, cuyo nombre significa 'tierra de las grullas', y establecieron su gran ciudad en el centro del universo: Tenochtitl̀n, la actual Ciudad de M̌xico. Cuenta una profes̕a que...