Chasing the Moon

Nadia Alvarez, a fifteen-year-old Mexican immigrant, travels from a remote and poverty-stricken village in southern Mexico with her family to the United States. They sneak illegally into the country through a drain pipe that connects Sonora, Mexico, to Arizona. As the family enters the country, the Border Patrol is waiting for them. They are captured—all except Nadia, who has managed to remain hidden in the bottom of the drain pipe. Nadia, assuming the identity of her brother, is now alone in an unknown country and torn whether she should allow herself to be caught and reunited with her family or continue on in America and live her parents' dream of a better life. Nadia makes her way across the country to Minnesota, living in downtown Minneapolis and working as a laundry girl in a hotel. Chasing the Moon creates a love triangle between Nadia, her home and family in Mexico, and her new "better" life in America. This is a unique and unbiased examination of immigration and what it means to search for "a better life."