LAST RIDE ON THE FERRY:
My life as a migrant worker 1940's

by Angelica Reyna

Photos from author's family collection

The Book:

Last Ride on the Ferry is a non-fiction (true story) of a family who become migrant workers. It starts in Hidalgo County in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. It moves quickly from hearing tales passed along from ancestors to 'The Treaty Guadalupe Hidalgo of 1848' and how their ancestors were suddenly displaced Mexicans in the same land we now know as Texas. The 'Treaty' had changed history; as a result, the family had kinfolk on both sides of the border. The Reynas' childhood struggles of acceptance, hardships, and humorous events unfold during the 1940's.

Their father's life cycle ends and the family honor their father's request to have his remains return to Mexico and reunite with his umbilical cord.

We cross the Rio Grande on the Los Ebanos Ferry hundreds of times and my father must have crossed it hundreds if not thousands of times. This ferry has a special place in our hearts.

Reyna siblings, 1947

Los Ebanos Ferry, 1950

Severo Reyna (his son was working for Lone Star in Angleton, Texas)

"My father Severo Reyna" circa 1960

"Hearse waiting for Severo Revna's body. Mexico (across from the ferry)"

The funeral procession on Los Ebanos ferry

The funeral procession on Labor Day weekend 2003

The Author:

Ang�lica Reyna - born 1941 in Mercedes, Texas. She is an American of Mexican descent; her family became migrant workers during her childhood years. She and her siblings were constantly changing schools five or more times a year. They traveled, camped, and worked side by side with Braceros and undocumented Mexican families in the 1940s picking cotton in the Midwest. In the 1950s, her family followed the harvest of crops from state to state in the Mideast.

The author says; "God Blessed me with a good memory for recalling my early years. Our family has unsurpassed respect for the Mexican Nationals and Braceros who were part of our everyday life. I had a journal filed in my brain, a diary about the America I knew."
See www.angelicareyna.com

Update:
On March 2016 "Last Ride on the Ferry" was accepted and cataloged at the 'Smithsonian Institution Libraries' for Research proposes:

Author's website: http://angelicareyna.com/