Make Your Home Among Strangers

When Lizet Ramirez, a Cuban American freshman at a prestigious northern college, surprises her family by flying home to Miami for Thanksgiving, she finds everything in turmoil. Lizet's parents have recently divorced and her father has sold the family home, forcing her mother and sister—a single mom with a baby—to move out of Hialeah into a small apartment in "Little Havana." Reunited with her family, Lizet feels she is no longer accepted at home. Crucet (How To Leave Hialeah) addresses the challenges of college faced by first-generation students from immigrant families. No one taught Lizet about plagiarism and its consequences nor how different her life experiences would be from those of her classmates. Yet she perseveres and brings her failing grades up to "Bs" in her first semester. Marisol Ramirez's excellent narration captures Lizet's confusion as she navigates her two worlds.