Authors:
Reyna Grande & Leslie Priscilla
Thursday, October 8, 2026 at 6:00pm
El Toro Library
24672 Raymond Way
Lake Forest, CA 92630
Reyna Grande is an award-winning author whose work powerfully illuminates the complexities of immigration, family separation, and the pursuit of the American Dream. Born in Mexico, Grande embarked on a perilous journey to the U.S. at age nine to reunite with her parents—a defining experience that fuels her writing. Breaking generational barriers, she became the first in her family to graduate from college, earning a BA from UC Santa Cruz and an MFA from Antioch University. Her diverse body of work includes her celebrated memoirs, Migrant Heart: Essays About Things I Can’t Forget, The Distance Between Us and A Dream Called Home, and the novels Across a Hundred Mountains, Dancing with Butterflies, and the historical epic A Ballad of Love and Glory.
Leslie Priscilla is a first-generation, non-Black Xicana with Rarámuri lineage and the daughter of two Mexican immigrants. She is mother to three bicultural children and stepmother to one, and a certified Parent Coach with nearly two decades of experience working with families. Through her organization Latinx Parenting, she offers coaching, workshops, support, training, and advocacy for Latinx/Chicanx families and the professionals who serve them, locally, nationally, and internationally. Her vision is a movement rooted in children's rights, social and racial justice, and the individual and collective practice of nonviolence and reparenting. It's a vision grounded in intergenerational and ancestral healing, cultural sustenance, and the active decolonization of oppressive practices in our families, toward liberation. She is the author of the book CHANCLA: Healing Our Families, Ourselves, and Our Culture and is born, raised, and remains based in Santa Ana, CA.
Limited complimentary books available, while supplies last. Books available for purchase, courtesy of Lido Village Books. No registration required, all ages welcome. Early arrival suggested.
For more information, call 949-855-8173 or email ocpl.eltoro@occr.oc.gov
The materials or product were a result of a project funded by a contract with the California Department of Aging and administered by the Orange County Office on Aging.
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