A Hopes and Dreams Historical Novel. Easy to read for beginning readers, middle school to adult, building literacy skills and/or ESL. The story of Teresa Garcia and Benito Cruz, two Mexican-Americans. In 1980 Teresa buys a fake visa and comes alone to Los Angeles to care for her sick aunt. Then she stays, working in a dress factory to send money home to Mexico. Benito crawls through a pipe into California, where he works as a migrant farmworker. They meet and fall in love. They want to marry, but they can't because they are illegal. They work hard and save money to go to Mexico and bring Teresa's sister back. Disaster strikes. Hard to put down, fast paced. A celebration of America's diversity and most of all an engaging story with characters based on real history. Provides structured reading practice for developing reading skills an - from Amzon