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THE BOOK

Tonyo Melendez

AMERICA

Dreaming

This is a tale about a dream come true. The story of a boy's longing to belong to a home, a family, a country. Rejected as a baby by his father as well as by his mother's family, Memo, at the age of five, is abandoned by his mother Maria at a boarding Catholic school in Mexico, while she pursues her acting career. After three years of beseeching, Maria takes pity and takes him to El Salvador, where he struggles to belong to a family that treats him as an inferior and a country that treats him as a foreigner. At age fourteen he goes to Nicaragua, hoping his father would provide what his Salvadorian family has not. His father wants nothing to do with him. By a quirk of destiny, Memo becomes a Radio and T.V. teen star in El Salvador. But he soon realizes that, by pursuing acting he has given up his education thus surrendering his future for an uncertain present. A lover of American movies, he spends all his free time in movie theaters dreaming about living in America, a country that seems to have it all. He decides that only in America would he be able to realize his dreams. He implores his cousin Violeta, who lives in the United States, to sponsor him. After several years of pleading, Violeta acquiesces; but he will have to finance his trip. Memo starts the long legal process. Meanwhile, he saves all his money to pay for the trip. He returns to Nicaragua to ask his father for help. His father rejects him and wishes him failure. Memo will have to do it alone. At last he overcomes all obstacles and boards an airplane bound for America. What will he learn there? Memo cannot wait to find out.

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BOOK reviews

Mario Lopez Gomez

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspiring and entertaining!

Reviewed in the United States on March 2, 2013

Inspiring and entertaining! You will like the way the sketchy memories of your younger days are encouraged to resurface. You will really enjoy how that basic -- and universal -- desire to seek your dreams is painted and threaded through the stories of Memo’s early life. As a bonus, if you have an immigrant connection, there’s a taste of the nostalgia for the old country, but the underlying message from Memo to never give up kept me rooting for his success. I can’t wait for the next book to discover how Memo’s dreams are realized.

Julia V.Andrews

5.0 out of 5 stars America Dreaming.

Reviewed in the United States on May 12, 2013

Tonyo i an appreciate you as a person kki have a better understanding of who you are . Thank you for sharing the book is entertaining and since i have nevrr visited San Salvador it gave me an idea of what that country and its peole are like.

© 2023 by T. Meléndez. Proudly created by The Ewings, LLC.

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