Female Empowerment and Undocumented Border Crossing in Bettina Restrepo’s Illegal

Abstract

While the current political climate of the United States perpetuates the narrative that undocumented immigrants are criminals, children’s and young adult novels—like Bettina Restrepo’s Illegal—provide a much-needed counternarrative. Instead of painting its characters as delinquents or victims, Illegal is the empowering story of Nora, a fifteen-year-old undocumented immigrant who must leave her native Mexico when her father goes missing in Houston. During her border crossing journey, Nora achieves self-discovery and actualization by embracing her inner strength despite facing insurmountable odds. Reading Nora through the lens of Gloria Anzaldúa’s theory of the Shadow-Beast, a subversive identity that empowers young women to awaken their agency through subversive acts like border crossing, allows for an understanding of how Nora’s awakening as this female figure complicates contemporary conceptions of childhood power and control. Instead of succumbing to the trials along the border, Nora thrives and becomes the savior of her family while she empowers herself and awakens her Shadow-Beast