"You can't know how we feel," Herminia, a refugee friend said, the night I went to her family's home to check some facts.

I agreed. There are many reasons why I can never know how Tomasa, my character and this flesh-and-blood Herminia before me would feel. When I moved from Tuckahoe, New York to Tucson, Arizona it was my own choice. Refugees don't have that choice. They have to move to stay alive. I am not indigenous. I am not Guatemalan. I have not travelled the road Tomasa and her family walked.

But I have worked, laughed and cried with people who traveled a similar path. l read the case of a young Central American girl who was wounded and hid in a field all night. I saw the drawings she used to describe her experience. Later she came to Tucson for reconstructive surgery and stayed with my friends who talked to me about her story.

I know some of the brave people who worked in the Sanctuary Movement, who put their freedom on the line to save a stranger.

When Tomasa began whispering her story in my ear I felt compelled to record her words.

In the highlands of Guatemala, each village was different. Every person who lived at that time had their own experience. But the truth lies in the places where these stories overlapped. It was from that rich soil that Tomasa's story grew.

I wrote this book in the hope of bringing a better understanding of unfamiliar people and situations. And I hope that readers will recognize Tomasa's braveness, and maybe even be inspired by her story to walk a little more bravely on their own journeys.