The Distance Between Us​ (Prologue- Chapter 4) 

Conditionals Review Activity  

What form of the conditional is being used in each sentence? Why did Reyna choose to 
use this type of conditional in her story? What was she expressing? 
Example: If she loved me, she wouldn’t leave.​ ​2nd conditional. She chose to use this 
conditional because it expresses something that is contrary to the fact. In this situation... 
 
1. “If we didn’t behave, La Llorona would take us far away where we would never see our 
parents again​” ​(p. 4). 
 
2. “Sometimes, if I promised to be good, my mother would take me along with her as she 
went out into the neighborhood to sell Avon products” (p. 5). 
 
3. “Yet I never imagined that “not too long” would turn out to be never, because, if truth be 
told, I never really got my mother back” (p. 6). 
 
4. “But when you’re poor, no matter how close things are, everything is far away” (p.9). 
 
5. “Had she realized then how much I would need her? Had she known that without her 
strength and unwavering love, I would not have survived what was to come?” (p.12). 
 
6. “There were no tears in her eyes, and as we walked back to my grandmother's house, I 
wondered if, when Mami asked Mago to be our little mother, it had also meant she was not 
allowed to cry” (p.13). 
 
7. “If your mother ever comes back, I will be sure to tell her of your behavior” (p.17). 
 
8. “If Papi were here, if Mami were here, we wouldn’t be eating oil” (p. 19). 
 
9. “If only Tío Carlos had lived and married, my mother would have had an ally, and we 
would have had cousins to share the burden of grandmother’s mistrust” (pg. 24). 
 
10. “If kerosene doesn't work, I am shaving off her hair”(p. 27). 
 
11. “If our grandmother hadn’t kept the money my parents sent for us, perhaps, we would 
have been like É ​ ​lida, who was always flaunting all the pretty clothes and shoes she bought 
with the money her mother sent from El Otro Lado, and no one would have dared to call 
us orphans” (p. 35). 
Grande, R. (2012). ​The Distance Between Us​. New York: Washington Square Press.