Chasing Horizons

Gaby was born and raised through her early life in a small poverty-stricken, rural village of northern Mexico. She did not know of riches, so life as she knew it on her father's farm was good. Her life changed forever the summer after her sixth-grade year in Mexico. Given a decision, her father chose to move his family to the USA side of the border. An insatiable learner, she soon saw the opportunity to go to high school and college and make a successful life for herself, but there were enormous obstacles to overcome. This true story relates Gaby's transition to the USA, and gives the reader a glimpse into what it means to be a very poor immigrant child in US schools, and what it means to be an American with what others would tell her was an impossible dream. In order to see herself achieve that dream, Gaby had to question traditions of her Mexican heritage and challenge traditional assumptions about immigrants in US schools and culture. The crux of this story is Gaby's demonstrations of the determination, daring, courage, and perseverance to achieve that impossible dream.
About the Author: Dr. Dufner lives with his wife of forty-six years on three acres outside Elgin, Texas. He has been deeply involved in public education in Texas schools for thirty nine years as a teacher and administrator mostly working with children of poverty as they struggle to negotiate the complexities of the education system to make it work for them. He has just agreed to take on a new challenge of teaching reading and history to classes of recent immigrant students at Cedar Creek Intermediate School in Bastrop, Texas. When he is not occupied with teaching, he likes to write and work with his hands in his woodshop or garden. An avid reader and devoted Christian, he loves to read the book of proverbs and the gospels along with adventure, history, and western novels. His writing hero is Louis La'mour. Dr. Dufner has lived in eighteen different cities and towns in Texas and worked in the education programs of six school districts and four different colleges. His range of experience is every level of administration in a school district and working with children of every grade level. Parents of six successful adult children, Hillrey and Earlene have raised computer geeks, soldiers, sailors, policemen, spouses, and parents of eight grandchildren. People are of great interest to Dr. Dufner. He often folds the more interesting characteristics of people he meets into characters of his novels. He has found that people everywhere are very much the same. The good, bad, and ugly find their place in every culture and environment. They all have a story if we care ot listen.