By Sugriel Reyes
New America Media
She sits in her room, absorbed in a book of homemade natural remedies. Her petite frame is lost in a wooden twin-size bed that sits amid a monstrous pile of clothes, books, shoes, blankets, pillows, towels and makeup her teenage niece refers to as her side of the room.
Reading is what Claudia spends most of her time doing. Living on the outskirts of Los Angeles and without a car, it is hard to get around. She takes the bus to work, a small clothing boutique in Pasadena that gives her 10 hours a week. The little money she makes, she saves, in hopes of one day affording her own apartment.