FRONTDOORS MAGAZINE | 41 A 2ND ACT Reyna Montoya helps youth channel hope into action BY JULIE COLEMAN F ifteen minutes. Not much time in the scheme of things, yet this timetable set Reyna Montoya’s life trajectory. Montoya was born in Tijuana, Mexico, a mere 15-minute walk from the United States border. Her parents were 18 years old when she was born in a private clinic, with her father saving all his money selling cassettes so she could have the best care. “I find this beautiful and inspiring,” Montoya said. “When I learned it was only 15 minutes from the U.S., I joked with my parents that my life would have been so much easier if you had me in the U.S.” Montoya’s memories growing up in the borderlands involved an exchange that was natural, going back and forth between Mexico and the U.S. She attended private Catholic school with her parents practicing a “strict” parenting style. An Unfinished Journey “I was never allowed to go to sleepovers or play in the streets like all the other kids,” Montoya said. “I was mad at them and didn’t understand the reason why there was so much strictness, fear and caution around who I was with and what I was allowed to do.” She didn’t learn the reasons for their strictness — sudden migration to Nogales, Mexico, when she was in the fifth grade, followed by migration to the U.S. — until she was a young adult. Her dad had been kidnapped and needed to leave as soon as possible because of death threats to him and his family. “I didn’t know any of this as a little kid. I was mad at my parents for bringing me to a place where I felt I didn’t belong. There was nothing in life I could control,” Montoya