Teresa Bravo-Cortines looks back at her harrowing life in her inspiring true story Bravo: A Memoir. She stands as a testament that when things look their bleakest, it is possible to overcome the odds.

In her own words:

My book talks about my father being killed when I was only five years old, the great adversity and poverty we lived in, and about my kidnapping at the age of thirteen to work in the fields with migrant workers.

It continues with my going back to college and becoming a successful insurance agent with State Farm, raising three...