"And it's not like my mother and father were born into wealth. It's not like they gambled away their family fortunes. My parents come from poor people who came from people who came from people people, all the way back to the very first poor people" (Alexie, 2007:11)
The text is saying that the author's parents did not inherit their wealth and they did not lose any family fortune through gambling. The author's parents come from a long line of impoverished individuals, stretching back to the very first poor people.
The above text is saying that the speaker's parents did not inherit wealth and did not lose a family fortune through gambling. Instead, they come from a long line of people who were poor, going back to the very first generation of poor people.
