Undocumented Storytellers

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Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 0190917156
Total Pages : 241 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (99 download)

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Book Synopsis Undocumented Storytellers by : Sarah C. Bishop

Download or read book Undocumented Storytellers written by Sarah C. Bishop and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2019 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Undocumented Storytellers offers a critical exploration of the ways immigrants without legal status harness the power of storytelling as a means of activism. The book offers broad insights into the role of strategic framing and autobiographical story sharing in advocacy and social movements"--

Undocumented in L.A.

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Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
ISBN 13 : 0585281610
Total Pages : 174 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (852 download)

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Book Synopsis Undocumented in L.A. by : Dianne Walta Hart

Download or read book Undocumented in L.A. written by Dianne Walta Hart and published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. This book was released on 1997-06-01 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Her story is similar to those of the thousands of illegal immigrants who cross the border into America every day in search of political or economic refuge. In 1988, a woman in her late thirties named Yamileth obtains a passport, leaves her home, and makes a daring, dangerous trip from war-torn Nicaragua through Central America to the United States to join her family. In Los Angeles, Yamileth must find a place to live and a job to support her family, yet keep secret the fact that she entered the country as an illegal alien. She must adapt to new customs and the flood of Latino and Asian immigrants. She must live among the people of California, who in 1994 approved Proposition 187 with the intent to deny undocumented immigrants education, social services, and health care. Yamileth's daily experiences mirror the hopes and frustrations of women and men who must confront new cultural, economic, and political environments. Author Dianne Walta Hart's long and close relationship with Yamileth allows her to present Yamileth's cultural struggles and personal development in poignant narrative and passages in Yamileth's own words. From start to finish, Undocumented in L.A.: An Immigrant's Story is testimonial literature at its best. This eye-opening work will show the reader the opposition and difficulties undocumented immigrants face in a nation that at first beckons them with freedom, then rejects them with unwelcoming borders and restrictive laws. Undocumented in L.A.: An Immigrant's Story is an excellent resource for courses in immigration, political science, and social and cultural studies.

Reimagining US Colombianidades: Transnational subjectivities, cultural expressions, and political contestations

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Author :
Publisher : Springer Nature
ISBN 13 : 3031217845
Total Pages : 191 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (312 download)

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Book Synopsis Reimagining US Colombianidades: Transnational subjectivities, cultural expressions, and political contestations by : Lina Rincón

Download or read book Reimagining US Colombianidades: Transnational subjectivities, cultural expressions, and political contestations written by Lina Rincón and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2023-03-23 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book focuses our attention on yet another community that has been scantily represented in Latino/a/x studies scholarship. US Colombians are no longer content to be characterized as “the other Latinos,” and the editors of this special issue make the case that study of US Colombianidades enhances and productively troubles Latino/a/x studies. This engaging set of essays highlights the rich diversity of US Colombianidades as well as the group’s similarities and differences with other Latino/a/x groups. With its innovative cultural studies and social sciences perspectives and interpretive theories, this volume offers a deep dive into issues such as how racial, gender, sexual, and socioeconomic realities shape US Colombian experience; the representation of US Colombians in popular culture; interethnic relations between Colombians and other Latina/o/xs; the political participation of Colombians in US electoral politics; Colombian transnational understandings of identity; and much more. I want to thank the editors of this special issue—Lina Rincón, Johana Londoño, Jennifer Harford Vargas, and María Elena Cepeda—for curating a set of articles that will most certainly inspire Latino/a/x studies scholars to expand our notions of Latinidades and be attentive to the ways in which a focus on US Colombianidades complicates and enriches our field. Previously published in Latino Studies Volume 18, issue 3, September 2020

Symbolism 2020

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Publisher : Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN 13 : 3110716968
Total Pages : 268 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (17 download)

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Book Synopsis Symbolism 2020 by : Rüdiger Ahrens

Download or read book Symbolism 2020 written by Rüdiger Ahrens and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2020-12-07 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This special anniversary volume of Symbolism explores the nexus between symbolic signification and the future from an interdisciplinary perspective. How, contributors ask, has the future been variously rendered in symbolic terms? How do symbols and symbolic reference shape our ideas of the future? To what extent are symbols constitutive of futures, and to what extent do they restrain communication about what is possible and the imagination of fundamental change? Moreover, how have symbolic practices shaped not only artistic representations of the future, but also scientific attempts at forecasting and modelling it? What, then, is the relevance of symbolism for negotiations of the future in cultural and academic production? In essays ranging from literary and film studies to the philosophy of art and ecological modelling, the volume seeks to lay groundwork in theorizing and historicising ‘symbols of the future’ as much as ‘the future of symbolism’.

Dreamer Nation

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Publisher : University of Alabama Press
ISBN 13 : 0817360956
Total Pages : 177 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (173 download)

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Book Synopsis Dreamer Nation by : Ana Milena Ribero

Download or read book Dreamer Nation written by Ana Milena Ribero and published by University of Alabama Press. This book was released on 2023-09-21 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ""Dreamer Nation" tells the rhetorical story of how Dreamers during the Obama era creatively confronted a complex sociopolitical landscape to advocate for immigrant rights and empower undocumented youth to proudly represent their lives and identities, all while under the ever-present threat of detention and deportation. By examining the activist rhetorics of the Dreamer movement, "Dreamer Nation" illustrates how the Dreamer community was created rhetorically-in the discourse, messages, actions, and visual representations of undocumented youth. Contributing to rhetorical studies of social movements, immigration, and minoritized rhetorics, Ana Milena Ribero argues that even though Dreamer rhetorics were reflective of the discursive limits of the neoliberal milieu, they also worked to disrupt neoliberal constraints through activism that troubled the primacy of the nation-state and citizenship, refused to adhere to respectability politics, forwarded embodied identity and transnational belonging, and looked for liberation in community-not solely in legislative action. Both of and beyond neoliberalism, Dreamer rhetorics evidenced a rhetorical flexibility-a "both/and" sensibility-that allowed Dreamers to vacillate between neoliberal tropes and radical arguments. Ribero's theoretical model for this "both/and" approach derives from Gloria Anzaldúa's concept of nepantla, "the overlapping space between different perceptions and belief systems." In their ambivalent positionality, Dreamers were able to see through the limitations of neoliberal discourse and the promises of the nation-state, and to produce rhetoric that dared to imagine a world without borders, detention, or deportation. Each chapter in "Dreamer Nation" presents a different rhetorical situation within the US "crisis" of migration and the rhetoric that Dreamers used to respond to it. Organized chronologically, the chapters chronicle Dreamer activism during the Obama presidency, from the 2010 hunger strikes advocating for the DREAM Act to undocuqueer "artivism" in response to Trump's presidential campaign. The author draws not only on the methods and theories of rhetorical studies, but also on women of color feminisms, ethnic studies, critical theory, and queer theory. In this way, this book looks across disciplines to illustrates the rhetorical savvy of one of the most important US social movements of our time"--

Undocumented Lives

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Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 067491998X
Total Pages : 336 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (749 download)

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Book Synopsis Undocumented Lives by : Ana Raquel Minian

Download or read book Undocumented Lives written by Ana Raquel Minian and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2018-04-09 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Frederick Jackson Turner Award Finalist Winner of the David Montgomery Award Winner of the Theodore Saloutos Book Award Winner of the Betty and Alfred McClung Lee Book Award Winner of the Frances Richardson Keller-Sierra Prize Winner of the Américo Paredes Prize “A deeply humane book.” —Mae Ngai, author of Impossible Subjects “Necessary and timely...A valuable text to consider alongside the current fight for DACA, the border concentration camps, and the unending rhetoric dehumanizing Mexican migrants.” —PopMatters “A deep dive into the history of Mexican migration to and from the United States.” —PRI’s The World In the 1970s, the Mexican government decided to tackle rural unemployment by supporting the migration of able-bodied men. Millions of Mexican men crossed into the United States to find work. They took low-level positions that few Americans wanted and sent money back to communities that depended on their support. They periodically returned to Mexico, living their lives in both countries. After 1986, however, US authorities disrupted this back-and-forth movement by strengthening border controls. Many Mexican men chose to remain in the United States permanently for fear of not being able to come back north if they returned to Mexico. For them, the United States became a jaula de oro—a cage of gold. Undocumented Lives tells the story of Mexican migrants who were compelled to bring their families across the border and raise a generation of undocumented children.

Our God Is Undocumented: Biblical Faith and Immigrant Justice

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Author :
Publisher : Orbis Books
ISBN 13 : 1608331156
Total Pages : 241 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (83 download)

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Book Synopsis Our God Is Undocumented: Biblical Faith and Immigrant Justice by : Ched Myers and Matthew Colwell

Download or read book Our God Is Undocumented: Biblical Faith and Immigrant Justice written by Ched Myers and Matthew Colwell and published by Orbis Books. This book was released on 2012 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

They Never Come Back

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Publisher : Cornell University Press
ISBN 13 : 0801455111
Total Pages : 169 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (14 download)

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Book Synopsis They Never Come Back by : Frans J. Schryer

Download or read book They Never Come Back written by Frans J. Schryer and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2014-10-31 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For Mexicans on both sides of the border, the migrant experience has changed significantly over the past two decades. In They Never Come Back, Frans J. Schryer draws on the experiences of indigenous people from a region in the Mexican state of Guerrero to explore the impact of this transformation on the lives of migrants. When handicraft production was able to provide a viable alternative to agricultural labor, most migrants would travel to other parts of Mexico to sell their wares. Others opted to work for wages in the United States, returning to Mexico on a regular basis.This is no longer the case. At first almost everyone, including former craft vendors, headed north; however it also became more difficult to go back home and then reenter the United States. One migrant quoted by Schryer laments, "Before I was an artisan and free to travel all over Mexico to sell my crafts. Here we are all locked in a box and cannot get out." NAFTA, migrant labor legislation, and more stringent border controls have all affected migrants' home communities, their relations with employers, their livelihoods, and their identity and customs.Schryer traces the personal lives and careers of indigenous men and women on both sides of the border. He finds that the most pressing issue facing undocumented workers is not that they are unable to earn enough money but, rather, that they are living in a state of ongoing uncertainty and will never be able to achieve their full potential. Through these stories, Schryer offers a nuanced understanding of the predicaments undocumented workers face and the importance of the ongoing debate around immigration policy.

The Handbook of Critical Intercultural Communication

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Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 13 : 1119745411
Total Pages : 629 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (197 download)

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Book Synopsis The Handbook of Critical Intercultural Communication by : Thomas K. Nakayama

Download or read book The Handbook of Critical Intercultural Communication written by Thomas K. Nakayama and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2023-12-13 with total page 629 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An up-to-date and comprehensive resource for scholars and students of critical intercultural communication studies In the newly revised second edition of The Handbook of Critical Intercultural Communication, a lineup of outstanding critical researchers delivers a one-stop collection of contemporary and relevant readings that define, delineate, and inhabit what it means to ‘do critical intercultural communication.’ In this handbook, you will uncover the latest research and contributions from leading scholars in the field, covering core theoretical, methodological, and applied works that give shape to the arena of critical intercultural communication studies. The handbook's contents scaffold up from historical revisitings to theorizings to inquiry and methodologies and critical projects and applications. This work invites readers to deeply immerse themselves in and reflect upon the thematic threads shared within and across each chapter. Readers will also find: Newly included instructors' resources, including reading assignments, discussion guides, exercises, and syllabi Current and state-of-the-art essays introducing the book and delineating each section Brand-new sections on critical inquiry practices and methodologies and contemporary critical intercultural projects and topics such as settler colonialism, intersectionalities, queerness, race, identities, critical intercultural pedagogy, migration, ecologies, critical futures, and more Perfect for scholars, researchers, and students of intercultural communication, intercultural studies, critical communication, and critical cultural studies, The Handbook of Critical Intercultural Communication, 2nd edition, stands as the premier resource for anyone interested in the dynamic and ever evolving field of study and praxis: critical intercultural communication studies.

Dear America: Young Readers' Edition

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Author :
Publisher : HarperCollins
ISBN 13 : 9780062914620
Total Pages : 144 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (146 download)

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Book Synopsis Dear America: Young Readers' Edition by : Jose Antonio Vargas

Download or read book Dear America: Young Readers' Edition written by Jose Antonio Vargas and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2020-07-14 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this young readers' adaptation of his adult memoir Dear America, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and undocumented immigrant Jose Antonio Vargas tells his story, in light of the 12 million undocumented immigrants currently in the United States. Jose Antonio Vargas was only twelve years old when he was brought to the United States from the Philippines to live with his grandparents. He didn't know it, but he was sent to the U.S. illegally. When he applied for a learner's permit, he learned the truth, and he spent the next almost twenty years keeping his immigration status a secret. Hiding in plain sight, he was writing for some of the most prestigious news organizations in the country. Only after publicly admitting his undocumented status--risking his career and personal safety--was Vargas able to live his truth. This book asks questions including, How do you define who is an American? How do we decide who gets to be a citizen? What happens to those who enter the U.S. without documentation? By telling his personal story and presenting facts without easy answers, Jose Antonio Vargas sheds light on an issue that couldn't be more relevant.

Into Abolitionist Theatre

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Author :
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 1003851118
Total Pages : 300 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (38 download)

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Book Synopsis Into Abolitionist Theatre by : Rivka Eckert

Download or read book Into Abolitionist Theatre written by Rivka Eckert and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-03-29 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seeking to transform community-based theatre-making, this book explores the transformative potential of abolitionist theatre, as theatre artists and teachers collaborate with marginalized communities to challenge systems of oppression and inspire profound societal change. Focusing on the idea of bringing people together to demand collective care and community-led practice, this collection works to define theatre’s role in the goals of abolition. Abolitionist theatre-making is a theatre that is connected to the practice of decolonization, intersectional feminism, climate justice, social justice, and liberation struggles. Exploring these ideas and offering a direct exploration of the questions that theatre artists and teachers should ask themselves when evaluating the abolitionist impact of their work, the volume provides accessible and practical tools for theatre-makers with perspectives from working practitioners throughout. Through real-life stories and experiences shared by theatre practitioners, the book provides a rich and diverse tapestry of examples that highlight the ways in which community-based theatre can contribute to transformational change. Readers will benefit from practical frameworks, thought-provoking perspectives, and thoughtfully crafted insights that inspire them to reimagine their own theatre practices and empower them to create theatre that challenges and dismantles oppressive systems while uplifting marginalized voices. Ideal for undergraduate and graduate students with an interest in utilizing theatre-making for social change, this book offers new and practical insights into how the path to abolition might be laid and theatre’s key role in it. This book will also be of great interest to theatre artists and activist practitioners who are involved in community-based theatre projects with marginalized populations.

Areli Is a Dreamer

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Author :
Publisher : Random House Studio
ISBN 13 : 1984894013
Total Pages : 40 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (848 download)

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Book Synopsis Areli Is a Dreamer by : Areli Morales

Download or read book Areli Is a Dreamer written by Areli Morales and published by Random House Studio. This book was released on 2021-06-08 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the first picture book written by a DACA Dreamer, Areli Morales tells her own powerful and vibrant immigration story. When Areli was just a baby, her mama and papa moved from Mexico to New York with her brother, Alex, to make a better life for the family--and when she was in kindergarten, they sent for her, too. Everything in New York was different. Gone were the Saturdays at Abuela’s house, filled with cousins and sunshine. Instead, things were busy and fast and noisy. Areli’s limited English came out wrong, and schoolmates accused her of being illegal. But with time, America became her home. And she saw it as a land of opportunity, where millions of immigrants who came before her paved their own paths. She knew she would, too. This is a moving story--one that resonates with millions of immigrants who make up the fabric of our country--about one girl living in two worlds, a girl whose DACA application was eventually approved and who is now living her American dream. The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) is an immigration policy that has provided relief to thousands of undocumented children, referred to as “Dreamers,” who came to the United States as children and call this country home.

The Making of a Dream

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Author :
Publisher : HarperCollins
ISBN 13 : 0062930478
Total Pages : 384 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (629 download)

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Book Synopsis The Making of a Dream by : Laura Wides-Muñoz

Download or read book The Making of a Dream written by Laura Wides-Muñoz and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2019-01-29 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A journalist chronicles the next chapter in civil rights—the story of a movement and a nation, witnessed through the poignant and inspiring experiences of five young undocumented activists who are transforming society’s attitudes toward one of the most contentious political matters roiling America today: immigration. They are called the DREAMers: young people who were brought, or sent, to the United States as children and who have lived for years in America without legal status. Growing up, they often worked hard in school, planned for college, only to learn they were, in the eyes of the United States government and many citizens, "illegal aliens." Determined to take fate into their own hands, a group of these young undocumented immigrants risked their safety to "come out" about their status—sparking a transformative movement, engineering a seismic shift in public opinion on immigration, and inspiring other social movements across the country. Their quest for permanent legal protection under the so-called "Dream Act," stalled. But in 2012, the Obama administration issued a landmark, new immigration policy: Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, which has since protected more than half a million young immigrants from deportation even as efforts to install more expansive protections remain elusive. The Making of a Dream begins at the turn of the millennium, with the first of a series of "Dream Act" proposals; follows the efforts of policy makers, activists, and undocumented immigrants themselves, and concludes with the 2016 presidential election and the first months of the Trump presidency. The immigrants’ coming of age stories intersect with the watershed political and economic events of the last two decades: 9/11, the recession, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Obama presidency, and the rebirth of the anti-immigrant right. In telling their story, Laura Wides-Muñoz forces us to rethink our definition of what it means to be American.

Racialized Protest and the State

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Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1000081753
Total Pages : 206 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis Racialized Protest and the State by : Hank Johnston

Download or read book Racialized Protest and the State written by Hank Johnston and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-07-07 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bringing together leading scholars of social movements and protest, this volume offers an up-to-date overview of several of the key ethnic and racial movements in the contemporary United States. The organizations, strategies, and challenges of the Black Lives movement, mainstream Black organizations, the Mexican-American Dreamer groups, immigrant-rights mobilizations, Arab-American resistance, and White nationalism are all examined by situating them in a rapidly evolving and—in many ways—increasingly unfavorable state context. With empirical studies linked by their dialogue with theories of social movement and protest, and, in particular, recent trends that emphasize the dynamic relations among social movement groups and organizations, Racialized Protest and the State also considers the multiciplicity of state players and the roles of hostile civic actors who oppose the movements' challenges. A cutting-edge analysis of an increasingly important dimension of contentious politics in complex and diverse Western societies, this book will appeal to scholars of sociology and politics with interests in social movements, nonviolent resistance, protest campaigns, and ethnic mobilization.

The Routledge Handbook of Latinx Life Writing

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Author :
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 1040019013
Total Pages : 599 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (4 download)

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Book Synopsis The Routledge Handbook of Latinx Life Writing by : Maria Joaquina Villaseñor

Download or read book The Routledge Handbook of Latinx Life Writing written by Maria Joaquina Villaseñor and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-05-23 with total page 599 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Routledge Handbook of Latinx Life Writing provides an in‐depth introduction to Latinx life writing, taking a historical approach to the study of a variety of key Latinx life writers, genres, and thematic concerns. This volume includes chapters on fundamental genres of Latinx life writing including memoir, autobiography, oral history, testimonio, comics and graphic texts, poetry of protest, and theatre to more fully depict the breadth, dynamism, and vibrancy of Latinx life writing. Latinx people continuously engaged in the empowering act of telling their stories and narrating their lives, producing writing that at various times and in various ways expressed their joy, expressed their rage and anguish, and ultimately, asserted their subjectivity all the while indelibly contributing to the American literary landscape.

Just Like Us

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Author :
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1416538984
Total Pages : 432 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (165 download)

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Book Synopsis Just Like Us by : Helen Thorpe

Download or read book Just Like Us written by Helen Thorpe and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2009 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Just Like Us" offers a powerful account of four young Mexican women coming of age in Denver--two of whom have legal documentation, two of whom who don't--and the challenges they face as they attempt to pursue the American dream.

The Undocumented Americans

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Author :
Publisher : One World
ISBN 13 : 0399592709
Total Pages : 210 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (995 download)

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Book Synopsis The Undocumented Americans by : Karla Cornejo Villavicencio

Download or read book The Undocumented Americans written by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio and published by One World. This book was released on 2021-04-06 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • One of the first undocumented immigrants to graduate from Harvard reveals the hidden lives of her fellow undocumented Americans in this deeply personal and groundbreaking portrait of a nation. “Karla’s book sheds light on people’s personal experiences and allows their stories to be told and their voices to be heard.”—Selena Gomez FINALIST FOR THE NBCC JOHN LEONARD AWARD • NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW, NPR, THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY, BOOK RIOT, LIBRARY JOURNAL, AND TIME Writer Karla Cornejo Villavicencio was on DACA when she decided to write about being undocumented for the first time using her own name. It was right after the election of 2016, the day she realized the story she’d tried to steer clear of was the only one she wanted to tell. So she wrote her immigration lawyer’s phone number on her hand in Sharpie and embarked on a trip across the country to tell the stories of her fellow undocumented immigrants—and to find the hidden key to her own. Looking beyond the flashpoints of the border or the activism of the DREAMers, Cornejo Villavicencio explores the lives of the undocumented—and the mysteries of her own life. She finds the singular, effervescent characters across the nation often reduced in the media to political pawns or nameless laborers. The stories she tells are not deferential or naively inspirational but show the love, magic, heartbreak, insanity, and vulgarity that infuse the day-to-day lives of her subjects. In New York, we meet the undocumented workers who were recruited into the federally funded Ground Zero cleanup after 9/11. In Miami, we enter the ubiquitous botanicas, which offer medicinal herbs and potions to those whose status blocks them from any other healthcare options. In Flint, Michigan, we learn of demands for state ID in order to receive life-saving clean water. In Connecticut, Cornejo Villavicencio, childless by choice, finds family in two teenage girls whose father is in sanctuary. And through it all we see the author grappling with the biggest questions of love, duty, family, and survival. In her incandescent, relentlessly probing voice, Karla Cornejo Villavicencio combines sensitive reporting and powerful personal narratives to bring to light remarkable stories of resilience, madness, and death. Through these stories we come to understand what it truly means to be a stray. An expendable. A hero. An American.