The Undocumented Americans

by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio

eBook, 208 pages

English language

Published Oct. 5, 2020 by One World.

ISBN:: 978-0-399-59269-0
OCLC Number:: 1191043433

(9 reviews)

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, …

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.

4 editions

Stephanie Jane reviewed The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio

A unique voice

4 stars

Karla Cornejo Villavicencio has a unique voice and perspective on the plight of undocumented immigrants within the USA and I appreciated how she blends many immigrants stories with her own personal experiences throughout The Undocumented Americans. I was reminded of Marcos Gonsalez' work, Pedro's Theory, in the way Villavicencio seeks to counter traditional myths and misconceptions, especially those propagated by right-wing media outlets, in order to show the truth about the outrageously unfair way that undocumented immigrants are forced to live. I was appalled to learn, for example, that the IRS has created a system by which these people can pay taxes without having a social security number, yet even decades worth of tax payments has no bearing on a court's decision if an individual is suddenly targeted for deportation. This is just one of the myriad ways in which the American system is stacked against undocumented immigrants, but America …

I felt that The Undocumented Americans allows a valuable insight into a massive social disaster that I am sure many documented Americans would rather simply ignore. The book is unfortunately let down by occasional factual errors (such as the year of Hurricane Sandy), but I loved how Villavincencio so deftly captures the individual personalities of the people she portrays. I never felt as though I was being asked to pity these people, but simply to actually see them for themselves.Their stories are frequently heartbreakingly sad, and it wouldn't take much of a change in the American mindset to legalise these thousands of workers in a dignified and humane way. However, similarly to the way in which 'illegals' are demonised by politicians and the media here in the UK, their political capital as a scare tactic continues to outweigh the real economic, communal and humanitarian contributions undocumented immigrants make.

amphibious_technicolor941 reviewed The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio

Review of 'The Undocumented Americans' on 'Storygraph'

4 stars

I enjoyed this book, especially the paragraphs where Cornejo Villavicencio breaks the fourth wall a bit and reaches out fo the book to shake you the shoulders. Here's one such bit from the end of the book:

I follow my own advice while trying to hold off on the suicidal ideation while trying to be as socially fucking mobile as socially fucking possible and then these kids fucking find me, and what do I do, but invite them into my heart and tell them, babes, go to school, climb the ranks, kill the salutatorian, make it look like an accident, and in your valedictory address, remind your school that cops are pigs, and ICE are Nazis, and you are John at the foot of the cross, Jesus’s most loved apostle, maybe his lover, and you’re in the holy word, escape to my home for some chamomile tea and RuPaul, there …

I follow my own advice while trying to hold off on the suicidal ideation while trying to be as socially fucking mobile as socially fucking possible and then these kids fucking find me, and what do I do, but invite them into my heart and tell them, babes, go to school, climb the ranks, kill the salutatorian, make it look like an accident, and in your valedictory address, remind your school that cops are pigs, and ICE are Nazis, and you are John at the foot of the cross, Jesus’s most loved apostle, maybe his lover, and you’re in the holy word, escape to my home for some chamomile tea and RuPaul, there will always be room for you, I love you and forever will.

Though at times found myself wishing it took a more systematic view of what being undocumented in America means.