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4.36 AVERAGE
4.36 AVERAGE
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
This memoir has made me take a good long look at my privilege and also what it means to be an American citizen. I have come to appreciate my citizenship so much more after realizing all the rights and privileges granted to me because I was lucky enough to be born here. Even though his story is not the only story, it is good for everyone to to understand different perspectives.
Especially in the current political landscape regarding immigration policies, I think Dear America humanizes the problem, because right now it appears that we’ve taken the human part of the immigration issue out of the equation. Jose brings that to the forefront in his memoir and helps us better understand some of the realities of the undocumented experience.
Especially in the current political landscape regarding immigration policies, I think Dear America humanizes the problem, because right now it appears that we’ve taken the human part of the immigration issue out of the equation. Jose brings that to the forefront in his memoir and helps us better understand some of the realities of the undocumented experience.
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
fast-paced
informative
reflective
medium-paced
emotional
informative
medium-paced
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
a really lucid memoir, although i hesitate to call it memoir b/c for me, the prose and the content read like a long op-ed. i think jose's personal relationships feel very subdued in this memoir, esp by the second half, and there seems to be a sort of defensiveness of his personal career that pervades. can't really blame him but would not reread as a memoir, as it feels incomplete in that regard; more insightful as a personal history on being undocumented in america
“What we’re doing—waving a “Keep Out!” flag at the Mexican border while holding up a Help Wanted sign a hundred yards in—is deliberate. Spending billions building fences and walls, locking people up like livestock, deporting people to keep the people we don’t want out, tearing families apart, breaking spirits—all of that serves a purpose. People are forced to lie, people spend years if not decades passing in some kind of purgatory. And step by step, this immigration system is set up to do exactly what it does.”
This was a very hard read because of how honest, heartbreaking, vulnerable and compelling it is. We cannot change immigration until we change the culture of how we see immigrants. This was eye opening to me in understanding just how complicated, and let’s face it, mostly nonexistent the immigration process is in America for citizenship after entry.
This was a very hard read because of how honest, heartbreaking, vulnerable and compelling it is. We cannot change immigration until we change the culture of how we see immigrants. This was eye opening to me in understanding just how complicated, and let’s face it, mostly nonexistent the immigration process is in America for citizenship after entry.
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
This book is such a timely gift. Eye opening. Inspiring. Heart breaking. I really hope Jose Antonio Vargas writes a follow up “where is he now?” I feel so ignorant to the undocumented experience. After reading this, I realize I have so much more to learn.