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bethanybeyondthejordan 's review for:
In the Country We Love: My Family Divided
by Diane Guerrero
3.5
I read this because I wanted to hear from someone who has a pulse on the illegal immigrant scene.
This is somewhat of a rags to riches American dream story. It's a memoir of a girl who was born in the USA to Colombian parents who were in America legally and then stayed a little too long. Long story short, they never got citizenship, though they tried, and were ultimately deported.
Diane tells how that one day when ICE took away her parents affected her entire life--both before, as it was always a possibility, and after, since she was only 14 and didn't go with them. How did it affect her formative years? Her relationships with her parents?
It's a powerful story. I read the book with an open mind, wanting to give her and her experience a fair chance, a validating stamp of approval. But in the end, I still struggle with her entitlement. She makes no concession that her parents were in the USA illegally. I'm convinced that they were very hardworking, and even that they were taken advantage of. Yet when you live in a country, you are responsible to know the laws and follow them, even visa expiration dates in another language.
Throughout the book, but especially in the Call to Action section, the author belabors the issue of ICE disregarding minors who become essentially orphans. No one from ICE or family services seemed to (know?) care she existed, the way she tells it. I'm not sure she and I agree on what should've happened to her, and frankly I'm not sure she would've been ok with going into foster care. Seems her living situations, tenuous as they were, gave her far more freedom and connection to her culture.
Ultimately, I'm glad she has a voice and is using it. I hope her voice experience is taken in the context of "this is one person's story" before we go writing new legislation.
One more thing: I was put off by language choices. She used gratuitous expletives, which I can live with but that kept me from recommending the book to my teenaged niece; other slang word choices are dated and frankly took her image down a notch when it came to thinking of her as a trusted, knowledgeable storyteller.
I read this because I wanted to hear from someone who has a pulse on the illegal immigrant scene.
This is somewhat of a rags to riches American dream story. It's a memoir of a girl who was born in the USA to Colombian parents who were in America legally and then stayed a little too long. Long story short, they never got citizenship, though they tried, and were ultimately deported.
Diane tells how that one day when ICE took away her parents affected her entire life--both before, as it was always a possibility, and after, since she was only 14 and didn't go with them. How did it affect her formative years? Her relationships with her parents?
It's a powerful story. I read the book with an open mind, wanting to give her and her experience a fair chance, a validating stamp of approval. But in the end, I still struggle with her entitlement. She makes no concession that her parents were in the USA illegally. I'm convinced that they were very hardworking, and even that they were taken advantage of. Yet when you live in a country, you are responsible to know the laws and follow them, even visa expiration dates in another language.
Throughout the book, but especially in the Call to Action section, the author belabors the issue of ICE disregarding minors who become essentially orphans. No one from ICE or family services seemed to (know?) care she existed, the way she tells it. I'm not sure she and I agree on what should've happened to her, and frankly I'm not sure she would've been ok with going into foster care. Seems her living situations, tenuous as they were, gave her far more freedom and connection to her culture.
Ultimately, I'm glad she has a voice and is using it. I hope her voice experience is taken in the context of "this is one person's story" before we go writing new legislation.
One more thing: I was put off by language choices. She used gratuitous expletives, which I can live with but that kept me from recommending the book to my teenaged niece; other slang word choices are dated and frankly took her image down a notch when it came to thinking of her as a trusted, knowledgeable storyteller.