Welcome to Litsy!

As sometimes happen, my fiction and non-fiction reads connected, but 90 years apart. The fact that the undocumented do the jobs no American wants, whether the reason is pay, safety or status, is a moot point. These jobs crush the undocumented, making them old before their time and often inflicting them with health concerns they don‘t have coverage for. Their precarious status bring mental health triggers that their children share the burden of 😢

It‘s 92 outside, all the things I wanted to accomplish today started going haywire early on. Calling it NOPE!Reading & ignoring the other shit on tap!

I just monopolized a telephone conversation w/a friend for 50 minutes talking about this book. You may think you know about the lives of undocumented individuals/families. I guarantee that unless you are living the experience, you do not. This book is a gut-punch. The author, an undocumented American, takes you to different cities to explore what life is like for those who work the jobs none of us will take on.The loneliness, despair & outrage 🔽

Required reading that met and exceeded my extremely high expectations. Villavicencio, herself an undocumented American immigrant has constructed a piece of excellent reportage. It‘s a confronting narrative about lives that are lived in many ways on the margins, but in others right in the centre of American life. It is the personal nature of these stories that is so affecting- taking things we know from abstract to specific.

A remarkable book & almost certainly one of the best I‘ll read all year. The morning after the 2016 election, the author woke up & finally felt ready, felt it was necessary, not only to tell her story, that of a young woman on DACA, but also those of other undocumented Americans. Raw, unfiltered, & brutally honest, this book is powerful, compelling, & a fierce reminder that behind every headline there is a human being. Highly recommended.

wow

Researchers have shown that the flooding of stress hormones resulting from a traumatic separation from your parents at a young age kills off so many dendrites and neurons in the brain that it results in permanent psychological and physical changes....

So I just think about all the children who have been separated from their parents

I also am crazy. Pero why? My diagnoses are borderline personality disorder, major depression, anxiety, and OCD. (I love diagnoses. Gives you the ability to read about yourself.)

Some important stories here about the lives of undocumented immigrants in America. Part personal narrative, part investigative journalism from a young undocumented Harvard graduate. Illustrates the many ways undocumented people are used for their contributions and labor, yet offered no protection or assistance in return. Also makes clear the emotional and physical toll of living under the daily threat of deportation and separation from loved ones.