Immigrant Heritage: Readings and Resources

"When U.S. marines landed in Mogadishu to take on the warlords, Abdi cheered the arrival of these real Americans, who seemed as heroic as those of the movies. Sporting American clothes and dance moves, he became known around Mogadishu as Abdi American, but when the radical Islamist group al-Shabaab rose to power in 2006, it suddenly became dangerous to celebrate Western culture. Forced to flee to Kenya, and eventually landing in America, this is the story of Abdi Nor Iftin’s journey."

"Blending mythology and memory, Saga Boy follows a young Black immigrant's vibrant personal metamorphosis."

"... firmly situates the South Asian American narratives she examines in “the ongoing American story” of immigration and assimilation ... focusing on how these narratives complicate our understanding of the American dream and reveal the complexities of (national) belonging in an era of heightened trans-national exchanges.

"Clemantine Wamariya was six years old when her mother and father began to speak in whispers, when neighbors began to disappear, and when she heard the loud, ugly sounds her brother said were thunder. In 1994, she and her fifteen-year-old sister, Claire, fled the Rwandan massacre and spent the next six years migrating through seven African countries, searching for safety–perpetually hungry, imprisoned and abused, enduring and escaping refugee camps, finding unexpected kindness, witnessing inhuman cruelty. Then, when Clemantine was twelve, she and her sister were granted refugee status in the United States; there, in Chicago, their lives diverged."

"Dan-el Padilla Peralta, came here legally with his family, was living the American dream with his family until their visas lapsed and they found themselves homeless in New York City. There, Dan-el met Jeff, who was struck by Dan-el’s passion for learning and got him on track for education to Collegiate, then to Princeton where he thrived. And also where he made the momentous decision to come out as an undocumented student in a Wall Street Journal profile a few months before he gave the salutatorian’s traditional address in Latin at his commencement."

"Diane Guerrero was just fourteen years old on the day her parents were detained and deported while she was at school. Born in the U.S., Guerrero was able to remain in the country and continue her education, depending on the kindness of family friends who took her in and helped her build a life and a successful acting career for herself, without the support system of her family."

"The refugee story is deeper than redemption – this work approaches the depth of complexity that is reflected in the experience, the expectations refugees face and the joys and challenges of that journey."

"... studies three domains of acculturation--language attitudes, cultural participation and social network--in relation to home language maintenance."

"One of the most powerful immigrant women of color, Haitian-American writer Edwidge Danticat describes what life was like as an immigrant artist detailing stories of injustice and inequality."

"Danticat came to think of her uncle Joseph, a charismatic pastor, as her "second father" when she was placed in his care at age four when her parents left Haiti for America. So she experiences a jumble of emotions when, at twelve, she joins her parents in New York City, whom she struggles to remember--she has left behind Joseph and the only home she's ever known. The story of a new life in a new country while fearing for those still in Haiti soon becomes a terrifying tale of good people caught up in events beyond their control. In 2004, his life threatened by a gang, the frail, 81-year-old Joseph makes his way to Miami, where he thinks he will be safe. Instead, he is detained by the Department of Homeland Security, brutally imprisoned, and dead within days."

" Funny in Farsi chronicles the American journey of Dumas’s wonderfully engaging family: her engineer father, a sweetly quixotic dreamer who first sought riches on Bowling for Dollars and in Las Vegas, and later lost his job during the Iranian revolution; her elegant mother, who never fully mastered English (nor cared to); her uncle, who combated the effects of American fast food with an army of miraculous American weight-loss gadgets; and Firoozeh herself, who as a girl changed her name to Julie, and who encountered a second wave of culture shock when she met and married a Frenchman, becoming part of a one-couple melting pot."

"... disrupts the myths of America's origins and contemporary America through her experiences as the queer Nigerian-born daughter of a Muslim Nigerian woman and a Black American man from a Southern Baptist family in Jim Crow Alabama."

"Tracing his story of becoming a US citizen, José Orduña’s memoir explores the complex issues of immigration and assimilation. JHe chronicles the process of becoming a North American citizen in a post-9/11 United States. Intractable realities, rooted in the continuity of US imperialism to globalism, form the landscape of Orduña’s daily experience, where the geopolitical meets the quotidian."

"'Voluntary evacuation,' a little-known Japanese American experience during World War II with roughly 120,000 people forced from their homes by Executive Order 9066. Around 5,000 escaped. Recounting her family's flight from home and the influence of those experiences."

"A collection of creative nonfiction pieces about undocumented immigrants who’ve paid a steep price to keep the American dream intact, but without recognition: day laborers, first responders at Ground Zero, people living in churches to keep ICE from detaining them. What really sets this apart is the author’s fierce and uncensored voice and advocacy throughout the narrative; she refuses to hide her cynicism or anger for the reader’s sake."

"A finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize, Urrea’s work is the true story of a group of men who attempted a border crossing through the Devil’s Highway, a region in southern Arizona that is so dangerous that even U.S. Border Control is reluctant to travel through it. 26 men started the journey, only 12 survived."

"Provides a sweeping and nuanced history of Asian Americans, revealing how and why the perception of Asian immigrants changed over time."

"... analyzes home pages and other online communities organized by diasporic and immigrant Indians from the late 1990s through the social media period."

"... explores the tropes of return, tracing both literal return visits by Asian emigrants and symbolic "returns": first visits by diasporic offspring. Chu argues that these Asian American narratives seek to remedy widely held anxieties about cultural loss and the erasure of personal and family histories from public memory."

"A memoir about being free—sexually, politically and artistically—chronicles the tumultuous yet luminary life of the author, from his poverty-stricken childhood in rural Cuba to his imprisonment as a homosexual to the events leading to his death in New York."

"Reyna Grande vividly brings to life her tumultuous early years in this story of a childhood spent torn between two parents and two countries. As her parents make the dangerous trek across the Mexican border to “El Otro Lado” (The Other Side) in pursuit of the American dream, Reyna and her siblings are forced into the already overburdened household of their stern grandmother. When their mother at last returns, Reyna prepares for her own journey to “El Otro Lado” to live with the man who has haunted her imagination for years, her long-absent father."

"An amazing children’s book spinoff/companion of Kid Quixotes by Stephen Haff, young 10-year-old Sarah narrates her own story of growing up in Brooklyn, NY as part of an immigrant family."

"A beautiful story of belonging, identity, hope, and love of a group of students who come together to share their experiences as children of undocumented parents and their school project of translating the Spanish tale of Don Quixote into English and creating a bilingual musical out of it."

"In this graphic novel memoir, Thi Bui shares her family’s exodus from Vietnam and the process of forming a new home and identity in the U.S. This handsomely illustrated story portrays both the universal struggle of trying to provide a good life for your child and the very specific experiences of Bui’s family."

"This book chronicles the life of black jazz trumpeter, vocalist, and bandleader Arthur Briggs, from his early years in Grenada, through his teens in New York City during the Harlem Renaissance period, and his career in jazz in Europe after WWI."

"Mexican writer Valeria Luiselli worked as a translator for the U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services in New York from 2014 to 2015. Her job was to ask unaccompanied and undocumented minors who had fled Central America for United States a 40-question survey. Their answers to these questions would impact their ability to seek asylum in the United States."

"By focusing upon the lives, work, and activism of specific, often unacknowledged, migrant populations, the contributors present a more comprehensive vision of the South Asian presence in the United States."

"A vibrant story collection about Cambodian-American life-immersive and comic, yet unsparing-that offers profound insight into the intimacy of queer and immigrant communities."

"An incredibly raw, realistic depiction of the immigrant experience and the American Dream captured by the lens of a Cameroonian family trying to make it in New York City."

"Javier Zamora was nine years old when he traveled 4,000 miles unaccompanied from El Salvador to the United States to be reunited with his parents. Zamora’s poetry collection is an unwavering look at the border, the politics of the border, and those that are left behind never to be seen again."

"A poignant, vulgar, and hilarious collection of interconnected short stories about Chinese American girls growing up in NYC and what their families do to survive."

"A wild and wandering novel that touches on challenges related to emigration and refugee rights through the eyes of a young couple, Saeed and Nadia, who confront the challenges of our world with a dash of magic."

"After receiving her long-coveted visa to America, Patsy leaves behind her family in Jamaica, only to discover that life as an undocumented immigrant is not what her best friend had described."

"Ocean Vuong’s debut collection of poetry masterfully describes the trauma of violence and separation while also celebrating the individual’s incredible capacity for healing and redemption. Rarely is hope explored through such corporeal and lyrical language."

"When a chance encounter with Marina ignites an electric romance, it looks like salvation-if only they can overcome the lie that threatens to undo the trust they've built. A novel of working lives, friendships, and self-discovery in flux,All This Could Be Different is a wry, intimate, and redemptive exploration of the freedom and fragility of youth, and what it means to devote oneself to others in search of a better world."

"In her stunning debut, Souvankham Thammavongsa captures the day-to-day lives of immigrants and refugees in a nameless city, illuminating hopes, disappointments, love affairs, and above all, the pursuit of a place to belong."

"Describes the transition to life in America and presents the world from several intimate angles, concluding with a celebration of the enduring love between mother and child."

"This book is for everyone. Because we can all be allies. As an ally, you use your power--no matter how big or small--to support others. You learn, and try, and mess up, and try harder. In this collection of true stories, 17 critically acclaimed and bestselling YA authors get real about being an ally, needing an ally, and showing up for friends and strangers. From raw stories of racism and invisible disability to powerful moments of passing the mic, these authors share their truths. They invite you to think about your own experiences and choices and how to be a better ally. There are no easy answers, but this book helps you ask better questions. Self-reflection prompts, resources, journaling ideas, and further reading suggestions help you find out what you can do. Because we're all in this together. And we all need allies""

"Aaron Philip's memoir chronicles his extraordinary journey from happy baby in Antigua to confident teen artist in New York City. His honest, often funny stories of triumph-- despite physical difficulties, poverty, and other challenges-- are as inspiring as they are eye-opening."

"Uriel the angel and Little Ash (short for Ashmedai) are the only two supernatural creatures in their shtetl (which is so tiny, it doesn't have a name other than Shtetl). The angel and the demon have been studying together for centuries, but pogroms and the search for a new life have drawn all the young people from their village to America. When one of those young people, Essie, goes missing, Uriel and Little Ash set off to find her."

"Embarrassed about gathering watercress from a roadside ditch, a girl learns to appreciate her Chinese heritage after learning why the plant is so important to her parents."

"Carmen's family receives support from their community after her father, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, has been detained."

"Historians estimate that between 1930 and 1940, two million people living in the United States were forcibly removed and sent to live in Mexico. Telling this story from a child's perspective, award-winning author Claudia Guadalupe Martínez lyrically recounts this often-overlooked period of United States history--Mexican Repatriation. Emotive illustrations by Magdalena Mora convey this poignant tale of longing for home and permanence, which reflects many of the dreams and hopes of people today."

"After Estrella's father is deported because he is an illegal immigrant, her teacher at school invites her and the other students to meet around an old oak tree and share the things they wished their teacher knew about their life at home."

"After traveling to Tijuana, Mexico, Noemi and her mother are denied entry at the border and must find the refugee in charge of the notebook, an unofficial ledger of those waiting to cross into the United States."

"An evocative picture book that tells the true story of the author's immigration from Kuwait to the United States."