What do you think?
Rate this book
Citizenship: Notes on an American Myth
Not yet published
Expected 17 Feb 26A provocative, personal, blazingly intelligent examination of one of the most vexing questions facing the United States Who is, and should be, a citizen?
“How did ‘Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free’ turn upside down to where we are today? Everyone needs to read this book, citizens and non-citizens alike. Brilliant!”—Sandra Cisneros
“The most comprehensive book on citizenship/immigration I’ve ever read. A must-read!”—Javier Zamora
“The book I have always wanted to read.”—Jose Antonio Vargas
“Personal, profound, engaging, and comprehensive . . . this is an essential book for these contentious times.”—Booklist (starred review)
In this one-of-a-kind book, Daisy Hernández fiercely interrogates one of the most complicated subjects of contemporary life and citizenship. Braiding memoir, history, and cultural criticism, she exposes the truths and lies of how we define ourselves as a country and a people. Turning to her own family’s stories—her mother arrived from Colombia, while her father was a political refugee from Castro’s Cuba—Hernández shows how the very idea of citizenship is a myth, one of the stories we tell ourselves about the American soul and psyche.
Reframing our understanding of what it means to be an American, Citizenship is an urgent and necessary account of the laws, customs, and language we use to include and exclude, especially those who come from Latin America. With her scholar’s mind and memoirist’s gift for narrative, Hernández weaves a story both personal and national, while reckoning with our country’s ongoing debate about who belongs and providing fresh ways of thinking about citizenship. At once bracing, fearless, and tender, Citizenship is a powerful portrait of one family’s experiences in the borderlands of citizenship and an honest illumination of the country in which we live.
“How did ‘Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free’ turn upside down to where we are today? Everyone needs to read this book, citizens and non-citizens alike. Brilliant!”—Sandra Cisneros
“The most comprehensive book on citizenship/immigration I’ve ever read. A must-read!”—Javier Zamora
“The book I have always wanted to read.”—Jose Antonio Vargas
“Personal, profound, engaging, and comprehensive . . . this is an essential book for these contentious times.”—Booklist (starred review)
In this one-of-a-kind book, Daisy Hernández fiercely interrogates one of the most complicated subjects of contemporary life and citizenship. Braiding memoir, history, and cultural criticism, she exposes the truths and lies of how we define ourselves as a country and a people. Turning to her own family’s stories—her mother arrived from Colombia, while her father was a political refugee from Castro’s Cuba—Hernández shows how the very idea of citizenship is a myth, one of the stories we tell ourselves about the American soul and psyche.
Reframing our understanding of what it means to be an American, Citizenship is an urgent and necessary account of the laws, customs, and language we use to include and exclude, especially those who come from Latin America. With her scholar’s mind and memoirist’s gift for narrative, Hernández weaves a story both personal and national, while reckoning with our country’s ongoing debate about who belongs and providing fresh ways of thinking about citizenship. At once bracing, fearless, and tender, Citizenship is a powerful portrait of one family’s experiences in the borderlands of citizenship and an honest illumination of the country in which we live.
Kindle Edition
Expected publication February 17, 2026
3 people are currently reading
2349 people want to read
About the author
Daisy Hernández
19 books117 followersDe padre cubano y madre colombiana, creció en Nueva Jersey, Estados Unidos. Ha escrito y editado libros de ensayos sobre feminismo, descolonización, raza e identidad queer en Norte y Latino América. También ha colaborado en importantes medios como The Atlantic, The New York Times y la National Public Radio de Estados Unidos. Actualmente es profesora de Escrituras creativas en la Universidad de Miami en Ohio.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
December 18, 2025
A personal narrative that is rooted in sociology, data, local stories, and a firsthand account of the immigrant experience. This is Daisy’s story, but it is also about the history of a push for whiteness in America. A full-scale analysis of the way the American dream harms the lives of many non-white Americans. What does it mean to be a citizen of the United States beyond a social construct? A well researched, annotated and constructively written narrative for 2026.
There are boundaries drawn with imaginary lines to decide who gets to decipher the breadth of citizenship within the quarters. Citizenship would not be inherently harmful if it meant inclusivity for all. Daisy dissects the whiteness plague that permeates as the norm for being a model citizen in America. This is a story that challenges the status quo with real data and sociological perspectives. A fantastic read to understand what it means to abide by harmful social constructs. Thank you, Daisy Hernández, Netgalley, and Hogarth publishing for this advanced digital copy. All opinions are my own.
For more recommendations, impressions, and tarot readings, visit my blog, http://brujerialibrary.wordpress.com
There are boundaries drawn with imaginary lines to decide who gets to decipher the breadth of citizenship within the quarters. Citizenship would not be inherently harmful if it meant inclusivity for all. Daisy dissects the whiteness plague that permeates as the norm for being a model citizen in America. This is a story that challenges the status quo with real data and sociological perspectives. A fantastic read to understand what it means to abide by harmful social constructs. Thank you, Daisy Hernández, Netgalley, and Hogarth publishing for this advanced digital copy. All opinions are my own.
For more recommendations, impressions, and tarot readings, visit my blog, http://brujerialibrary.wordpress.com
December 25, 2025
The author explores the concept of citizenship and how it has morphed with time and world and domestic events. She focuses on how the US has viewed citizenship, its corresponding laws, and why they were enacted. Her writing style is engaging because she combines her personal experience and others’ anecdotes with facts and historical events. For example, Hernandez is the daughter of a Colombian mother and Cuban father, and she continuously explains the challenges and opportunities her parents and other family members faced as immigrants who eventually became citizens of the United States. I found the book to be interesting, informative, and engaging.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Thank you Random House and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader's Copy!
Available February 2026.
Daisy Hernandez's Citizenship is an intriguing and moving exploration of what the term means politically, personally, socially, and more. The book ties Hernandez's personal life story with larger sociopolitical movements and policies. Hernandez makes a compelling case that the concept citizenship has always been a transient goalpost and has been weaponized in the United States to harm Black and brown communities. Hernandez doesn't shy away from the complications of "white" Latinidad and the growing community of Latinx MAGA supporters, she tells their stories with equal parts of care and curiosity, while still holding space for the harm created. Strongly recommend!!
Available February 2026.
Daisy Hernandez's Citizenship is an intriguing and moving exploration of what the term means politically, personally, socially, and more. The book ties Hernandez's personal life story with larger sociopolitical movements and policies. Hernandez makes a compelling case that the concept citizenship has always been a transient goalpost and has been weaponized in the United States to harm Black and brown communities. Hernandez doesn't shy away from the complications of "white" Latinidad and the growing community of Latinx MAGA supporters, she tells their stories with equal parts of care and curiosity, while still holding space for the harm created. Strongly recommend!!
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Citizenship is Daisy Hernandez’s exploration of how we perceive the way we and others belong and are accepted into various groups, though primarily as desired members of a country, and most specifically the United States.
In a country that seems to increasingly seem intolerant of people that could be deemed other, the book is certainly timely. Hernandez focuses most heavily on the immigrant throughout the book but also emphasizes that things that we self categorize are factors too.
I like the idea of exploring this and there are parts of the book that were enlightening and conveyed the strongest message to me. The differences between how a person identifies themselves and how society does can be completely different. Hernandez writes about Latinx as a demographic that can encompass people that look very different from each other but share values. Hernandez uses a poignant example of having a boy visit her at home that was Dominican, and it enraged her Cubano father who looked white because he saw the boy as Black. The boy was hurt and confused because he saw himself as Dominican and would not have described himself as Black, a racial group that still struggles against discrimination to this day.
Hernandez also provides a great explanation for something that continues to confound me, which is why people vote for and support political and public figures that would happily have nothing to do with them or show them the metaphorical door. I tend to think from the perspective of that person and whether they would have my best interests in mind, not as an ideal or someone who be so focused on targeting others that I wouldn’t be of interest to them. Despite being frustrating from my view, and quite likely not in their best interests, it explains a lot.
Hernandez explains that citizenship as a construct is not limited to legal status in a country but can also be defined in ways such as politically, economically, socially and culturally.
There were bigs sections of the book that I struggled to get into. I’m not sure if the intended audience is people that have felt left out of a type of citizenship and validating their experiences or raising awareness in those that never or rarely have those experiences. I would say that I fall more into the latter category, but I think Hernandez kind of wrote it for both, which left me struggling to follow the train of thought, especially at the start of the book. There are swings back and forth between personal anecdotes, research by subject matter experts and historical precedents set.
One of the forms of citizenship Hernandez addresses is that for queer people, a group of people who Hernandez identifies with. This absolutely makes sense and provides valuable perspective, but the chapter takes up almost a quarter of the book, making the chapter feel like a slog to get through in comparison to the length of the other chapters, and perhaps assigning a heavier weight to addressing it.
Non-fiction books addressing contemporary and social issues are in a difficult position of raising awareness without superiority. I think Hernandez mostly succeeds in accomplishing this but I struggled to engage and be interested, which is another vital factor in getting people to read non-fiction. I think citizenship and what it means is a valuable thing to discuss, but I struggled to engage with how it was presented throughout portions of this book.
A complimentary copy of this book was provided by the publisher. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
In a country that seems to increasingly seem intolerant of people that could be deemed other, the book is certainly timely. Hernandez focuses most heavily on the immigrant throughout the book but also emphasizes that things that we self categorize are factors too.
I like the idea of exploring this and there are parts of the book that were enlightening and conveyed the strongest message to me. The differences between how a person identifies themselves and how society does can be completely different. Hernandez writes about Latinx as a demographic that can encompass people that look very different from each other but share values. Hernandez uses a poignant example of having a boy visit her at home that was Dominican, and it enraged her Cubano father who looked white because he saw the boy as Black. The boy was hurt and confused because he saw himself as Dominican and would not have described himself as Black, a racial group that still struggles against discrimination to this day.
Hernandez also provides a great explanation for something that continues to confound me, which is why people vote for and support political and public figures that would happily have nothing to do with them or show them the metaphorical door. I tend to think from the perspective of that person and whether they would have my best interests in mind, not as an ideal or someone who be so focused on targeting others that I wouldn’t be of interest to them. Despite being frustrating from my view, and quite likely not in their best interests, it explains a lot.
Hernandez explains that citizenship as a construct is not limited to legal status in a country but can also be defined in ways such as politically, economically, socially and culturally.
There were bigs sections of the book that I struggled to get into. I’m not sure if the intended audience is people that have felt left out of a type of citizenship and validating their experiences or raising awareness in those that never or rarely have those experiences. I would say that I fall more into the latter category, but I think Hernandez kind of wrote it for both, which left me struggling to follow the train of thought, especially at the start of the book. There are swings back and forth between personal anecdotes, research by subject matter experts and historical precedents set.
One of the forms of citizenship Hernandez addresses is that for queer people, a group of people who Hernandez identifies with. This absolutely makes sense and provides valuable perspective, but the chapter takes up almost a quarter of the book, making the chapter feel like a slog to get through in comparison to the length of the other chapters, and perhaps assigning a heavier weight to addressing it.
Non-fiction books addressing contemporary and social issues are in a difficult position of raising awareness without superiority. I think Hernandez mostly succeeds in accomplishing this but I struggled to engage and be interested, which is another vital factor in getting people to read non-fiction. I think citizenship and what it means is a valuable thing to discuss, but I struggled to engage with how it was presented throughout portions of this book.
A complimentary copy of this book was provided by the publisher. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
5 stars
Hernández describes this book as creative nonfiction in the author's note, and I'd just describe it as a must-read. I enjoyed this thoroughly.
One thing I'm looking for in nonfiction is information that's new to me, and I got a lot of that here, especially when it comes to how citizenship has been managed historically and in locations outside of the U.S. For a number of reasons connected to my personal and professional life, modern citizenship status in the U.S. is topic that's on my mind constantly. I'm really looking forward to not only having more robust conversations with others based what I ascertained from this read but also to continuing to better understand what folks are going through in various stages of this process.
Hernández personalizes the topic by incorporating memories, details, and enhancements of her own experiences, and as is so often the case, this makes a challenging topic even more compelling and engaging. I really enjoyed the intersectional inclusions, too.
This is a great read and I expect I'll have many opportunities to recommend it in my day to day. I'll also look forward to more from this author who left a positive first impression on me to be sure!
*Special thanks to NetGalley and Will Lyman at Random House, Hogarth, and Dial for this widget, which I received in exchange for an honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
Hernández describes this book as creative nonfiction in the author's note, and I'd just describe it as a must-read. I enjoyed this thoroughly.
One thing I'm looking for in nonfiction is information that's new to me, and I got a lot of that here, especially when it comes to how citizenship has been managed historically and in locations outside of the U.S. For a number of reasons connected to my personal and professional life, modern citizenship status in the U.S. is topic that's on my mind constantly. I'm really looking forward to not only having more robust conversations with others based what I ascertained from this read but also to continuing to better understand what folks are going through in various stages of this process.
Hernández personalizes the topic by incorporating memories, details, and enhancements of her own experiences, and as is so often the case, this makes a challenging topic even more compelling and engaging. I really enjoyed the intersectional inclusions, too.
This is a great read and I expect I'll have many opportunities to recommend it in my day to day. I'll also look forward to more from this author who left a positive first impression on me to be sure!
*Special thanks to NetGalley and Will Lyman at Random House, Hogarth, and Dial for this widget, which I received in exchange for an honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
A thought provoking read about citizenship and how politics, social norms, ethnicity and country of origin impact who gets to be a citizen. Also provides information on how changing the way people are categorized affects collection of information for government purposes. The information on how the question of who deserves to be a citizen has impacted the author's and family's life.
#Citizenship #RandomHouse #Hogarth #NetGalley
#Citizenship #RandomHouse #Hogarth #NetGalley
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
"Citizenship has always been bound to race, to gender, to sexuality, to the ways that others make of our bodies a text, a document read according to a vocabulary created by a small group of people we never met."
Personal and powerful narrative on Citizenship from the author of the kissing bug and a cup of water under my bed: a memoir.
Personal and powerful narrative on Citizenship from the author of the kissing bug and a cup of water under my bed: a memoir.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
A lot of interesting information about laws and history related to immigration. Unfortunately there is no organization or cohesive approach to presenting the information. I really wanted to like this. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews