How Does It Feel to Be Unwanted?: Stories of Resistance and Resilience from Mexicans Living in the United States

by Eileen Truax, Diane Stockwell (Translator)

In an era of increasing anti-immigrant sentiment and bigotry, each of these 13 stories illuminates the issues affecting the Mexican community and shows the breadth of a frequently stereotyped population.

Dreamers and their allies, those who care about immigration justice, and anyone interested in the experience of Mexicans in the US will respond to these stories of Mexican immigrants (some documented, some not) illuminating their complex lives. Regardless of status, many are subjected to rights violations, inequality, and violence--all of which existed well before the Trump administration--and have profound feelings of being unwanted in the country they call home.

There's Monica Robles , the undocumented mother of three US citizens who is literally confined to a strip of territory between two checkpoints--one at the Mexico border and one twenty-seven miles north of the border. We meet Jeanette Vizguerra , who came to symbolize the sanctuary movement when she took shelter in a Denver church in February 2017 to avoid deportation. (Later that year, Time magazine named her one of the one hundred most influential people in the world.) There's Daniel Rodriguez , the first undocumented immigration lawyer in Arizona to successfully obtain a license to practice. Alberto Mendoza , who suffered persecution as a gay man for years, in 2013 founded Honor 41, a national Latina/o LGBTQ organization that promotes positive images of their community. After crossing the border illegally with his mother as a child, Al Labrada later joined the military to get on a path to citizenship; in March 2017, he was promoted to captain in the Los Angeles Police Department. These and eight other stories will broaden how you think about Mexicans in America.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Essays, Audiobook, History, Latinx

216 pages, Paperback

First published November 21, 2017

About the author

Eileen Truax is an awarded journalist with over 20 years of experience in Mexico and the United States.

Born in Mexico City, she moved to Los Angeles in 2004. She has covered immigration, politics and US-Mexico issues for different media both in Mexico and the US, such as La Opinión, Hoy Los Ángeles, Reforma and El Universal newspapers, and Proceso, Gatopardo and Newsweek en Español magazines, among others.

Her first book is “Dreamers, la lucha de una generación por su sueño americano” (Spanish, Oceáno, 2013), "Dreamers, an immigrant generation's fight for their American Dream" (English, Beacon Press, 2015). The book shed light on the situation faced by those young undocumented immigrants brought to the US by their parents when they were very young, and the daily struggle of this generation for their own American Dream.

Her first novel, "Fecha de Caducidad" (Spanish, Alfaguara, 2015), is a love triangle story co-authored with Beatriz Rivas and Armando-Vega Gil.

Eileen is also co-author of "72 Migrantes" (Almadía, 2011) and "Tú y yo coincidimos en la noche terrible" (Nuestra Aparente Rendición, 2012), and she's part of Cuadernos. Colectivo de Cronistas Iberoamericanos.

Currently, Eileen is working on her second non-fiction book about the exiled victims of violence from Mexico looking for asylum in the US.

***


Eileen Truax es periodista con más de veinte años de experiencia en México y Estados Unidos.

Nació en la Ciudad de México y vive en Los Ángeles desde 2004, en donde ha cubierto los temas de inmigración, política y relación México-Estados Unidos para diversos medios en ambos países, como los diarios La Opinión, Hoy Los Ángeles, Reforma y El Universal, y las revistas Proceso, Gatopardo y Newsweek en Español, entre otras.

Su primer libro es “Dreamers, la lucha de una generación por su sueño americano” (Español, Oceáno, 2013; "Dreamers, an immigrant generation's fight for their American Dream", Inglés, Beacon Press, 2015). Este libro arroja luz sobre la situación que enfrentan los jóvenes inmigrantes indocumentados que fueron llevados a Estados Unidos por sus padres cuando eran pequeños, y la lucha diaria de esta generación por lograr su propio sueño americano.

Su primera novela, "Fecha de Caducidad" (Alfaguara, 2015), es la historia de un triángulo amoroso escrita en coautoría con Beatriz Rivas y Armando-Vega Gil.

Eileen también ha sido coautora de "72 Migrantes" (Almadía, 2011) y "Tú y yo coincidimos en la noche terrible" (Nuestra Aparente Rendición, 2012), y es integrante de Cuadernos. Colectivo de Cronistas Iberoamericanos.

Actualmente Eileen trabaja en su segundo libro de no ficción, una historia sobre mexicanos exiliados por la violencia en su país buscando asilo en Estados Unidos.

Reviews

[Aria · Rating 2 out of 5]

---- Disclosure: I received this book for free from Goodreads. ----

Am not sure how to rate this one. Am feeling 2.5 stars, so will prob. round up. I really enjoyed the 1st bit a lot. In the middle of the book I became utterly bored & just was not interested at all in those stories. The end stories picked up again, but it was never again as good as those first stories. What I think might have made those 1st stories particularly interesting was all the information about the differences in the Mexican states themselves, & how those differences translate into unique issues once a person has come stateside. Particularly I was very surprised by what a high number of people in Mexico alone speak only a local language, & don't even have a rudimentary grasp of Spanish as a second language. Furthermore, the fact that the gov. of Mexico & its component states have done nothing to try to communicate with these non-Spanish speaking citizens is quite telling of the relationship the gov. has to the citizens. It makes sense that those people might not foresee any difference b/w not speaking the primary language on one side of the border vs another. Of course, living only in a local area you know well, alongside others that speak your native tongue, is completely different than being a fish out of water in an unknown area w/ no one that can understand you. How terribly lonely & frustrating. That this scenario exists & yet is unknown even by the widespread institutions we have across this land is ridiculous. How in the world could we not, at this stage, have it known as common knowledge that clients/patients one might meet in a professional context might not be speaking some local dialect of Spanish, but in fact be familiar only with an entirely different language altogether?! This seems like something that should have come up in continuing professional education, but in all my years of medical experience, in both government & private facilities, this book is literally the 1st I came to know of it. Now I understand why Spanish translators were having so much difficulty w/ some of those patients, & I wish this information was something I had known long ago.

The second thing I learned that really elucidated a stark difference that must be confusing for immigrants is coming up against a punitive system of "justice" when one has no prior concept of such a system. I was of the thought that punitive justice was the standard south of the border, but now I know that it is not necessarily the default system, & that's no small thing. That has to be some definite culture shock for a newcomer, trying to wrap one's head around that kind of concept.

I really enjoyed learning all of that, & I'm glad the information will exist out in the world now, even if it may be a slow dissemination. At least it's a start. I don't think I got much out of the rest of the book that was anything I hadn't heard before, and as such it had a hard time holding my attn. I also am not that fond of the title, & don't think it's necessarily going to peak interest in anyone not already orientated toward the subject matter. The section in the middle where the young girl goes on and on about no one else has to worry about this or that thing was honestly just annoying. That girl needs to get out of her own head if she thinks she is the only one dealing w/ such problems. Seriously. Most of what she went on about I already lived through just being born poor in the Southern U.S. Her situation included deportation concerns, which is a significant difference from my experience, but still is also not unique. I know it's hard, but reading her go on & on was tedious. For some reason, the story about the guy that became a cop also did nothing for me. I was mildly intrigued by the almost lawyer fighting to get his license to practice approved, but it was the situation that intrigued me, & not the reading of the material which I also found to be kind of blah.

So, there it is. Starts off full of info. that really adds to a wider understanding of what is going on w/ this immigration across the Southern U.S. border, but kind of fizzles out as it goes on into a pile of more or less the same kinds of stories most people have already heard. Those stories are valid, of course, but they are around every corner & thus are not new to anyone w/ even a bare understanding of immigration issues......like anyone that has ever heard or read the news, (regardless of their ideas or feelings regarding immigration). As such, I think I will go middle of the road on this book. It was fine. After reading the content of the beginning of this book though, I can't help but think there have to be better choices out there that could have filled out the rest of the book so it wasn't re-hashed immigrant tales (for lack of a better term). So again, 2.5 stars. I will put the book out into the wider world to circulate. Hopefully some good will come from its travels.

[Ruby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gives an inside look into the lives of so many who are vilified in the US media. Takes a look into how it truly feels for an outsider to attempt at a life of good.

[Steph · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heroes like Wonder Woman or Erin Brockovich get their own movies. They become mythical. What Eileen Truax does in this book is to make these protagonists mythical. And so they should be.
-The parents who give up everything in Mexico to move to America to give their twin children medical care in the US? Heroes!
-The immigrant who rises to Captain within the LAPD? Hero!
-The mother who makes food all day and all night long to provide for her family, making a successful business, employing two more women, being a job creator, all within that Gatsby-like wasteland called the Valley of Ashes, or in Arizona's case, highway 19 between the Border and Tubac --- that woman? Huge Hero! Wonder Woman!

There isn't a single hurdle that these protagonists haven't surmounted. Systems designed to alienate them from political efficacy, financial efficacy, educational efficacy are cleared with their heroic efforts to provide well for their children. These families have resilience, and Truax makes that resilience loom larger than any heroes you can find in the Marvel pantheon.

Eileen should retitle this book. Something with the names of heroes. I don't know what it would be, but a name that is equivalent to the grandiose accomplishments made by the protagonists in this novel.

Now that I've waxed romantic about the protagonists of this work, it is also necessary to write that Truax documents all the hurdles that will snare so many other families. Mixed status families that are torn apart. Thousands upon thousands of families with one parent banished to a country that is no longer home while the US born children remain in America. Mixed families that include some children who are undocumented and the youngest child US born and privileged with simple things like the ability to get a driver's license and pay in-state tuition at college.

Truax lays bare all the work that still needs to be done, but it takes a community to fix the broken places. As citizens with privilege, we must not avert our eyes from the ways in which these systems break and destroy families. We must renew our claims of compassion and empathy, and work to eradicate these broken systems. We must renew our claims to being a nation that believes in the self-evident belief of all [wo]men being made equal. And to truly hold ourselves accountable to actions that align with that conviction.

[Suzanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this book is a four out of five. Each chapter tells the story of a different Mexican living in the United States. This book reminds you that this issue of undocumented citizens and so on has been going on for decades. Most people in the book have been dealing with the same issues for decades, not just since Trump was elected. Although the author points out Trump has created an environment where it is more acceptable to publicly say negative things about Mexicans and other undocumented people. Truax reminds us that even under Obama about 1100 people per day were departed from the U.S. The amazing achievement of the Mexicans in this story under very difficult circumstances such as no stable place of residence or employment are inspiring. The books reminds us we need to be more accepting and that truly most people are trying to achieve a better life for themselves and their families. For example, in the first story a man's family leaves Mexico due to the difficult economy and not being able to support their five children. The mother works as a hotel cleaner and the father works in agricultural. The man grows up to work in agriculture, as a day labourer, as a leader for other day labourers and as a musician. Over the course of their family life they are pushed back and forth across the borders by a variety of forces but they never give up their struggle. Truly there must be a way to grant citizenship to Mexicans in a more timely fashion.

[Ed · Rating 3 out of 5]

As most books that decry the negative issues with deportation the author writes about some immigration laws incorrectly. For instance even though the consequences of most deportations are equal how aliens are deported can vary a lot. Barack O'Bama deported the most aliens than any other president but that is because during his presidency expedited returns were instituted wherein first time aliens could be removed without ever seeing a judge thus facilitating more aliens to be deported.

Despite some technical flaws in the book she does a good picture of painting a picture of disenfranchised people living on the fringes of our society. As a people we need unskilled labor but politically we do not want that labor to be undocumented even though we could not function without them. The author does a good job of helping the reader understand some of the fear and feelings this population feels but besides calling for change no real solutions are discussed in the book. I think book would have been well served if the author had talked about real solutions to the issues.

[Ernest Hogan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Historias verdades de vida en Trumptopia.

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Listened to audiobook.

An outstanding combination of thirteen Mexican immigrants' stories and information concerning the recent history, and current state, of immigration today.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

Please see my review on Amazon. com under C. Wong. Thank you.

[Daniela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Me encantó este libro, a ratos triste, a ratos esperanzador. Aprendí muchas cosas y ahora llevo conmigo un pedacito de los protagonistas de estas historias.

Lloré en varias partes. Quise abrazar y decirle a Yunuen que es injusto que su vida sea una batalla constante, que ya es una campeona, que no tiene que probar nada. Lloré cuando conocí sobre la Raza Graduation. Los nopales que comí ese día me supieron mejor después de leer a Odilia diciendo que los niños los pueden llevar de lunch con orgullo. Quise escuchar la música de los Jornaleros del Norte, y aprender alguna de las lenguas de Oaxaca. Se me enchina la piel de pensar en los modelos a seguir de la comunidad latina migrante LGBTQ. Me dio un escalofrío el teléfono que nadie respondió.

El tema de migración me interesa mucho, y la forma en que Eileen conoce y escribe sobre estas personas logra transmitir no sólo los datos y hechos, sino la parte más humana con la que podemos conectar todos, sin importar dónde estemos.

[Kathy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I received a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

I think Truax made a valiant attempt to capture the stories of Mexican Americans, however, the writing style didn't hold my attention (I felt like I was reading a high school newspaper article rather than narrative non-fiction).