Undocumented Motherhood: Conversations on Love, Trauma, and Border Crossing

by Elizabeth Farfán-Santos

2023 Honorable Mention, Outstanding Book Award NACCS Tejas Foco Award for Non-Fiction, National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies

An intimate portrayal of the hardships faced by an undocumented family navigating the medical and educational systems in the United States.

Claudia Garcia crossed the border because her toddler, Natalia, could not hear. Leaving behind everything she knew in Mexico, Claudia recounts the terror of migrating alone with her toddler and the incredible challenges she faced advocating for her daughter’s health in the United States. When she arrived in Texas, Claudia discovered that being undocumented would mean more than just an immigration status—it would be a way of living, of mothering, and of being discarded by even those institutions we count on to care. Elizabeth Farfán-Santos spent five years with Claudia. As she listened to Claudia’s experiences, she recalled her own mother’s story, another life molded by migration, the US-Mexico border, and the quest for a healthy future on either side. Witnessing Claudia’s struggles with doctors and teachers, we see how the education and medical systems enforce undocumented status and perpetuate disability. At one point, in the midst of advocating for her daughter, Claudia suddenly finds herself struck by debilitating pain. Claudia is lifted up by her comadres, sent to the doctor, and reminded why she must care for herself. A braided narrative that speaks to the power of stories for creating connection, this book reveals what remains undocumented in the motherhood of Mexican women who find themselves making impossible decisions and multiple sacrifices as they build a future for their families.

Genres: Nonfiction, Ethnography, Gender

176 pages, Paperback

Published October 18, 2022

Reviews

[cinnamon · Rating 4 out of 5]

“On November 4,2021, Nati García got her cochlear implants, and Beatriz Chávez got a new purse.”

CRIEDDDD omg motherhood is already complex. Being undocumented on top of that is even more complex. I give my heart and peace to mothers who are undocumented and have no one to turn to.

[M · Rating 5 out of 5]

my heart was broken and put together multiple times.

this is such a beautiful book, and such a beautiful way to un-categorize and un-label and experience, letting the testimonio speak for itself.

i cannot even imagine what border crossing like that is like. and how everything around claudia causes sickness, how things were left unheard, how she wasn't raped that night.

and at last, how motherhood came beyond opportunity. she would take her daughter if it came to it. and how beatriz will now carry a purse and always be reminded that nati got her surgery. my eyes burned when i read that last line.

so powerful to read this as a real life story, and i do wonder what happens now, what claudia think when she reads this.

i wish the author could put less pressure on what nati will become. it's great that she has so much hope for nati, but i wish there's wasn't pressure to 'pay it back'.

and because it's a real life story, it's heartbreaking to think that not every beattiz gets her purse, not every nati gets her surgery, not every claudia survives the border. like her relative didn't...

most people might not now..

i am so much more sensitive to the mexico US border because of this book -- in a way that calls attention to the testimonios we don't know.

i loooove this type of writing. to tell someone's story. to record the unlabeled. the untold. to say it's ethnography except it's not. i am amazed. i want to write like that.

[Bianca Robles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Elizabeth Farfán-Santos beautifully captures a mother and her daughter’s true immigration story from Mexico and what it is like to navigate the U.S. as an undocumented mother with a child who has a disability. As the interviewer and author, she weaves her own family’s immigration story into the book as appropriate to provide perspectives both from a mother and as a daughter. It’s so clear to the reader the caring relationship Farfán-Santos facilitated with Claudia, our main narrator, throughout these interviews by how she demonstrates her reverence and appreciation for Claudia’s vulnerability.

As a Latina speech language pathologist who grew up in and works in Houston with undocumented children and families, and specifically deaf children and their families all the time, this book is now one of my favorites. As I read Claudia and Nati’s story, I thought of so many of the families I work with every day. The obstacles they experience are so similar. Even with differences in our healthcare system now in 2025, such as undocumented families’ ability to obtain Medicaid for their disabled children, the difficulty accessing and navigating the medical system and education system for disabled or chronically ill children continues. Claudia is fierce, and Nati is incredibly blessed to have her fighting with her.

Thank you for sharing Claudia and Nati’s story. There is work to do.

[Colleen Spencer · Rating 2 out of 5]

It is a book that presents a different perspective. However, the author is very clearly one sided on her view. She only interviews one lady who is in the US illegally. I feel more interviews from others would have made it more valid. It is not a well-written book in spite of its content flaws.

[Evelyn Perez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book!

[Riley Davoren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heartbreaking and moving. The afterword made me cry.

[L · Rating 4 out of 5]

非常仔細的人類誌，描述在美無證墨裔媽媽的困境。不過譯者把人蛇和蛇頭混淆了，有點奇怪。