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Just Like Us: The True Story of Four Mexican Girls Coming of Age in America
Written by a gifted journalist, a powerful account of four young Mexican women coming of age in Denver—two of whom have legal documentation, two of whom who don’t— and the challenges they face as they attempt to pursue the American dream.
Just Like Us takes readers on a compelling journey with four young Mexican-American women who have lived in the U.S. since childhood. Exploring not only the women’s personal life stories, this book also delves deep into an American subculture and the complex and controversial politics that surround the issue of immigration.
The story opens on the eve of the girls’ senior prom in Denver, Colorado. All four of the girls have grown up in the United States, all four want to make it into college and succeed, but only two have immigration papers. Meanwhile, after a Mexican immigrant shoots and kills a local police officer, Colorado becomes the place where national argu- ments over immigration rage most fiercely. As the girls’ lives play out against this backdrop of intense debate over whether they have any right to live here, readers will gain remarkable insight into both the power players and the most vulnerable members of society as they grapple with understanding one of the most complicated social issues of our times.
Moving, timely, and passionately told, Just Like Us is a riv- eting story about girlhood, friendship, identity, and survival.
Just Like Us takes readers on a compelling journey with four young Mexican-American women who have lived in the U.S. since childhood. Exploring not only the women’s personal life stories, this book also delves deep into an American subculture and the complex and controversial politics that surround the issue of immigration.
The story opens on the eve of the girls’ senior prom in Denver, Colorado. All four of the girls have grown up in the United States, all four want to make it into college and succeed, but only two have immigration papers. Meanwhile, after a Mexican immigrant shoots and kills a local police officer, Colorado becomes the place where national argu- ments over immigration rage most fiercely. As the girls’ lives play out against this backdrop of intense debate over whether they have any right to live here, readers will gain remarkable insight into both the power players and the most vulnerable members of society as they grapple with understanding one of the most complicated social issues of our times.
Moving, timely, and passionately told, Just Like Us is a riv- eting story about girlhood, friendship, identity, and survival.
387 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 2009
132 people are currently reading
2935 people want to read
About the author
Helen Thorpe
7 books113 followersHelen Thorpe is a journalist and the author of four books of narrative nonfiction. Malcolm Gladwell has said of her work, "Helen Thorpe has taken policy and turned it into literature."
JUST LIKE US (Scribner 2009) followed several DREAMers from adolescence into adulthood. It won the Colorado Book Award and was adapted for the stage. SOLDIER GIRLS (Scribner 2014) recounted the overseas deployments of three female veterans who served in the National Guard, and the challenges they faced on coming home. It was named Time Magazine's number one nonfiction book of the year, and the Boston Globe described it as "utterly absorbing, gorgeously written, and unforgettable." THE NEWCOMERS (2017) followed a classroom filled with refugee, asylum-seeking, and immigrant teens during their first year in America, as they learned English together in one ESL classroom. The New York Times Book Review called it "a delicate and heartbreaking mystery story."
FINDING MOTHERLAND (Must Read Books, 2020) is a self-published digital-only collection of personal essays. Thorpe writes about her parents decision to move to the United States, shares the stories of other immigrants in her neighborhood, and explores how Americans depend upon migrant workers to harvest local food. In the book's final essay, she asks why people who share her own ethnicity -- Irish-Americans -- are often hostile to or fearful of people whose backgrounds are different, and posits this is due to a misplaced "ethnostalgia" for a version of Ireland that no longer exists. The author attempts to facilitate deeper conversations about the intersections of socioeconomic standing, ethnicity, and legal status. Thorpe recorded the essays as an audiobook and released an ebook at the same time.
Born in London to Irish parents, Thorpe grew up as a legal resident of the United States, carrying a green card until she was 21. She is a veteran journalist who formerly worked as a staff writer (either directly on the payroll or via an annual contract) for The New York Observer, The New Yorker's "Talk of the Town" section, and Texas Monthly. She has also produced a radio documentary that has aired on Soundprint. She lives in Denver, Colorado.
JUST LIKE US (Scribner 2009) followed several DREAMers from adolescence into adulthood. It won the Colorado Book Award and was adapted for the stage. SOLDIER GIRLS (Scribner 2014) recounted the overseas deployments of three female veterans who served in the National Guard, and the challenges they faced on coming home. It was named Time Magazine's number one nonfiction book of the year, and the Boston Globe described it as "utterly absorbing, gorgeously written, and unforgettable." THE NEWCOMERS (2017) followed a classroom filled with refugee, asylum-seeking, and immigrant teens during their first year in America, as they learned English together in one ESL classroom. The New York Times Book Review called it "a delicate and heartbreaking mystery story."
FINDING MOTHERLAND (Must Read Books, 2020) is a self-published digital-only collection of personal essays. Thorpe writes about her parents decision to move to the United States, shares the stories of other immigrants in her neighborhood, and explores how Americans depend upon migrant workers to harvest local food. In the book's final essay, she asks why people who share her own ethnicity -- Irish-Americans -- are often hostile to or fearful of people whose backgrounds are different, and posits this is due to a misplaced "ethnostalgia" for a version of Ireland that no longer exists. The author attempts to facilitate deeper conversations about the intersections of socioeconomic standing, ethnicity, and legal status. Thorpe recorded the essays as an audiobook and released an ebook at the same time.
Born in London to Irish parents, Thorpe grew up as a legal resident of the United States, carrying a green card until she was 21. She is a veteran journalist who formerly worked as a staff writer (either directly on the payroll or via an annual contract) for The New York Observer, The New Yorker's "Talk of the Town" section, and Texas Monthly. She has also produced a radio documentary that has aired on Soundprint. She lives in Denver, Colorado.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 415 reviews
September 13, 2017
This book takes the hot button issue of illegal immigration and examines it up close and personal, from every side including inside and out. The author describes the lives and experiences of four girls of Mexican heritage from high school through college; Two lack legal status, the other two have papers (i.e. legal and have path toward citizenship). The book also covers the surrounding political environment of 2005 through 2009 in Denver, Colorado when the illegal immigration issue exploded because of national political reasons and because of a local incident that involved the murder of a policeman by an undocumented Mexican. The author's husband was Mayor at the time, thus he was in the center of local politics which drew the author into the whirlwind of strong polarized feelings on both sides of the issue.
The author pretty well sums up the book and the issue of immigration in the Preface:
"Fortune handed me a messy braid of narratives, spliced together by bizarre connections. In the end, though, this is what immigration is like: inherently messy. The issue bleeds. And we are all implicated."
The issue of immigration status was compounded for these four girls by their being poor and living in an unstable community. Only a third of the girls' high school senior class had attend that same school for three consecutive years. But these particular girls were obviously talented and did well in their high school advanced placement class. They all four were able to get full ride scholarships to college which was certainly an exceptional accomplishment considering their environment. Once in college they generally kept their immigration status a secret from their college friends and professors because they weren't certain who they could trust. This is unfortunate because it kept the girls from fully participating in class discussions about poverty and immigration issues.
Most people would probably consider the author as leaning toward sympathy to the illegals because of the amount of time spent in the book telling the stories of the families that are suffering and divided by the border. She even takes a trip to Mexico to interview the mother of one of the girls. But the author gives attention to both sides of the issue and gives fair representation to the feelings of those who oppose illegal immigration. The author includes an interview with her husband's political opponent, Tom Tancredo, who is an advocate of getting rid of all illegal immigrants. She rode with him in his pickup through the community where he grew up.
" What I wanted to understand was how someone could grow up on these streets and hold Tancredo's opinions. Why would Tancredo and I — both of us from immigrant families — have opposite emotional reactions to the idea of more people coming? Why was my fundamental response one of sympathy, while his appeared to be one of antipathy?"
She followed Tancredo to Iowa to observe his 2008 campaign for the presidency on the Republican ticket. He was successful in pulling the issue of illegal immigration into the campaign. At one point during one of the debates he observed with some justification that, "All I've heard is people trying to out-Tancredo Tancredo!"
Marisela and Yadira (who lack legal status) cannot:
Their friends Clara and Elissa can do all of these things.
Even the girls with legal status were threatened by the possibility of family members being deported because of the lack of legal status.
"This was the essence of what it meant to be illegal: One lived with the possibility of salvation or despair close by, all the time. . . . We typically think of politics as something that occurs on a grand scale, but the more I watch politics unfold, the more I wondered why. Did the idea of a country -- an abstract concept, really -- truly matter more than the sum happiness of all the individuals living within its boundaries? No, I thought. People mattered more than governments. In fact, this country was founded on that very idea.
The author pretty well sums up the book and the issue of immigration in the Preface:
"Fortune handed me a messy braid of narratives, spliced together by bizarre connections. In the end, though, this is what immigration is like: inherently messy. The issue bleeds. And we are all implicated."
The issue of immigration status was compounded for these four girls by their being poor and living in an unstable community. Only a third of the girls' high school senior class had attend that same school for three consecutive years. But these particular girls were obviously talented and did well in their high school advanced placement class. They all four were able to get full ride scholarships to college which was certainly an exceptional accomplishment considering their environment. Once in college they generally kept their immigration status a secret from their college friends and professors because they weren't certain who they could trust. This is unfortunate because it kept the girls from fully participating in class discussions about poverty and immigration issues.
Most people would probably consider the author as leaning toward sympathy to the illegals because of the amount of time spent in the book telling the stories of the families that are suffering and divided by the border. She even takes a trip to Mexico to interview the mother of one of the girls. But the author gives attention to both sides of the issue and gives fair representation to the feelings of those who oppose illegal immigration. The author includes an interview with her husband's political opponent, Tom Tancredo, who is an advocate of getting rid of all illegal immigrants. She rode with him in his pickup through the community where he grew up.
" What I wanted to understand was how someone could grow up on these streets and hold Tancredo's opinions. Why would Tancredo and I — both of us from immigrant families — have opposite emotional reactions to the idea of more people coming? Why was my fundamental response one of sympathy, while his appeared to be one of antipathy?"
She followed Tancredo to Iowa to observe his 2008 campaign for the presidency on the Republican ticket. He was successful in pulling the issue of illegal immigration into the campaign. At one point during one of the debates he observed with some justification that, "All I've heard is people trying to out-Tancredo Tancredo!"
Marisela and Yadira (who lack legal status) cannot:
Qualify for in-state tuition in their home state of Colorado
Obtain a Pell grant or any federal subsidy
Qualify for most private scholarships
Figure out how to pay for college (even community college)
Drive legally
Work legally
Open a bank account, take out a credit card, write a check
Fly on an airplane
Take a bus across state lines
Get a parking permit at their high school
Get into venues that require ID (movies, clubs, bars)
Rent a movie from Blockbuster (it’s the small things).
Their friends Clara and Elissa can do all of these things.
Even the girls with legal status were threatened by the possibility of family members being deported because of the lack of legal status.
"This was the essence of what it meant to be illegal: One lived with the possibility of salvation or despair close by, all the time. . . . We typically think of politics as something that occurs on a grand scale, but the more I watch politics unfold, the more I wondered why. Did the idea of a country -- an abstract concept, really -- truly matter more than the sum happiness of all the individuals living within its boundaries? No, I thought. People mattered more than governments. In fact, this country was founded on that very idea.
August 22, 2018
Overall, I enjoyed this book a lot, though a number of issues bothered me. The author, a journalist, follows the lives of three young Mexican-born women living in Colorado for several years, beginning just before they finish high school. Two of the girls are undocumented, having been brought to the U.S. illegally by their parents at a young age; despite their intelligence and motivation, their immigration status creates myriad barriers to living a normal life. The third has a similar history, but comes from a family that was able to obtain legal status, and the differences in opportunity sometimes put a barrier between her and her friends.
This book is not a representative look at the lives of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. (I would love to read a book like that, but it doesn’t appear that one exists.) These girls are exceptional, able to overcome the barriers that poverty and family circumstances put in their way, perhaps because they have such a strong support system in each other. The author does an excellent job, though, of bringing them to life on the page, getting to know them and their lives and telling an engaging story. I really enjoyed reading the book, found the author’s style readable and compelling, and became invested in the protagonists. The pages flew by.
That said, it has its issues. First, there's the degree to which it is influenced and held back by the career of the author’s husband, then mayor of Denver and currently governor of Colorado. Immigration was a hot topic in Colorado at the time of writing (the book was published in 2009), and Thorpe even writes about her articles being used against her husband by his political opponents. In the same paragraph, she insists that she opposes illegal immigration, largely from seeing how their lack of status limits the girls’ opportunities. Thorpe visits Yadira’s family in their hometown in Mexico and knows very well that however curtailed her opportunities in the U.S., she would have had even less of a chance there, so I don't believe her; either she's not thinking her opinions through or what she actually opposes are the circumstances that make illegal immigration necessary. In another cringeworthy passage, she observes that some critics called then-U.S. Representative Tom Tancredo “a modern-day Nazi, but . . . I did not think he could be so easily dismissed. His critics failed to acknowledge the congressman’s considerable charm,” as illustrated by an anecdote in which he makes a joke. I can’t tell whether she’s honestly stupid enough to believe that charm is inconsistent with hate, or is just struggling vainly to look “balanced.”
Either way, her discomfort with being the mayor’s wife crops up a lot, for a book that isn’t about her – in another unfortunate passage, she compares her life to the girls’ because both are defined by other people’s decisions – and she closes the acknowledgments with the opinion that “In truth, writers and politicians should never marry, so at odds are the two endeavors.” Based on this book I think she is right, and awful as it sounds, the fact that she and her husband divorced before she published another book makes me more likely to read her other work.
Perhaps because of her husband, or perhaps because she was a journalist still feeling out the transition to author, Thorpe chooses to spend much of the book reporting on the immigration debate, rather than contributing to it. Where other authors would supplement the human drama with their own research by interviewing other immigrants, providing relevant statistics, or tracing the history of immigration policy, and ultimately would make an argument or policy proposal of their own, Thorpe just describes the political situation, for instance, by going to the statehouse for a floor debate on an immigration-related bill and quoting what various state representatives have to say on the topic, or by attending yet another Tancredo event. This is not very enlightening – anyone likely to read this book already knows the contours of the immigration debate – and seems to equate immigration opponents’ opinions to the girls’ lives.
Finally, for an author who is clearly sympathetic to the plight of immigrants, Thorpe sure likes to call people “illegals,” with a frequency that made it nails-on-a-chalkboard for me. Marisela and Yadira are collectively “the illegal girls,” a discussion of a court case will say that “the judge ruled in favor of the illegal schoolchildren,” and so on. I wonder what the girls – Marisela in particular is an activist – made of that.
It speaks to the quality of Thorpe's writing, though, that despite all these issues, I’m still interested in reading her other books. She sounds a bit obnoxious as a person, but she can sure tell a story, and does a great job of finding and getting to know people with different perspectives (including the woman whose identity was stolen by one of the girls’ relatives). While I would have made different recommendations had I been Thorpe’s editor, I still recommend this book.
This book is not a representative look at the lives of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. (I would love to read a book like that, but it doesn’t appear that one exists.) These girls are exceptional, able to overcome the barriers that poverty and family circumstances put in their way, perhaps because they have such a strong support system in each other. The author does an excellent job, though, of bringing them to life on the page, getting to know them and their lives and telling an engaging story. I really enjoyed reading the book, found the author’s style readable and compelling, and became invested in the protagonists. The pages flew by.
That said, it has its issues. First, there's the degree to which it is influenced and held back by the career of the author’s husband, then mayor of Denver and currently governor of Colorado. Immigration was a hot topic in Colorado at the time of writing (the book was published in 2009), and Thorpe even writes about her articles being used against her husband by his political opponents. In the same paragraph, she insists that she opposes illegal immigration, largely from seeing how their lack of status limits the girls’ opportunities. Thorpe visits Yadira’s family in their hometown in Mexico and knows very well that however curtailed her opportunities in the U.S., she would have had even less of a chance there, so I don't believe her; either she's not thinking her opinions through or what she actually opposes are the circumstances that make illegal immigration necessary. In another cringeworthy passage, she observes that some critics called then-U.S. Representative Tom Tancredo “a modern-day Nazi, but . . . I did not think he could be so easily dismissed. His critics failed to acknowledge the congressman’s considerable charm,” as illustrated by an anecdote in which he makes a joke. I can’t tell whether she’s honestly stupid enough to believe that charm is inconsistent with hate, or is just struggling vainly to look “balanced.”
Either way, her discomfort with being the mayor’s wife crops up a lot, for a book that isn’t about her – in another unfortunate passage, she compares her life to the girls’ because both are defined by other people’s decisions – and she closes the acknowledgments with the opinion that “In truth, writers and politicians should never marry, so at odds are the two endeavors.” Based on this book I think she is right, and awful as it sounds, the fact that she and her husband divorced before she published another book makes me more likely to read her other work.
Perhaps because of her husband, or perhaps because she was a journalist still feeling out the transition to author, Thorpe chooses to spend much of the book reporting on the immigration debate, rather than contributing to it. Where other authors would supplement the human drama with their own research by interviewing other immigrants, providing relevant statistics, or tracing the history of immigration policy, and ultimately would make an argument or policy proposal of their own, Thorpe just describes the political situation, for instance, by going to the statehouse for a floor debate on an immigration-related bill and quoting what various state representatives have to say on the topic, or by attending yet another Tancredo event. This is not very enlightening – anyone likely to read this book already knows the contours of the immigration debate – and seems to equate immigration opponents’ opinions to the girls’ lives.
Finally, for an author who is clearly sympathetic to the plight of immigrants, Thorpe sure likes to call people “illegals,” with a frequency that made it nails-on-a-chalkboard for me. Marisela and Yadira are collectively “the illegal girls,” a discussion of a court case will say that “the judge ruled in favor of the illegal schoolchildren,” and so on. I wonder what the girls – Marisela in particular is an activist – made of that.
It speaks to the quality of Thorpe's writing, though, that despite all these issues, I’m still interested in reading her other books. She sounds a bit obnoxious as a person, but she can sure tell a story, and does a great job of finding and getting to know people with different perspectives (including the woman whose identity was stolen by one of the girls’ relatives). While I would have made different recommendations had I been Thorpe’s editor, I still recommend this book.
December 11, 2024
This was not the book I thought it was going to be. Based its synopsis, I was hoping for a dive into Mexican culture and lifestyles from a female perspective. While some of these elements are included, the come across as secondary to the political messaging regarding US immigration policy.
The book was written over ten years ago, but the issues associated with immigration still exist and have intensified over the years. Within Just Like Us immigrants are characterized by conservative politicians as potential security risks and financial burdens to public services. Presently, those labels have degraded into derogatory characterizations that are mostly comprised of lies.
The main message in Just Like Us aligns with my own observations on the subject. America practically calls Latin American and Mexican immigrants across its borders in every way except for an actual verbalization. They heed the call and willingly work the jobs that Americans will not do but still need doing. Yet this country requires them to become petty criminals in the the process.
Politicians then exploit their criminality as if it were a freely made choice against lawfulness when in fact, their crimes were forced upon them by America's need for labor and their own need for survival. Americans might as well be holing a gun to the heads migrants while ordering them to rob a bank. We then arrest the migrants while we walk free (with the cash in hand).
From a macro perspective, there is a lot of interesting material in Just Like Us. However, the four young women that Thorpe writes about serve mostly as a delivery system for immigration issues. What’s very much lacking in Just Like Us is The True Story of Four Mexican Girls Coming of Age in America.
The book was written over ten years ago, but the issues associated with immigration still exist and have intensified over the years. Within Just Like Us immigrants are characterized by conservative politicians as potential security risks and financial burdens to public services. Presently, those labels have degraded into derogatory characterizations that are mostly comprised of lies.
The main message in Just Like Us aligns with my own observations on the subject. America practically calls Latin American and Mexican immigrants across its borders in every way except for an actual verbalization. They heed the call and willingly work the jobs that Americans will not do but still need doing. Yet this country requires them to become petty criminals in the the process.
Politicians then exploit their criminality as if it were a freely made choice against lawfulness when in fact, their crimes were forced upon them by America's need for labor and their own need for survival. Americans might as well be holing a gun to the heads migrants while ordering them to rob a bank. We then arrest the migrants while we walk free (with the cash in hand).
From a macro perspective, there is a lot of interesting material in Just Like Us. However, the four young women that Thorpe writes about serve mostly as a delivery system for immigration issues. What’s very much lacking in Just Like Us is The True Story of Four Mexican Girls Coming of Age in America.
April 7, 2010
In “Just Like Us,” Helen Thorpe attacks the complicated issue of illegal immigration from a variety of angles. Primarily, she focuses on the lives of four motivated young girls of Mexican background – two legal (one U.S.-born, one carrying a bona fide green card), two illegal – struggling to finish college in an attempt to better their situations. The two illegal girls came over the border from Mexico with their parents at a young age, and are reaping the consequences in terms of inability to get a legal driver’s license, board a plane, or get hired in above-board settings. Thorpe widens her lens, though, to include an illegal alien who commits a horrific crime (and the highly publicized court case’s influence on people’s views) as well as a senator who speaks out vituperatively against illegal immigration and makes some legitimate points. This almost saves the book from being slanted.
I say almost, because it’s arguably emotionally manipulative to follow these girls’ lives in detail so that the reader becomes attached to them and roots for them, and to then cover the opposing viewpoints in a far more intellectualized, impersonal, and ultimately dry way. I can’t fairly blame Thorpe for this. The negative effects of illegal immigration are more nebulously felt, and finding subjects who experience this personally on a daily basis would probably be an insurmountable challenge. The result, though, is a book offering poignant descriptions of two girls who appear to be unfairly victimized by the system on the one hand, vs. a senator and his cohorts who mostly come across as angry bullies. While Thorpe does make a valiant effort to give the other side a fair shake, the sections explaining their positions were far more technical and didactic as opposed to the more relatable narrative sections describing the girls’ day-to-day struggles.
I don’t want to sound too critical, as this book had a lot of strong points. While I wouldn’t quite call it a page-turner, the girls’ stories were interesting and the passages explaining various sides of the issue were clearly written. Thorpe really gives you a lot to think about, especially if you’re descended from immigrants (like many U.S. citizens, I assume) who came to America seeking a better life and/or freedom from persecution. At what point do we say, America is for us and not for them? And what if someone had said that in your grandfather’s time? Additionally, what about the economic effects of eliminating the labor provided by illegal immigrants? Let’s be honest – in our struggling economy, do we really want costs to skyrocket and productivity to diminish because cheap labor is impossible to find? What about the crime rate for people who can’t attend college or find work because they have no papers? Does citizenship truly need to be such a difficult process? Who are we helping when we make it so?
Although it was a bit of an effort at times, this book was certainly readable and interesting for the most part and gave me a lot to think about.
I say almost, because it’s arguably emotionally manipulative to follow these girls’ lives in detail so that the reader becomes attached to them and roots for them, and to then cover the opposing viewpoints in a far more intellectualized, impersonal, and ultimately dry way. I can’t fairly blame Thorpe for this. The negative effects of illegal immigration are more nebulously felt, and finding subjects who experience this personally on a daily basis would probably be an insurmountable challenge. The result, though, is a book offering poignant descriptions of two girls who appear to be unfairly victimized by the system on the one hand, vs. a senator and his cohorts who mostly come across as angry bullies. While Thorpe does make a valiant effort to give the other side a fair shake, the sections explaining their positions were far more technical and didactic as opposed to the more relatable narrative sections describing the girls’ day-to-day struggles.
I don’t want to sound too critical, as this book had a lot of strong points. While I wouldn’t quite call it a page-turner, the girls’ stories were interesting and the passages explaining various sides of the issue were clearly written. Thorpe really gives you a lot to think about, especially if you’re descended from immigrants (like many U.S. citizens, I assume) who came to America seeking a better life and/or freedom from persecution. At what point do we say, America is for us and not for them? And what if someone had said that in your grandfather’s time? Additionally, what about the economic effects of eliminating the labor provided by illegal immigrants? Let’s be honest – in our struggling economy, do we really want costs to skyrocket and productivity to diminish because cheap labor is impossible to find? What about the crime rate for people who can’t attend college or find work because they have no papers? Does citizenship truly need to be such a difficult process? Who are we helping when we make it so?
Although it was a bit of an effort at times, this book was certainly readable and interesting for the most part and gave me a lot to think about.
November 21, 2013
Sucks. Poorly written. If repetition is the award of the day this author gets top honors. I am only half way through this book, trudging my way through it.....and to be honest, it makes me less sympathetic,and less interested in illegal aliens due to the poor writing this is. It is a bookclub choice,and we will be discussing this on the upcoming Friday. I will have to refrain from saying much ;I hate it so much. I doubt I will seriously change my mind when I finish this. It's a road through hell and back just trying to read it......
Makes me think about that commercial with the egg in the frying pan.... it's fried,and they say "This is your brain on drugs, any questions?"
I say....."This is my brain on JUST LIKE US, any questions???"
I wonder if Goodreads will remove this review????
Ok, I finished it, because I am a firm believer to give a book a chance, when it is a bookclub pick. I didn't change my mind. This book could have 98% of it edited out. Stick to writing articles for periodicals Helen, please! Too long,and such a bore.
Makes me think about that commercial with the egg in the frying pan.... it's fried,and they say "This is your brain on drugs, any questions?"
I say....."This is my brain on JUST LIKE US, any questions???"
I wonder if Goodreads will remove this review????
Ok, I finished it, because I am a firm believer to give a book a chance, when it is a bookclub pick. I didn't change my mind. This book could have 98% of it edited out. Stick to writing articles for periodicals Helen, please! Too long,and such a bore.
May 14, 2011
I was pleasantly drawn into this true story of the four (really, three) girls, struggling from high school to college graduation here in Denver. As illegal immigrants, they face what so many of my students face, and their plight makes the struggle that I faced, as a teacher of those students while they were in middle school, that much more real. Of course most illegal students will see their lives as educational dead ends; it's amazing that these students did not. Illegal immigrants, especially children brought by their parents, live in a limbo of dread and hope constantly. Thorpe did an excellent job of weaving together the girls' lives; the story of cop Donnie Young, killed by an illegal immigrant; and the national conversation regarding immigration. Well worth a read. I probably would have give it a 4 had I just enjoyed the writing a little more; Thorpe is very much a journalist, and her writing is at times dry and a little too simplistically narrative for me. Oh -- it was awesome to read a book so thoroughly set in Denver. Cool.
November 19, 2013
This book did make me aware of a lot of the complexities of immigration issues and some of the politics behind those issues. That being said, this book was absolutely painful to read. Had it not been something we are going to discuss in book club, I am not sure I would have finished the book. Clearly, being a journalist does not necessarily mean that will make a person a good author.
I found early parts of the book difficult to follow, as the timeline was not linear. The author chose to insert information about the political climate within the narrative about the four girls. I found this style to be distracting and tedious. The parts about the girls contained way too much information about hair, make up, and clothes. By the time I got to the end of the book I just wanted to be done with it before I felt the need to gouge my eyes out or beat my head against a wall.
I found early parts of the book difficult to follow, as the timeline was not linear. The author chose to insert information about the political climate within the narrative about the four girls. I found this style to be distracting and tedious. The parts about the girls contained way too much information about hair, make up, and clothes. By the time I got to the end of the book I just wanted to be done with it before I felt the need to gouge my eyes out or beat my head against a wall.
February 27, 2010
When I hear a book is 'heartbreaking' I am usually pretty leery of it -- suspect it is overly sentimental or maudlin. But that word sometimes applies to this deeply engrossing account of four Latina teenagers growing up in Denver. The insight into adolescence in contemporary Latina society alone might be an interesting story, but the kicker is that they have very different immigration status, and that makes huge differences in what these four bright ambitious girls can do. If you do not have legal status, you cannot get a driver's license. You can't get on an airplane, because you don't have proper id. You aren't eligible for financial aid to go to college. And on and on.
But the book is their story, not a screed, and hope and despair are both part of that story. While a critical part of the book reinforces my belief that borders and immigration rules are fundamentally violations of human rights, it is a great American coming-of-age story, told with humor, empathy, and honesty. Whatever your opinion of immigration is, this is a significant and interesting view of an important part of contemporary America, great storytelling, and a fount of information about new American cultures and our society's evolution.
But the book is their story, not a screed, and hope and despair are both part of that story. While a critical part of the book reinforces my belief that borders and immigration rules are fundamentally violations of human rights, it is a great American coming-of-age story, told with humor, empathy, and honesty. Whatever your opinion of immigration is, this is a significant and interesting view of an important part of contemporary America, great storytelling, and a fount of information about new American cultures and our society's evolution.
November 19, 2011
Helen Thorpe does a masterful job of capturing the complexities of the immigration debate in America today. As a Denver native, a DPS high school graduate (the same school as the girls in the book in fact) and a University of Denver graduate, I saw many of my friends in this book. I was in my last year at DU when these girls started their freshmen year and while I don't know them personally, I know many people that have had to struggle with the same issues of identity and uncertainty. I know of several of my former classmates and friends that are undocumented and the difficulties that this still presents in their lives. Helen captures these girls as they are; human, vulnerable, and imperfect. She also does a great job of exposing the complexities of the opposition towards illegal immigration, even managing to humanize Tom Tancredo. Everyone with in interest in the issues of illegal immigration and equity in education should read this book.
May 22, 2011
First off: don't listen to it. I've never listened to the narrator, Paula Christensen, before. She did a good job with the girls voices but was TERRIBLE with the men. Every single one sounded like they were related to JFK, especially Hickenlooper and Tancredo.
The story is very interesting and full of layers. It chronicles the journey of four Mexican young women (two with paperwork & two without, i.e. illegal)from their senior year of high school to the end of college. Thorpe also talks about other issues surrounding illegal immigration not directly related to the girls. Interesting because it is all local & I remember these stories from the newspaper but not relevant to the story of the young women.
Illegal immigration is such a multi-faceted subject. It's difficult to find a workable solution. There is part of me which feels the young people brought to America by their parents before the age of 8 should have access to in-state tuition but then I when I hear about how GIs don't qualify for in-state tuition and they ARE Americans I think perhaps we should leave the system as is. An interesting fact - there are quite a few states that do allow in-state tuition for illegal minors: California, Kansas, Utah, New Mexico and others I can't remember (and of course there are residency and other requirements they must fulfill). I was shocked about Kansas & Utah.
I don't have any experience with illegal immigration but ET (my other half) did immigrate to America. He came here on a tourist visa, then married (first wife), applied for a temporary work permit, received his green card, divorced, applied for citizenship and is now a citizen. Of course the circumstances are very different from the women documented in the book. As well the socio-economic level of ET's family is vastly different than the Mexican women.
I read this for book club and probably wouldn't have picked it up otherwise. And we had an interesting discussion. It would have been very cool though to brainstorm possible solutions and write a summary to our senators. I feel this topic is a federal issue & should be addressed thusly.
I wish Thorpe would have spent more time detailing the lives of the young women she followed and less on local politics. I also expected her to offer some thoughts on possible solutions. She really keeps her distance, just observes, which disappointed me. And I very much didn't like how she projected HER values onto the girls, especially Marisela. This really irritated me. **Spoiler**
Marisela becomes pregnant her senior year of college and Thorpe is aghast that she is having the baby. Thorpe implies in her commentary that Marisela will lose the value of her education and her "career options" if she has the baby. I believe your education is never wasted on raising a child. No one can take your knowledge away from you and you can pass it on to many even if you don't have an acceptable career as defined by society.
The story is very interesting and full of layers. It chronicles the journey of four Mexican young women (two with paperwork & two without, i.e. illegal)from their senior year of high school to the end of college. Thorpe also talks about other issues surrounding illegal immigration not directly related to the girls. Interesting because it is all local & I remember these stories from the newspaper but not relevant to the story of the young women.
Illegal immigration is such a multi-faceted subject. It's difficult to find a workable solution. There is part of me which feels the young people brought to America by their parents before the age of 8 should have access to in-state tuition but then I when I hear about how GIs don't qualify for in-state tuition and they ARE Americans I think perhaps we should leave the system as is. An interesting fact - there are quite a few states that do allow in-state tuition for illegal minors: California, Kansas, Utah, New Mexico and others I can't remember (and of course there are residency and other requirements they must fulfill). I was shocked about Kansas & Utah.
I don't have any experience with illegal immigration but ET (my other half) did immigrate to America. He came here on a tourist visa, then married (first wife), applied for a temporary work permit, received his green card, divorced, applied for citizenship and is now a citizen. Of course the circumstances are very different from the women documented in the book. As well the socio-economic level of ET's family is vastly different than the Mexican women.
I read this for book club and probably wouldn't have picked it up otherwise. And we had an interesting discussion. It would have been very cool though to brainstorm possible solutions and write a summary to our senators. I feel this topic is a federal issue & should be addressed thusly.
I wish Thorpe would have spent more time detailing the lives of the young women she followed and less on local politics. I also expected her to offer some thoughts on possible solutions. She really keeps her distance, just observes, which disappointed me. And I very much didn't like how she projected HER values onto the girls, especially Marisela. This really irritated me. **Spoiler**
Marisela becomes pregnant her senior year of college and Thorpe is aghast that she is having the baby. Thorpe implies in her commentary that Marisela will lose the value of her education and her "career options" if she has the baby. I believe your education is never wasted on raising a child. No one can take your knowledge away from you and you can pass it on to many even if you don't have an acceptable career as defined by society.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 30, 2019
Just like us was insightful. I related to the girls because I went to those night clubs in Denver. I was friends with girls in the same situation. I had a daughter with a Mexican immigrant whose student visa expired - who was deported to a country that he had never been to in his life due to horrific crimes. I believe everyone should read this book because even though i had lived through going to ICE jail, speaking with lawyers I truly can say I didn’t ever think about those wanting to go to college, those wanting to provide for their children. I saw the experience of someone who was a threat to Americans. My daughters Mexican side despite being illegal always hid everything so well- even I hardly saw the struggle. We lived in a home where citizens dominated and the few who lacked documents only showed frustrations to the kids who were citizens. Why didn’t they take school more seriously why were they going down the same criminal paths as their illegal siblings. This book showed me the other side of the coin. The side where they want the American dream. Challenging read but I recommend.
April 9, 2010
I liked the biography aspect of the book, and the author's attempt to help us understand what it feels like to be a Mexican immigrant (documented and not)in America today, but I finished feeling unsatisfied. First, it struck me as highly improbable that all the girls received full scholarships to excellent schools. I think that the author's involvement in their lives must have caused some of that to happen (good for the girls, not so realistic for most immigrant kids). The author tried very hard not to present or push a particular political agenda, but in doing so she lost the opportunity to lay out an array potential solutions to the problem from different angles. Even the Tancredo interviews didn't really spell out what it is that Tancredo would like to happen with illegal immigrants, although I'm sure he has very specific ideas. So although I know more about the lives of these four girls, I didn't learn much about how the situation could be improved, or how the average citizen might affect change. Perhaps that's the author's point - that there is no decent solution. But that conclusion is depressing and unsatisfying.
November 5, 2021
Just like us. Indeed. They are just like us. It's one thing to view a major and divisive political issue in the bold strokes of political discourse, and it is quite another to view it up close and personal from the point of view of innocent kids. Kids who are…just like us.
Written by Helen Thorpe, this book follows the lives of four Mexican teenage girls living in Denver, Colorado. One was born a U.S. citizen. One became a legal resident. Two were undocumented, and since their parents had entered the United States illegally when their daughters were very young children, there was no path for these two to acquire the documentation needed to do almost anything in life. The four girls had been best friends since middle school, sharing everything from confidences to clothes. The story begins in 2004 when they are seniors in high school and continues for the next five years. It is a story of hope—all four are super smart, all four are accepted to college and even gain financing (a real trick for the undocumented), and all four graduate from college. But life intervenes. And sometimes it's ugly, harrowing, and tragic. One girl's family essentially dissolves, leaving her terribly alone. There is a high-profile murder of a police officer by an undocumented 19-year-old man that turns Denver upside down. And there are the usual trials and tribulations of any college student—classes, finals, boyfriends, and school activities.
This book personalizes the contentious issue of immigration as these four smart, ambitious, and fun-loving girls come of age in a land that wants to reject two of them even though they have so much to offer. It's a hard, personal look at a hard, impersonal dispute.
Most of all, this excellent book is imminently readable. It's nonfiction, but I couldn't put it down because I cared so much about these four young women and precarious lives they were living. If you want to educate yourself and understand immigration from a personal point of view, read it.
Written by Helen Thorpe, this book follows the lives of four Mexican teenage girls living in Denver, Colorado. One was born a U.S. citizen. One became a legal resident. Two were undocumented, and since their parents had entered the United States illegally when their daughters were very young children, there was no path for these two to acquire the documentation needed to do almost anything in life. The four girls had been best friends since middle school, sharing everything from confidences to clothes. The story begins in 2004 when they are seniors in high school and continues for the next five years. It is a story of hope—all four are super smart, all four are accepted to college and even gain financing (a real trick for the undocumented), and all four graduate from college. But life intervenes. And sometimes it's ugly, harrowing, and tragic. One girl's family essentially dissolves, leaving her terribly alone. There is a high-profile murder of a police officer by an undocumented 19-year-old man that turns Denver upside down. And there are the usual trials and tribulations of any college student—classes, finals, boyfriends, and school activities.
This book personalizes the contentious issue of immigration as these four smart, ambitious, and fun-loving girls come of age in a land that wants to reject two of them even though they have so much to offer. It's a hard, personal look at a hard, impersonal dispute.
Most of all, this excellent book is imminently readable. It's nonfiction, but I couldn't put it down because I cared so much about these four young women and precarious lives they were living. If you want to educate yourself and understand immigration from a personal point of view, read it.
September 28, 2025
2.5⭐️ This book dragged on and on. Way too many sub plots. Overall a book in need of editing and focus.
October 6, 2015
In Just Like Us, Thorpe follows a small group of Mexican(-American) girls through their last years of high school in the U.S. and into college. Ostensibly, there are four girls in the focus—two of whom are documented and two of whom are not—but in practical terms, one girl drops off the radar when her path diverges somewhat from that of the other three.
To complicate the story, though, Thorpe pulls back to look at immigration reform—mostly in Colorado, where the girls are based, but also in the U.S. more generally. Thorpe is unusually positioned to do this, as her husband is a politician: relatively early on in her research, he ran for and became governor of Colorado (a position he still, as of October 2015, holds). Consequently, Thorpe had a more vested interest than some in the events of the book.
It's a lot of book. My preference would have been for it to focus more tightly on the girls and their families and to spend less time on the politics. Too many recountings of political meetings for my tastes; the book felt a bit bloated to me in places. Still, Thorpe does a decent job of presenting both sides of the matter and (usually) addressing her own biases.
Some interesting points:
-A lot of undocumented immigrants are indeed paying taxes, though they aren't supposed to receive the benefits of those taxes: Her parents purchased a fake Social Security card and fake alien registration card for her for $80 on the black market. The numbers on the cards were made up. Marisela paid state and federal taxes, even though she would never collect Social Security payments—she was padding the fund for America's legal retirees (39).
-Thorpe talks about a 'wealthy Republican donor' (124) who provides college scholarships for undocumented immigrants. Fascinating juxtaposition of his understanding of that need against him (and his wife) not realising, when they invite students and their families to a dinner party, that many of the families do not speak English and cannot communicate without an interpreter (125).
-Thorpe is generally sympathetic to the girls (which stands to reason, especially given how much time she must have spent with them), but she occasionally comes out with things like this: Yet buying fake documents was something done by illegal aliens—the very category from which she sought to escape—and I saw her purchase as a defeat for her American side. To me, the cards marked the first time I saw Yadira act like an illegal immigrant (162).
-Irony: Meanwhile, migrant workers began avoiding Colorado because of all the media hoopla. As a result, the fall harvest was plagued by labor shortages so acute that fruits and vegetables rotted in orchards and fields...soon the Colorado Department of Corrections started busing prison inmates in to take the place of the missing migrant farmworkers (267). So what does this tell us? Well, a) that undocumented immigrants are already entrenched in society (shocker, right?), and b) that the solution to the loss of workers who have broken laws is to...bring in workers who have broken laws.
-I had always thought of Yadira as a first-generation immigrant, and technically that was accurate, because she had been born in Mexico—but she was actually the third generation of her family to live and work in the United States (290). And then, later, of Marisela's family: Years had passed, and nothing had changed—now Rosalinda was about to learn what it was like to come of age without a driver's license, without a checking account, without the ability to rent a movie from Blockbuster...in every essential way, Rosalinda's prospects remained exactly the same as Marisela's had been when we met. The same story was beginning all over again (349).
To complicate the story, though, Thorpe pulls back to look at immigration reform—mostly in Colorado, where the girls are based, but also in the U.S. more generally. Thorpe is unusually positioned to do this, as her husband is a politician: relatively early on in her research, he ran for and became governor of Colorado (a position he still, as of October 2015, holds). Consequently, Thorpe had a more vested interest than some in the events of the book.
It's a lot of book. My preference would have been for it to focus more tightly on the girls and their families and to spend less time on the politics. Too many recountings of political meetings for my tastes; the book felt a bit bloated to me in places. Still, Thorpe does a decent job of presenting both sides of the matter and (usually) addressing her own biases.
Some interesting points:
-A lot of undocumented immigrants are indeed paying taxes, though they aren't supposed to receive the benefits of those taxes: Her parents purchased a fake Social Security card and fake alien registration card for her for $80 on the black market. The numbers on the cards were made up. Marisela paid state and federal taxes, even though she would never collect Social Security payments—she was padding the fund for America's legal retirees (39).
-Thorpe talks about a 'wealthy Republican donor' (124) who provides college scholarships for undocumented immigrants. Fascinating juxtaposition of his understanding of that need against him (and his wife) not realising, when they invite students and their families to a dinner party, that many of the families do not speak English and cannot communicate without an interpreter (125).
-Thorpe is generally sympathetic to the girls (which stands to reason, especially given how much time she must have spent with them), but she occasionally comes out with things like this: Yet buying fake documents was something done by illegal aliens—the very category from which she sought to escape—and I saw her purchase as a defeat for her American side. To me, the cards marked the first time I saw Yadira act like an illegal immigrant (162).
-Irony: Meanwhile, migrant workers began avoiding Colorado because of all the media hoopla. As a result, the fall harvest was plagued by labor shortages so acute that fruits and vegetables rotted in orchards and fields...soon the Colorado Department of Corrections started busing prison inmates in to take the place of the missing migrant farmworkers (267). So what does this tell us? Well, a) that undocumented immigrants are already entrenched in society (shocker, right?), and b) that the solution to the loss of workers who have broken laws is to...bring in workers who have broken laws.
-I had always thought of Yadira as a first-generation immigrant, and technically that was accurate, because she had been born in Mexico—but she was actually the third generation of her family to live and work in the United States (290). And then, later, of Marisela's family: Years had passed, and nothing had changed—now Rosalinda was about to learn what it was like to come of age without a driver's license, without a checking account, without the ability to rent a movie from Blockbuster...in every essential way, Rosalinda's prospects remained exactly the same as Marisela's had been when we met. The same story was beginning all over again (349).
September 26, 2012
At my mother’s urging, I finally read Just Like Us: The True Story of Four Mexican Girls Coming of Age in America, by Helen Thorpe (who just happens to be married to Mayor Hickenlooper of Denver). According to my mother, this is her top non-fiction pick of 2009, and it’s easy to see why. The writing is good, the story is compelling, and it’s on a thought-provoking topic.
Thorpe spends several years in close contact with four Mexican girls living in the Denver area. Two of the girls are legally in the U.S., while the other two were brought across the border by their parents when they were little. We meet them as their senior year in high school comes to an end and they struggle to make plans for the future. The two girls without papers, both A students with numerous AP classes under their belts, manage to find benefactors to help pay for their college education (without papers, you are not eligible for Pell grants).
But there is so much more to their story. We learn about their parents’ struggles, how some of their siblings were born in the U.S. and therefore are citizens. We see how they keep their illegal status a secret from most, and have to find ways to explain why they can’t do certain things, like study abroad. They worry about money and their families’ survival. All throughout, they get good grades at a challenging university and hope desperately for political change (such as the DREAM Act) that will allow them to become citizens and fully accepted members of society.
Thorpe weaves local Denver politics, as well as nationwide discussions on immigration with the stories of these four young women. As the mayor of Denver’s wife, she has access to many other politicians, and as a journalist, she gains access to many places where these discussions occur. Although she tries to look at the many sides within the issue, her personal thoughts on illegal immigration do come through.
I agree with my mother in that this is certainly a very important book to read and an informative one at that. Many of us are ill-informed on what it really means to be illegal in this country, and this book helps to show several sides of it in a deeply personal way.
Thorpe spends several years in close contact with four Mexican girls living in the Denver area. Two of the girls are legally in the U.S., while the other two were brought across the border by their parents when they were little. We meet them as their senior year in high school comes to an end and they struggle to make plans for the future. The two girls without papers, both A students with numerous AP classes under their belts, manage to find benefactors to help pay for their college education (without papers, you are not eligible for Pell grants).
But there is so much more to their story. We learn about their parents’ struggles, how some of their siblings were born in the U.S. and therefore are citizens. We see how they keep their illegal status a secret from most, and have to find ways to explain why they can’t do certain things, like study abroad. They worry about money and their families’ survival. All throughout, they get good grades at a challenging university and hope desperately for political change (such as the DREAM Act) that will allow them to become citizens and fully accepted members of society.
Thorpe weaves local Denver politics, as well as nationwide discussions on immigration with the stories of these four young women. As the mayor of Denver’s wife, she has access to many other politicians, and as a journalist, she gains access to many places where these discussions occur. Although she tries to look at the many sides within the issue, her personal thoughts on illegal immigration do come through.
I agree with my mother in that this is certainly a very important book to read and an informative one at that. Many of us are ill-informed on what it really means to be illegal in this country, and this book helps to show several sides of it in a deeply personal way.
April 7, 2019
A story about DREAMers pre enactment of the Act: This book is written by the Ex-wife of the current presidential hopeful candidate John Hickenlooper, who certainly can stand on her own without this reference. It has interesting information on the candidate.
It is a very insightful book documenting the final Highschool and then college years of four female students of Mexican background 2 legalized, 2 illegal (due to no fault of their own, being brought into the country by family members seeking a better life) and the additional obstacles that arise for the latter two.
Colorado is an excellent example for the conflicting views on immigration in our country. Especially after just having heard this morning that Trump announced that "our Country is full" non-fiction like this book should be added to school curricula.
It is a very insightful book documenting the final Highschool and then college years of four female students of Mexican background 2 legalized, 2 illegal (due to no fault of their own, being brought into the country by family members seeking a better life) and the additional obstacles that arise for the latter two.
Colorado is an excellent example for the conflicting views on immigration in our country. Especially after just having heard this morning that Trump announced that "our Country is full" non-fiction like this book should be added to school curricula.
July 3, 2010
My awareness of the immigration issue had not, before I read this book, extended to what it must be like for the teenage children of undocumented workers. These young people, like two of the four girls profiled here, are prevented by their illegal status from getting driver's licenses, obtaining health insurance, traveling by air, applying for college scholarships or qualifying for in-state tuition or work-study programs, and ultimately, after they are out of college, from getting good jobs for which they are otherwise highly qualified. Their families move frequently, depending on low-wage work under the shadow of possible deportation. The mother of one of the girls goes back to Mexico voluntarily, leaving her children behind, to avoid being sentenced for an identity theft she committed in order to get a job at Goodwill.
The girls are likable, smart, highly educated, and motivated, yet continually run up against the system. The fact that they have lived all their lives in the U.S. doesn't matter. Their two friends, just like them except that they were born here, face none of these restrictions.
My interest was increased by the fact that the setting is Denver, where I live, and the author is the wife of Denver's popular mayor, John Hickenlooper, now running for governor. Just Like Us puts human faces on immigration, and is one more aid to understanding this extremely complex issue.
The girls are likable, smart, highly educated, and motivated, yet continually run up against the system. The fact that they have lived all their lives in the U.S. doesn't matter. Their two friends, just like them except that they were born here, face none of these restrictions.
My interest was increased by the fact that the setting is Denver, where I live, and the author is the wife of Denver's popular mayor, John Hickenlooper, now running for governor. Just Like Us puts human faces on immigration, and is one more aid to understanding this extremely complex issue.
March 4, 2019
This book was written in the early 2000's. For that reason it gets the 5 star treatment. It was before both Obama and 45. It is so very eerie. It is the immigration and build the wall fiasco writ small in the state of Colorado. It is 4 girls grown into adulthood from Mexico. 2 with legal residence paper and 2 without. The author happens to be the wife of the then Governor of the state. It is truly amazing that the debates and positions so loudly voiced by the current resident of the White house were voiced practically verbatim 15 or more years ago in this state by local politicians. The author does a great job of showing the growth of both pro and anti immigrant groups. But the thrust of the book follows the lives of the 4 girls as they hurdle and sometimes fall before the obstacles of "illegal" immigration. All 4 somehow manage to attend college, one becoming an immigrant rights advocate. Others, with papers manage to see a path to citizenship, others are still in limbo, exposed to deportation at every turn.
The life stories are amazing and heartbreaking. The origination of the great immigration debate is history retold here. (Whatever happened to the original immigrant demonizer, Republican Rep. Tancredo from Colorado. The original 'they're rapist and murderers invading the country. Build a wall, seal the borders".) I should have known better than to think that 45 would say anything original.
The life stories are amazing and heartbreaking. The origination of the great immigration debate is history retold here. (Whatever happened to the original immigrant demonizer, Republican Rep. Tancredo from Colorado. The original 'they're rapist and murderers invading the country. Build a wall, seal the borders".) I should have known better than to think that 45 would say anything original.
June 15, 2011
I really liked this book, I wasn't sure what to expect other than what the title suggested, but based on the title I thought the girls were the only subject of the book. I was surprised to find out that the whole legal issue of immigration, immigration policy, and a horrific tragedy involving a Denver police officer were also central to the whole book.
During the middle of the book I got somewhat bored of all the legislative type of stuff. I felt that the book focused at times too much on that aspect of the issue and went into too much detail, however, I see how it was necessary as it was the reality that the characters in the book were living at the time.
Being from Denver, it was great to read a book that took place here in Denver. Overall I liked the book and would definately recommend it for all walks of life.
Another good thing about the book is that it presents immigration from a few different angles and so you get to look at it as how an illegal immigrant would look at it, from a business owners perspective, from a conservative politicians perspective and then you get to form your own opinion. I really got to thinking about my own feelings and where I personally would weigh in on this issue that is such a hot topic not only in Denver, but throughout the rest of the country as well.
During the middle of the book I got somewhat bored of all the legislative type of stuff. I felt that the book focused at times too much on that aspect of the issue and went into too much detail, however, I see how it was necessary as it was the reality that the characters in the book were living at the time.
Being from Denver, it was great to read a book that took place here in Denver. Overall I liked the book and would definately recommend it for all walks of life.
Another good thing about the book is that it presents immigration from a few different angles and so you get to look at it as how an illegal immigrant would look at it, from a business owners perspective, from a conservative politicians perspective and then you get to form your own opinion. I really got to thinking about my own feelings and where I personally would weigh in on this issue that is such a hot topic not only in Denver, but throughout the rest of the country as well.
October 22, 2011
Thorpe's book offers a broad, yet deep, perspective on the immigration issue through the personal stories of four Mexican girls: two documented, two undocumented. The details about the four girls' lives are illuminating, frustrating, compelling. As one of the blurbs on the back of the book says, the immigration debate would be vastly different if more people were to read this book or ones like it.
Thorpe focuses a lot on the two girls who are undocumented: Marisela and Yadira. They defy the stereotype in that they face so many obstacles, yet because of their spirit and support system, they are able to accomplish much. They are intelligent and hard-working: they embody the spirit of the American Dream. Yet they are denied access to that dream because of circumstances of their childhood. Because one was brought to the United States illegally as an infant, she is undocumented, yet her younger siblings are citizens.
Thorpe (who is John Hickenlooper's wife) weaves a broader perspective on the immigration debate around the girls' stories. She details the attempts (or lack thereof) of Congress to address the immigration system, focusing on Tom Tancredo's contributions to that. And she describes how the girls' lives, and the debate in general, was affected by the 2005 shooting of Denver officer Donnie Young by an undocumented Mexican man.
Great book.
Thorpe focuses a lot on the two girls who are undocumented: Marisela and Yadira. They defy the stereotype in that they face so many obstacles, yet because of their spirit and support system, they are able to accomplish much. They are intelligent and hard-working: they embody the spirit of the American Dream. Yet they are denied access to that dream because of circumstances of their childhood. Because one was brought to the United States illegally as an infant, she is undocumented, yet her younger siblings are citizens.
Thorpe (who is John Hickenlooper's wife) weaves a broader perspective on the immigration debate around the girls' stories. She details the attempts (or lack thereof) of Congress to address the immigration system, focusing on Tom Tancredo's contributions to that. And she describes how the girls' lives, and the debate in general, was affected by the 2005 shooting of Denver officer Donnie Young by an undocumented Mexican man.
Great book.
February 21, 2016
This book was an eye-opener for me. I have never given much thought to how life is different for people who came to the United States illegally and are, therefore, undocumented. I have not been aware of such impediments as not being able to travel by plane, or carrying a fake ID, or not getting timely medical care. It seems especially unfair that young people who were brought here by their parents and grew up in the United States have to live this way.
The book spotlights four girls and their extended families and additionally describes the murder of a Denver policeman by an undocumented alien, the capture of the escaped murderer, the trial, and how this development affected the undocumented people in the state of Colorado.
The book describes an incredible toll that the undocumented existence imposes not only on individuals but also on couples and families.
The author, a journalist whose husband at the time of the narrative was the mayor of Denver, wrote the book based on personal observations in Denver and Mexico where she traveled to meet with the mother of one of the profiled girls. The news writer training of the author is a big factor in favor of this book. This book is not a fictitious account but a detailed report by an investigative journalist.
The book spotlights four girls and their extended families and additionally describes the murder of a Denver policeman by an undocumented alien, the capture of the escaped murderer, the trial, and how this development affected the undocumented people in the state of Colorado.
The book describes an incredible toll that the undocumented existence imposes not only on individuals but also on couples and families.
The author, a journalist whose husband at the time of the narrative was the mayor of Denver, wrote the book based on personal observations in Denver and Mexico where she traveled to meet with the mother of one of the profiled girls. The news writer training of the author is a big factor in favor of this book. This book is not a fictitious account but a detailed report by an investigative journalist.
April 25, 2012
Marisela, Yadira, Clara, and Elissa met author Helen Thorpe while they were in high school in Denver, Colorado. Each of the girls came from families who had emigrated from Mexico. In addition, each had at least one parent who had entered the U.S. without a visa. The girls had lived almost their entire lives in the U.S. Two of them had acquired legal documentation, while two had not. Ms. Thorpe developed a close relationship with these bright, ambitious young women as they approached graduation and sought admission to college. Thorpe gives the reader an intimate view of the challenges faced by the girls as they aspired to reach their goals in life. Thorpe's unbiased account gave me a new understanding of and appreciation for the challenges faced by people who have no legal status the the U.S. She dispels some of the assumptions held by many Americans about this group of people. Thorpe, who is married to Colorado's governor, presents a view of the immigration dilemma from a political perspective as well as from the perspective of the individuals whose lives are affected by this unresolved issue. I would highly recommend this book to young adults and adults.
January 11, 2013
There are a few books like Nickel and Dimed: On Not Getting By in America and A Hope in the Unseen: An American Odyssey from the Inner City to the Ivy League that I feel everyone in the United States needs to read to understand the political and social complexities and challenges of this country. Just Like Us is one of those books. Helen Thorpe follows the lives of four Mexican born high school girls for five years; two of them are documented, two undocumented. She writes about their lives in the context of immigration politics which affect not only the girls but the author very directly - her husband is a prominent Colorado political leader (currently the governor, then the mayor of Denver where the girls live). I am eagerly anticipating a discussion of the book with a group of UGA students at my house next month for their "Honors Book Club" - when i was invited to lead a discussion on a book of my choice, this one was at the top of the list. What will they think of the stories of these young women who are their age?
December 1, 2017
Just Like Us was enjoyable, engaging narrative nonfiction. The stories the author told about these four young women were fascinating. Her first-person experiences lent the stories an immediacy I appreciated. Although she clearly had great sympathy for the young women she described, I couldn’t tell you her exact views on illegal immigration. She didn’t vilify Republican leaders who took tough stances on immigration, but it was clear she didn’t agree with them. She was judgmental when one of the young women got a fake ID so she could keep her job. That made wonder if her outsider perspective influenced her commentary in ways I didn’t notice as well. As far as I could tell though, she generally presented a balanced view without pushing her own beliefs on the reader. Either way, I feel like I learned a lot from this book while having fun reading it.
This review first published on Doing Dewey
This review first published on Doing Dewey
July 28, 2018
Not a terrible book but only two stars because I would not recommend it. Although the author is a reporter, she seemed unable to distinguish what information is relevant. The subtitle is “The True Story of Four Mexican Girls ...”. But in an effort to be a fair and balanced reporter, she covers too much that isn’t directly relevant to these girls. A cop is shot by an immigrant- and like a good reporter, she tells us the life story of the cop- which has nothing to do with the girls. One was in the club at the time, but she didn’t see it and it apparently had no direct impact on her. Although there were raids on some employers afterwards- none of the girls families were affected. Tom Tancredo’s story might be interesting, but it is again not really directly part of these girls’ stories.
Although she felt she had incredible access to the girls, they often don’t tell her what is going on their lives. So later I felt that she had only skimmed the surfaces of their lives.
And I don’t care what every single person (even the minor ones) is wearing each time we encounter them.
Although she felt she had incredible access to the girls, they often don’t tell her what is going on their lives. So later I felt that she had only skimmed the surfaces of their lives.
And I don’t care what every single person (even the minor ones) is wearing each time we encounter them.
August 13, 2010
My friend Sarah recommended this book to me. It was quite good and easy to read. The protagonists of the book were wonderful. You were definitely rooting for them the whole time. It also offers a fascinating look into the practical day to day difficulties that exist for those without status in the U.S. Though, I found the author, the Mayor's wife, to be irritating. I especially got annoyed with her at the end of the book when she made these distinctions between Americans and Mexicans that were borderline offensive. She seemed to imply that Mexican women don't get educated and have babies whereas Americans are ambitious and put education before children/families. It was a little bit unfortunate. But otherwise a good read. Thanks Sarah!
Also, I'm trying to recalibrate my rating system a little (because I like everything) so this book got three stars when in the past I might have given it four.
Also, I'm trying to recalibrate my rating system a little (because I like everything) so this book got three stars when in the past I might have given it four.
April 6, 2016
1.5 Stars
Although meticulously researched, I found that I was slogging through this book. Thorpe followed four young Mexican women from their senior year in high school through their undergraduate careers in Colorado. Although their stories were very interesting, the whole reading experience is weighed down by excessive and unnecessary detail lessening the impact. She is reluctant to leave out a single detail while painting a portrait of the larger political climate concerning undocumented and illegal status in the United States. This is a more complicated issue, without any clear resolution, than I previously thought. However, what frustrated me most is that Thorpe seemed to distrust that her readers could come to that conclusion themselves. Just Like US needed extensive editing. A manuscript half the size would have contributed to a tighter, more focused, and compelling narrative.
Although meticulously researched, I found that I was slogging through this book. Thorpe followed four young Mexican women from their senior year in high school through their undergraduate careers in Colorado. Although their stories were very interesting, the whole reading experience is weighed down by excessive and unnecessary detail lessening the impact. She is reluctant to leave out a single detail while painting a portrait of the larger political climate concerning undocumented and illegal status in the United States. This is a more complicated issue, without any clear resolution, than I previously thought. However, what frustrated me most is that Thorpe seemed to distrust that her readers could come to that conclusion themselves. Just Like US needed extensive editing. A manuscript half the size would have contributed to a tighter, more focused, and compelling narrative.
July 24, 2011
I loved this book and found it so interesting. Author Thorpe set out to write about the American experience of four Mexican high school girls living in Denver, two of whom were legal and two were here illegally. Each girl was high achieving and wanted to attend college.
As the author followed these girls, she herself got pulled into the story. Her husband became mayor of Denver (Hickenlooper). A Denver cop was murdered by an illegal. Tom Tancredo ran for US president. Although the author did show her bias on the subject, she was very fair and presented all sides of the argument for and against illegals aliens. She discusses deportation, granting amnesty, the DREAM act, and documentation papers. All of the issues directly affect each of the girls in different ways and we can see how government policy plays out in real life.
As the author followed these girls, she herself got pulled into the story. Her husband became mayor of Denver (Hickenlooper). A Denver cop was murdered by an illegal. Tom Tancredo ran for US president. Although the author did show her bias on the subject, she was very fair and presented all sides of the argument for and against illegals aliens. She discusses deportation, granting amnesty, the DREAM act, and documentation papers. All of the issues directly affect each of the girls in different ways and we can see how government policy plays out in real life.
September 4, 2012
OMG, I hated this book. And I was the one who recommended it for our book club. I was hoping it would open my mind to the intricacies of the plight of illegal aliens. It was supposed to be written in a non-bias format, but I found the author, Helen Thorpe – the wife of the democratic mayor of Denver, John Hickenlooper – was anything but. We get to see our broken legal system at work, how illegal aliens get assistance to go to college – in essence taking the spots of our own American students. She did explore how some families worked the system, while others tried to live by the rules. It did underscore the fact that there is a huge problem, but we knew that.
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