Dear America Lib/E: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen
Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas, called "the most famous undocumented immigrant in America," tackles one of the defining issues of our time in this explosive and deeply personal call to arms.
"This is not a book about the politics of immigration. This book--at it's core--is not about immigration at all. This book is about homelessness, not in a traditional sense, but in the unsettled, unmoored psychological state that undocumented immigrants like myself find ourselves in. This book is about lying and being forced to lie to get by; about passing as an American and as a contributing citizen; about families, keeping them together, and having to make new ones when you can't. This book is about constantly hiding from the government and, in the process, hiding from ourselves. This book is about what it means to not have a home.
After 25 years of living illegally in a country that does not consider me one of its own, this book is the closest thing I have to freedom."
--Jose Antonio Vargas, from Dear America
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Jose Antonio Vargas is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Emmy-nominated filmmaker, and Tony-nominated producer. His work has appeared internationally in Time magazine, as well as in the San Francisco Chronicle, The New Yorker, and the Washington Post. In 2014, he received the Freedom to Write Award from PEN Center USA. A leading voice for the human rights of immigrants, he founded the non-profit media and culture organization Define American, named one of the World's Most Innovative Companies by Fast Company. An elementary school named after him will open in his hometown of Mountain View, California in 2019.
This is a book for our times. Read it, feel it at a gut level, and go beyond the noise of hate politics.
-- "Amy Tan, #1 NewYork Times bestselling author"Vargas' eloquent and emotional book...needs to be heard by all Americans, whether they are Americans by birth or by choice.
-- "Sheryl Sandberg, #1 New York Times bestselling author"The pressing question that emerges from these pages...[is] whether we, as a nation, deserve the bravery and generosity of spirit that he offers us with an open heart and mind.
-- "Michelle Alexander, New York Times bestselling author"With openness and informed approachability, award-winning journalist Vargas recounts his complex life as an undocumented Filipino-American...resulting in a listen that is brief but impactful, trenchant yet inviting.
-- "American Library Association (audio review)"Vargas...considers what it means to be American and how it feels when you are considered alien in your own home.
-- "Library Journal"[Vargas] personifies the courage and patriotism of the immigrants who now face a cruel deportation dragnet from an administration blind to their vast contributions to our country.
-- "Nancy Pelosi, minority leader, US House of Representatives, praise for the author"
