The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio- 2020 -

 

The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio- 2020 - 

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • One of the first undocumented immigrants to graduate from Harvard reveals the hidden lives of her fellow undocumented Americans in this deeply personal and groundbreaking portrait of a nation.

FINALIST FOR THE NBCC JOHN LEONARD AWARD • NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW, NPR, THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY, BOOK RIOT, LIBRARY JOURNAL.

According to recent data about 10.5 million undocumented migrants lived in the United States in 2021, which constitutes roughly 3% of the total US population . Despite undocumented migrants’ impact on US society and its economy (especially in the agriculture, construction, and service work sectors and by paying billions of dollars in taxes each year), their voices rarely receive a platform due to a mix of the need for protective invisibility as well as xenophobia and racism.

 Villavícencío begin with a gripping vignette set during the night of the 2016 US presidential election. The author powerfully declares that she “understood that night would be her end, but she would not be ushered to an internment camp in sweatpants” . The election of Donald Trump to the US presidency propelled Villavícencío to profile migrants in ways that would reflect her family who are more than either “sufferers or dreamers” . Stressing her collaborators’ precarity, the author elucidates her methodology for collecting others’ stories: she changed all names in the book, did not make voice recordings of conversations, and destroyed all notes and transcriptions . The end result is a work that skillfully mixes the genres of political testimonio, biography, ethnography, and memoir. Having lived as an undocumented migrant herself and not identifying as a journalist set Villavícencío apart from other authors, as she cannot help but get deeply involved and “try to solve shit the way an immigrant’s kids try to solve shit for their parents because these people are all my parents” . She is open about her own mental health issues.

The Undocumented Americans was a very revelatory work for me.  I had no idea Undocumented people, subject to deportation, were on the front lines in the clean up efforts at the World Trade Center after the 9/11 attack. In the author's account of the life of Undocumented immigrants living on Staten Island, I learned how vulnerable they are to exploitation by unscrupulous employers and how many were highly educated.  I was fascinated to learn that oatmeal, a staple of my diet, is considered as a sacred food by Vodou healers,  Villavicencio explains why undocumented Hatians spractice Vodou beliefs as part of an anti-colonial heritage.

In a chapter devoted to the water crisis in Flint, Michigan the author details how years of neglect and outright lies caused the many undocumented immigrants to be forced to drink water made toxic by lead pipes,  

Villavicencio focuses a lot on the heavy use of alcohol  by undocumented immigrants as a means of escape.  As a highly educated person many immigrants were leary about talking to her.  It was very gratifying to see how she developed close personal relationship among undocumented immigrant women.

Karla Cornejo Villavicencio is the author of the National Book Award finalist The Undocumented Americans. Her work, which focuses on race, culture, and immigration, has appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Vogue, Elle, n+1, The New Inquiry, Interview, and on NPR.