We thankfully no longer have someone in the White House categorizing entire swaths of people as “illegals,” but Trump’s 2016 election – and the overwhelming support of his views in the 2020 election – means that a narrative like The Undocumented Americans is a timely necessity.
The Undocumented Americans is tough to categorize, something that author Karla Cornejo Villavicencio seems wholly aware of. As she guides readers through several American cities – from Miami to Flint, Staten Island to rural Ohio – she offers not just factual insight into what is happening to undocumented people across the nation, but also a view on the effects that their stories are having on her, a DACA recipient and daughter of undocumented immigrants herself. She describes, upon meeting the subjects of her stories, how impossible it is for her to stand by with the objectivity of a journalist: she buys lunches and offers car rides; she even, over time, invites the children of a man who has sought sanctuary in a local church to enter her life in a way that blurs the lines between friend and parent. She stops short at lending money, distancing some of the people she has encountered; she experiences panic and anxiety over the plight of her subjects, emotions that she is not shy about sharing with the reader.
This book lends a voice to the voiceless, and for this reason alone, it should be on every American’s to-read list. But beyond that, it is a phenomenally human story whose hybrid form reflects the messiness of the scenario. It banishes the stereotype of the “good immigrant,” showcasing a swath of nuanced, flawed, hopeful humanity. Villavicencio’s blending of her own narrative and those of the people whose stories she has set out to tell adds even more richness and complexity.