Somewhere We Are Human
Authentic Voices on Migration, Survival, and New Beginnings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
""Wide-ranging yet consistently affecting, these pieces offer a crucial and inspired survey of the immigrant experience in America."" –Publishers Weekly
"[These contributions] touch on so many different facets of the immigrant experience that readers will find much to ponder... [and] experience how creative writing enriches our understanding of each other and our lives." –Booklist
Introduction by Pulitzer Prize–winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen
A unique collection of 41 groundbreaking essays, poems, and artwork by migrants, refugees and Dreamers—including award-winning writers, artists, and activists—that illuminate what it is like living undocumented today.
In the overheated debate about immigration, we often lose sight of the humanity at the heart of this complex issue. The immigrants and refugees living precariously in the United States are mothers and fathers, children, neighbors, and friends. Individuals propelled by hope and fear, they gamble their lives on the promise of America, yet their voices are rarely heard.
This anthology of essays, poetry, and art seeks to shift the immigration debate—now shaped by rancorous stereotypes and xenophobia—towards one rooted in humanity and justice. Through their storytelling and art, the contributors to this thought-provoking book remind us that they are human still. Transcending their current immigration status, they offer nuanced portraits of their existence before and after migration, the factors behind their choices, the pain of leaving their homeland and beginning anew in a strange country, and their collective hunger for a future not defined by borders.
Created entirely by undocumented or formerly undocumented migrants, Somewhere We Are Human is a journey of memory and yearning from people newly arrived to America, those who have been here for decades, and those who have ultimately chosen to leave or were deported. Touching on themes of race, class, gender, nationality, sexuality, politics, and parenthood, Somewhere We Are Human reveals how joy, hope, mourning, and perseverance can take root in the toughest soil and bloom in the harshest conditions.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"The paradox of immigration and xenophobia that exists at the heart of America" is explored in this heartrending anthology edited by novelist Grande (A Ballad of Love and Glory) and poet Guiñansaca (Nostalgia and Borders). In the evocative poem "Caravan," Kaveh Bassiri reflects on the aspirations of those who join immigrant caravans to the U.S.: "They are coming as refugees, resident aliens, dreamers,/ Leafing out of the undocumented past/ To translate themselves." In "Guilty of Being Lucky," Lucy Rodriguez-Hanley discusses the "trauma of separation" endured by migrant mothers and their children, including those who were separated at the U.S.-Mexico border as part of the Trump administration's "Zero Tolerance" policy. Elsewhere, Emilia Fiallo describes how, at age 15, she began to reproach her undocumented father for bringing his family from Ecuador to the U.S. "without a plan": "The times I couldn't travel, I blamed him. The car I couldn't drive, I blamed him. I aimed all my undocumented emotional bullets at my father. Because I could not hurt this country, I hurt him." Wide-ranging yet consistently affecting, these pieces offer a crucial and inspired survey of the immigrant experience in America.
