Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen
Written and Narrated By: Jose Antonio Vargas
Length: 5 hrs and 45 mins
Good enough but by no MEANS is this the experience of most Undocumented individuals…
I know, and DUDE! I saw the title, I saw the name, and I automatically asSUMEd Vargas would be telling me about the experiences for Hispanic individuals. My bad, and of COURSE this would be the single time in a long time that I’d NOT read the Publisher’s Summary.
Nope, Jose Antonio Vargas is an undocumented individual from the Philippines (Apparently the fact that Jose doesn’t have an accent on the “e” is a dead giveaway—I’ve just been schooled… )
It opens with the harried day of a young child, no time for a shower, to change clothes, just hauled off by his mother to the airport. It’s now Now NOW that he must go to America, and she’ll be close behind, a month or two, certainly no more than a year. Young Jose is off to live with his grandparents, and tho’ he struggles to fit in at his school, America soon becomes his home, somewhere he feels he belongs, is a citizen, contributes, excels.
Until Oh My GOSH—a jaunt to the Department of Public Safety to get a driver’s license makes him horrifically aware that his green card? Well, it’s a fake. Cue dramatic music now, and Jose learns the startling truth that his grandparents knew, and they’d arranged it all: Jose would come to America, would work to fit in, and then he’d marry an American girl and gain citizenship that way.
Cue dramatic music again cuz Jose is gay, and Jose is a trifle headstrong, and Jose has no intention of following through with this. As a matter of fact, the quiet unassuming life he’s supposed to be living? Uhm, nope. Cuz he’s all about taking advantage of opportunities to shine through his writing, through journalism, through internships, through a driver’s license gotten in havey-cavey ways. MAJOR rift with grandpa, and boy is his family worried about the limelight he’s living in.
Dear America is an obviously well-written piece, and Vargas’s writing chops are in full glory. No, I haven’t anything to say on that account. And I TOTALLY own that I went into this expecting Hispanic Heritage, and was thus disabused of any such notions and might be a trifle disappointed just because of that.
But I’m just a tad concerned cuz Jose’s experiences are NOTHING like what the general population of undocumented citizens would experience. Vargas went to high-calibre schools, and he had a PLETHORA of wealthy white Americans getting his back and pulling strings. Yup, it kiiiinda sounds like he’s name dropping, but I’m not on that particular bandwagon cuz, really, he’s just stating the facts. But those facts show that his is NOT the experience of the many many undocumented individuals currently living in the shadows, a knock on the door, a car pulled over, away from being discovered.
After outing himself in an article, he becomes someone who canNOT be legally hired, and since then he’s become a voice as one of the most famous Illegal Aliens in the country. But really? Is he really? He’s not a DACA young person, and he almost gets snagged after traveling to Texas for an engagement because of this. But the spotlight on him, the people in his corner get him out of a holding facility, like, SOON. He does NOT have the experiences that others have of being held there, being left to stew and rot. So no, once again, I’ve gotta tell ya: This book offers nothing but Vargas getting by where others become ground down by the system.
As an audiobook, Vargas does well enough narrating his own words. He has a young sounding voice tho, so it came as somewhat of a surprise to listen to his experiences as time marched on; he’s been around for quite some time, ain’t a kid by a long shot. Once I got over this disconnect, however, I appreciated his performance. And I found his native tongue fascinating. It’s not like anything I’ve ever heard before!
Still, when all is said and done; Yessss, I feel like a complete Goofball for picking this for Hispanic Heritage Month; Boy do I stand corrected. -BUT- I feel even MORE like a Goofball for offering this as a good example of experiences suffered by those who work here, have taxes taken from their wages, were just hoping for better lives for their loved ones.
My Bad.
Worth a Listen for the way with words. But Jeez, may we all have sooo many people having our backs!
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