Dear America audiobook

A solid memoir by Jose Antonio Vargas, a prominent journalist and undocumented Filipino immigrant. The first part of this book serves as its most powerful, when Vargas shares what it felt like as a child to learn about his status and question his entire sense of belonging and security. He communicates the psychological homelessness of living as an undocumented immigrant so well, the confusion and fear and distrust. I also appreciate how he wrote about encountering the ignorance of white people and others toward immigration, both within journalism and outside of it. One quote I loved a lot:"Migration is the most natural thing people do, the root of how civilizations, nation-states, and countries were established. The difference, however, is that when white people move, then and now, it's seen as courageous and necessary, celebrated in history books. Yet when people of color move, legally or illegally, the migration itself is subjected to question of legality. Is it a crime? Will they assimilate? When will they stop? There are an estimated 258 million migrants around the world, and many of us are migrating to countries that previously colonized and imperialized us. We have a human right to move, and governments should serve that right, not limit it. The unprecedented movement of people - what some call a 'global migration crisis' - is, in reality, a natural progression of history. Yes, we are here because we believe in the promise of the American Dream - the search for a better life, the challenge of dreaming big. But we are also here because you were there - the cost of American imperialism and globalization, the impact of economic policies and political decisions."I felt like Vargas put up emotional barriers in this memoir though. I get that he has the right to disclose however much he wants to in his book. However, especially in the later sections, I wanted more introspection about his emotions and what contributed to them. For example, in a brief chapter he reveals his difficulty with intimacy, yet he does not really interrogate how he feels about that trouble with intimacy, if he will take steps to address that difficulty with intimacy (e.g., therapy), etc. Maybe I wanted this because of my background as a therapist and because I'm still processing a huge crush I had/have on a really accomplished emotionally unavailable queer son of immigrants writer, idk lol. Also, when Vargas reflects on the criticism he has received from people on the left, I appreciated how he shared his feelings of hurt, yet I thought he maybe could have more to explicitly own up to the privileges he possessed. I did wonder, throughout reading this memoir, how much Vargas himself may have internalized the model minority myth and the burdensome expectations of American meritocracy.Overall, a good read I would recommend to those who want to learn more about immigration, a huge issue in the United States, from a more personal perspective. A well-written and courageous memoir.

This book shows why we should not judge illegal immigrants, especially the children that were forced to come by their parents. "Jose Antonio Vargas was only twelve years old when he was brought to the United States from the Philippines to live with his grandparents. He didn’t know it, but he was sent to the U.S. illegally.When he applied for a learner’s permit, he learned the truth, and he spent the next almost twenty years keeping his immigration status a secret. Hiding in plain sight, he was writing for some of the most prestigious news organizations in the country. Only after publicly admitting his undocumented status—risking his career and personal safety—was Vargas able to live his truth.This book asks questions including, How do you define who is an American? How do we decide who gets to be a citizen? What happens to those who enter the U.S. without documentation?By telling his personal story and presenting facts without easy answers, Jose Antonio Vargas sheds light on an issue that couldn’t be more relevant."_____________________________________________________________I read this book for the Goodreads' Book Club Diversity in All Forms! Here is the link: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

An Awesome Book! A Total Winner!! Without a doubt, I thoroughly enjoyed the memoir, "Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen" by Jose Antonio Vargas. It is truly a splendid book that helped change the way I look the status of immigrants in the USA. The main character/author, Jose is also the narrator. His writing is at times brutal and joyful but always honest to the core. The author weaves a myriad of feeling into this tale. Feelings like sorrow, apprehension, joy, fear expectations and doubt intoevery chapter. In my ministry, I have come to know a few undocumented. So, at times I genuinely cried and at other sections laughed. This book is very realistic. I highly recommend this book to all especially if you are a native born US citizen.

Would recommend this book to everyone for insight into our current immigration crisis. Vargas's name was vaguely familiar to me as a journalist when I first saw notices about this book's upcoming publication. He "outed" himself as undocumented several years ago through a dramatic NYT article in 2011; he wrote a cover story on undocumented immigrants (including himself) in 2012. But book isn't about legalities or politics, it is Vargas's own story. His mother put him on a plane as a child to join his grandparents (naturalized American citizens) in California & that's where he grew up. He did not realize until he applied for a driver's license that the paperwork provided by his grandfather was fake. He was able to confide in a few school teachers/administrators who helped him to college and from there he was able to launch a very successful career. But after entering the country without documentation, it seems there's no practical way to get back on a path to legal residency and citizenship (that's something I did not understand before ). After more than 2/3rds of his life in America, Vargas is still in a state of "homelessness", even though he considers America his country. Book short and personal but does a good job of conveying the confusion and misperceptions about the current immigration policies in this country.

Finished this one in two days! I couldn’t put it down. It was as if my mother were reading to me about her life, supporting all people. She truly did, marching with Cesar Chavez, working on farms, so did I. We were never “too good” as ‘white people!’This book though; amazing, horrific and brought me to tears.We must do something to end ALL FORMS of discrimination!This week I’ve spoken with several guests on my show about mental health & illness. While reading #Dearamerica I couldn’t help but ponder the psychological affects on children that are being told their illegal, after being brought to America. They too are seeking the chance for a better life. Are we dehumanizing people? How can a person be “illegal” anyway?.My mother raised me to respect everyone, despite their religion, nationality, skin color, gender, sexual orientation or psychological state. Everyone should be treated with respect, decency and kindness. I looked up immigrant, it states: im·mi·grantˈiməɡrənt/Submitnouna person who comes to live permanently in a foreign country.Everyone coming to this country immigrated. 70%+ of Americans are immigrants! Why are we treating people that call the USA their home, so poorly? Jose is innocent, he came here through no choice of his own. He is an upstanding citizen, and contributes to our economy and has made a positive contribution to the world of journalism.. #humanize #advocate #undocumented#redefineamerica #joseantoniovargas #journalism#pulitzer #mindfulness #filipinoamerican#borders

Utilizing his own experience, Vargas imbues discussions of displacement, residency, and identity with the utmost humanity. Most poignant are his reflections on his own belonging. “Trading a private life that was in limbo for a public life that is still in limbo...” (184) Vargas is most insightful when he’s looking inward and sharing his emotions of loss, losing, and being lost in his own American story.“Dear America” questions as much as it tries to answer, but importantly it’s a necessary narrative that speaks to the dysphoria that is part of a larger immigrant experience. It’s a small portait of experience but one that fits into a larger, more contextual mosaic. These stories are imperative for rhetoric, statistics, and laws surrounding immigration because it grounds them with the lives and families they affect. Vargas, amongst others, is a testament to the many ways of being American.

Thank goodness for people like Jose, willing to openly share their stories and shake the system that tries to hold them back with the fear of persecution and deportation. He happens to be a gay man as well as undocumented so he references having two different coming-out moments, first when he declared the truth of his sexuality despite his Catholic family, and then again, after more than 20 years in America, he admitted his status to all of his closest friends and colleagues, no longer willing to hide. As a traveling reporter especially this choice clearly took a huge amount of bravery, but he gallantly wanted to be the voice for the millions of others in America who have to be quiet and take what they can get as they try to make the best life they can for their families in the states and/or back home. He broke the law as an adult, yes, manipulating the system in a way that allowed him to get the bare minimum identification that was required to work, but as a child who was sent on a plane alone from the Philippines to the US, he had no choice and, scared of the stigma and hate persistently unloaded onto undocumented people stealing jobs, he felt like he was doing the only thing he could do once he discovered as a teen that his papers had been faked to get him on that plane in the first place. He has my utmost respect for putting together everything in this book and schooling us all on how much work the system has to do to be better for ALL citizens.

RTC

Jose Antonio Vargas's story of "coming out" as undocumented is heartbreaking not only because of his personal experience but because of our collective unwillingness to find solutions that will help not only him but millions of others who have come here seeking opportunity and sometimes escaping unspeakable horror. I learned a lot from this book about how the immigration system actually works--or doesn't. We, as a society, don't do well with shades-of-gray issues, or problems with no easy solutions, or issues that reach back into our history. I'm often tempted, as a second-/third-generation immigrant myself, to throw up my hands and say "it's not my fault!" Technically, that may be true, but in fact I am a citizen now, and that privilege demands that I acknowledge responsibility for fixing a broken system. I appreciated Vargas's tremendous courage and honesty in sharing all the details of his story, even when they weren't pretty. It made for compelling reading and an even stronger desire on my part to be part of a solution. My first step will be to check out his non-profit, Define American.

The best--and most harrowing--parts of this book were the most personal bits. Vargas writes matter-of-factly about life as an undocumented citizen, and it's all the ordinary things that undocumented people simply cannot take for granted that drives home how deep and far-reaching and life-threatening this country's problems with immigration are. It brings into stark relief just how terrifying and complicated life can be for people who live, work, and raise families in this country, but who the government refuses to protect or serve (despite being happy to take their money). Vargas's account is raw, honest, and nuanced. It's a powerful piece of writing about a deeply unjust system, and the cost that system has on ordinary lives.Highly recommended, and the audiobook, which Vargas narrates, is fantastic.

4.5

Every single person in America should read this book. Jose Antonio Vargas tells his story, his experiences, his how, and his why of being an undocumented citizen of the United States.If you want to change opinions, if you want to help people understand other cultures, other lives, the best way is through stories and personal connections. Obviously, I don't know Vargas personally but I have taught many students who have had similar experiences. What would you do if you suddenly found out at 16 that you had no legal documentation for the country that you had come to call home? What would you do if, despite what the news media likes to expel, there is no real "path" for citizenship or a "line" to get into without completely destroying the entire life you have lived or waiting in a broken land for decades? What would you do if your home wasn't safe and your children were dying? "Inside the cell I came to the conclusion that we do not have a broken immigration system. We don't. What we're doing - waving a "Keep Out!" flag at the Mexican border while holding up a Help Wanted sign a hundred yards in - is deliberate. Spending billions building fences and walls, locking people up like livestock, deporting people to keep the people we don't want out, tearing families apart, breaking spirits - all of that serves a purpose. People are forced to lie, people spend years if not decades passing in some kind of purgatory. And step by step, this immigration system is set up to do exactly what it does.Dear America, is this what you really want? Do you even know what is happening in your name?I don't know what else you want from us.I don't know what else you need us to do."

If nothing else this remarkable and well written memoir serve to put a human face on the immigration issue in our nation. It is a quick and insightful read, that caused me to pause along the way and think hard about what it means to be an citizen of America. We are after all save for the Native Americans, and African Americans--- a country made up of immigrants. Some of have been fortunate enough to have our path to citizenship given to us by nature of our birth doing nothing to earn it. our path to citizenship given to us by our ancestors. The book served for me to frame the issues in a human way and it was enough for me. I will hope to learn more