A Good Provider is One Who Leaves by Jason DeParle

A GOOD PROVIDER IS ONE WHO LEAVES by Jason DeParle is a non-fiction work that deals with “One Family and Migration in the 21st Century.” DeParle, a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, builds on his decades long acquaintance with Tita Comodas to tell her family’s story of life in the Philippines and assimilation by her daughter (Rosalie) and grandchildren in the United States.  He was able to immerse himself in their experience – recently (beginning in 2012) following shifts at work, observing the children in classrooms and having nearly daily contact for a few years. DeParle says, “[the family’s] experiences across three generations can only be understood as part of a broader epoch of migration that is transforming much of the world.” 

In an accessible and engaging manner, he splits the book into two parts: There and Here, combining anecdotes about Rosalie’s becoming a nurse in the Philippines (and working in Saudi Arabia and UAE before moving to Texas) with immigration facts and context. Roughly fifteen percent of DeParle’s book is devoted to extensive notes and a helpful index. The facts that he relates in the prologue alone are pretty amazing: consider that one in four children in the United States is an immigrant or a child of one; or that there are 258 million migrants around the world, assuming an equal size (if not bigger) population back home that they support, this group of half a billion would together form the world’s third largest country. DeParle writes, “my own light bulb moment came in learning that remittances – the sums migrants send home – are three times the world’s foreign aid budgets combined.”  A GOOD PROVIDER IS ONE WHO LEAVES received starred reviews from Booklist (“family story [that] will captivate YAs interested in immigration and globalization”), Library Journal, and Publishers Weekly. For more of his observations follow the link to an interview on NPR.

Where We Come From by Oscar Cásares

WHERE WE COME FROM by Oscar Cásares is a powerful novel.  It is a well-written story for our times, but it does much more than mirror headlines.  As Cásares noted in a recent interview, he began this work in order to explore the idea of cultural immigration and what happens to people as they become more assimilated. Strong emotions – love, fear, hope, shame, disappointment - are associated with WHERE WE COME FROM which tells the story of many characters, including:

• Orly, who is a twelve-year-old boy whose mother has recently died and who is sent to spend the summer near the border in Brownsville, Texas with his godmother, la madrina. She is named
• Nina, who is a retired school teacher and now cares for her ailing mother and for Chivito, another young boy, just becoming a teen. He is named
• Daniel, who is on a quest to avoid capture and to meet his father (who emigrated from Veracruz, Mexico) in Chicago

Cásares deftly explores misunderstandings, manipulations, and internal tensions as each faces questions of bravery and trust. As Cásares develops the relationships between characters, he also intersperses italicized vignettes containing the stories of otherwise almost invisible, minor characters like a local policeman who is the son of an unauthorized immigrant or an inspirational teacher facing deportation due to an expired work permit.

For a sense of the writing style and story line, see Texas Monthly’s recently published short excerpt here. Booklist says “Teens will be moved by this heartfelt story about an intensely timely subject that demands attention.” We will definitely be booktalking this title and encouraging classes like Global Voices and other Senior electives to consider adding it to the curriculum. WHERE WE COME FROM received a starred review from Kirkus.

Unauthorized: Portarits of Latino Immigrants

UNAUTHORIZED: PORTRAITS OF LATINO IMMIGRANTS is written by two professors, Marisol Clark-Ibáñez and Richelle Swan, at California State University San Marcos where they have supervised “dozens of master’s theses on issues related to inequality and the Latinx or immigrant communities of San Diego.”  The authors describe the “singular mission” of this book as “honoring and sharing the contemporary experiences of undocumented Latinx immigrants in the United States.” They refer to “scholar Elvira Pulitano [and her assertion] that the stories behind undocumented immigration ‘need to be heard if the United States intends to live up to its founding principles of dignity and respect for all people.’”  

Recognizing that this is a sensitive and emotional topic, they raise myths and make attempts at myth busting. As in their classes, Clark-Ibáñez and Swan “stress the use of scholarly research, documentary film, and community voices to best understand the issues.” For example, did you know that “the majority of unauthorized immigrants in the United States have lived here for more than ten years (66 percent) and a minority have lived here for less than five years (14 percent)?” That is from work by PEW Research which is also cited separately in order to remind readers that “the estimated eleven million unauthorized immigrants in the United States make up a total of 3.5 percent of the country’s total population.” And, according to a report by the California Immigrant Policy Center, “in terms of the undocumented Latinx population in general, about 81% live in households with citizens.” Those statistics are all from UNAUTHORIZED’s first chapter which provides background, numbers and definitions, plus an overview of the entire text. 

Each subsequent chapter by Clark-Ibáñez and Swan begins with a brief portrait of an immigrant. This is truly a multidimensional work; individual chapters deal with media portrayal, labor, education, healthcare, legal issues, resistance and recommendations. Numerous examples and detailed explanations are provided in a clear and accessible manner. Many of the resources to which the authors refer are linked at UndocuResearch, another project of Clark-Ibáñez’s. Notes and an index make up roughly forty percent of UNAUTHORIZED, a text which will definitely be of interest to our teachers and student researchers.