The Undocumented Americans
Karla Cornejo Villavicencio was one of the first undocumented students admitted to Harvard, and her debut book breaks from the polite immigrant memoir entirely. She travels to Staten Island day laborer corners, to Flint to drink the water, to Miami to sit with botanicas, and to Cleveland to meet a father in sanctuary. The reporting is interleaved with her own story, her parents in Queens, her panic attacks, her rage at how undocumented people are written about. The book was a National Book Award finalist and made Cheryl Strayed's Amazon 2020 favorites list. It reads like nothing else in contemporary nonfiction.
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What you might want to know about The Undocumented Americans
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Karla Cornejo Villavicencio reports from undocumented communities across the United States in a hybrid of essay, memoir, and frontline journalism.
Yes. Strayed included the book on her Amazon Books Editors guest list of 2020 favorites, calling out Cornejo Villavicencio's voice and the reporting in chapters set in Staten Island and Flint.
Both. Cornejo Villavicencio reports on undocumented communities across the country while weaving in her own life as a DACA recipient and daughter of immigrants.
The Undocumented Americans was written by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, published in 2020 by One World.
The Undocumented Americans is 208 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Undocumented Americans takes most readers 3 to 5 hours to finish.
The Undocumented Americans is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.