Documenting the Undocumented ─ Latino/A Narratives and Social Justice in the Era of Operation Gatekeeper

“While the U.S. immigration ‘debate’ turns strident in media circles, Caminero-Santangelo intervenes with a call to read carefully the more complex stories that define us as human and humane.”—Debra A. Castillo, coeditor ofMexican Public Intellectuals
 
“This insightful study brings together Latino fiction, journalistic books, and autobiographical accounts to consider how undocumented people are portrayed in the wake of restrictive immigration policies.”—Rodrigo Lazo, author ofWriting to Cuba: Filibustering and Cuban Exiles in the United States
 
Looking at the work of Latino/a authors who are U.S. citizens, including Junot Diaz, Cristina Garcia, and Julia Alvarez, Marta Caminero-Santangelo examines how writers are increasingly expressing their solidarity with undocumented immigrants. She similarly foregrounds the narratives of the undocumented themselves to show how they are emerging in the public sphere.

In this multifaceted issue, the voices are myriad: they challenge common interpretations of “illegal” immigration, explore the inevitable traumas and ethical dilemmas, protest their own silencing in immigration debates, and even capitalize on the topic for the commercial market. This growing body of literature is critical to understanding not only the Latino/a immigrant experience, but also alternative visions of nation and belonging.
 

Marta Caminero-Santangelo, professor of English at the University of Kansas, is the author ofOn Latinidad: U.S. Latino Literature and the Construction of Ethnicity andThe Madwoman Can’t Speak: Or Why Insanity Is Not Subversive.