Finding American: Stories of Immigration from All 50 States

by Colin Boyd Shafer, Ali Noorani (Foreword by)

Overview

A captivating photographic portrait of the diverse experiences of immigrants in the United States, depicting the resilience and realities of building a home in a new place.

Disturbed by the increasingly hostile views of immigrants that arose in the United States during the 2016 presidential election, photographer Colin Boyd Shafer set out on a road trip to meet hundreds of families and individuals with roots abroad who now live in America. The result, after a year of travel covering fifty thousand miles, is this collection of striking photos and moving stories that form a portrait of the nation’s complex and shifting relationship to immigration. Some of the participants chose to make America home; others were displaced by crises. Some were warmly welcomed and granted citizenship; others battled the immigration system for years and still live with fear and uncertainty. Their circumstances and origins vary, but all are united by a willingness to share their stories—of harrowing journeys, intense love, separated families, passionate activism—in hopes of adding nuance and depth to a vital issue that continues to polarize Americans.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781773272214
Publisher:	Figure 1 Publishing
Publication date:	10/31/2023
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	11.20(w) x 9.60(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Colin Boyd Shafer is an award-winning Canadian documentary photographer, social sciences educator, and the son of immigrants, with family roots in the United States. His recent photography projects include INTERLOVE, which tells interfaith love stories in Ontario; Cosmopolis Toronto, featuring someone from every country of the world who now calls Toronto home, which he presented at TEDxToronto and at the United Nations Alliance of Civilization’s Global Forum; and They Desire A Better Country, a commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Order of Canada, for which he was chosen by the Governor General of Canada to make portraits of the featured recipients. His work has also featured in numerous print and TV outlets, including National Geographic, The Wall Street Journal, The Globe and Mail, CNN, BBC News, and CBC’s The National. He holds two bachelor degrees as well as an MSc in Political Economy of Violence Conflict and Development from SOAS, University of London. He lives in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada.

Ali Noorani is the author of Crossing Borders: The Reconciliation of a Nation of Immigrants and the former executive director of the National Immigration Forum.

Read an Excerpt

Rossy: Donna, Texas (cover subject)

Rossy was twelve when her family moved to southeast Texas, near the Mexican border.

“When I arrived as an English as a second language student, I was taught by the ‘special education’ department. That label hinders the possibilities and the self-perception that you have. I believe it is one of the main reasons that you have so many dropouts in our community. You are constantly being labeled as someone who is “at risk”—only because you speak Spanish. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.”

As a teenager, Rossy used to get anxiety attacks just thinking about the border; seeing a border patrol vehicle would send her into a panic. She tried to avoid them, but they are ubiquitous in a border town. Today, she isn’t avoiding anything.

“You have to confront your fears. By confronting them, I am owning the effect they have on me. I still get shaky. Recently while at the border wall, I saw clothing on the ground that made me freeze. I remember that experience of having to take your wet clothes off and changing into dry ones after crossing the river. It was a flashback. It took me a second to realize that I am not there. I am on the other side.”

Rossy still has an accent, unlike many of her friends. “Why do I still have an accent if we came at the same time? Maybe that’s why I went on to study linguistics. To me, my accent represents my identity and I’ve embraced that. For my other friends, it has been easier to navigate the system, but I believe they have also lost that connection to their culture.” 

Kayse: Portland, Oregon
Kayse’s family lived a nomadic life. At sunrise, his mother milked the goats, and his father milked the camel. After breakfast, the adults and teenagers tended to the grazing livestock, and the children took care of the baby livestock. “In nomadic life, everyone in the family has a role, including children. It is like an ecosystem.” His formal education began at the age of eight in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, a two-and-a-half-day journey from home. “I had never been to a big city before. Lights, bridges—all completely alien to me. I didn’t know how to interact with other kids at school. It was the first time I felt different.” Kayse planned to continue on to college, but three months after he graduated high school the civil war began. “Nothing is planned. You live by the day, by the hour.”

When Kayse left Somalia in search of a safer home, he went first to Kenya and then Canada, before arriving in San Diego. There, he worked in a Somalian restaurant for three months until his asylum case was approved, then Kayse took a Greyhound bus to Portland, where someone he knew from his clan was already settled.

In 2002, after 9/11 and hearing stories from women in the local Somali community who were being harassed, he co-founded the Center for Intercultural Organizing (now Unite Oregon). The nonprofit organizes communities—urban and rural people of color, immigrants and refugees, and people experiencing poverty in pursuit of justice—in the hope of bringing together marginalized groups.

Kayse was elected a Democratic state senator in 2021. “I consider myself an Oregonian. Whether you were born here or somewhere else, our fate is intertwined, and we need to make sure that everybody is included—that we are always asking, ‘Who is at the table?’ This is a commitment to justice.”

Tano: Liberal, Kansas

Tano, who works in the swine industry, started playing defensive end at age seventeen. He knew his father, Estanislao Sr., wouldn’t approve, fearing it would interfere with his studies, so for the first two years, Tano didn’t tell him. If his father asked where a bruise came from,Tano would say it was from one of the cows. Estanislao Sr. learned of his son’s athletic pursuits when a local radio station interviewed Tano about his rookie-of-the-year award. Tano will never forget the first game his father came to watch and how he tried to play his best. After the game, his dad told him, “If all of these players had a real job, Mexico would be different.” Still, Tano learned recently that after a sports magazine featured him, his father carried the article around and showed it to everybody. It meant a lot to Tano to know that his father was proud of him, even if he hid it. “My dad was everything. He was my role model. He always showed me the right thing.”

Cindy: Albuquerque, New Mexico

Cindy has always been a “preguntona.” Her late grandmother, Yaya, an avid reader and self-taught intellectual whose formal education ended at third grade, constantly encouraged Cindy to read and learn. “You would have thought Yaya had a PhD. That’s where my education began.”

Yaya was untraditional, even “weird,” judged by the norms of her generation. She told Cindy stories of hiding from her childhood chores to read books, and instead of marriage or kids, her dream was to become a nun and go to college. Yaya ended up working as a maid her entire life. Her earnings went toward the college education of her younger sister, who became a professor. Yaya’s life reinforced for Cindy the importance of education, a value she devotedly passed on to her granddaughter.

When Cindy was seven and they crossed the border into El Paso, her parents assured her they were going “somewhere that would be so much better.” In New Mexico, her father worked in construction during the day and at night helped her mother clean houses, banks, offices, and libraries—with the kids in tow. “There was this library they would clean, and my parents let us sit and read books. I always dreamed of studying.” 

Monse: Delmar, Delaware

When Monse was six, her widowed mom, Graciela, started traveling to Maryland for seasonal work in a crabmeat cannery. She needed money, but she also needed to escape an abusive boyfriend, who beat her children with pieces of wood. Three years later, Graciela moved to the U.S. permanently, entrusting Monse and her older sister, Maria, to the care of their aunt. Monse and Maria started panhandling for money, most of which went to their older cousin. Someone reported them to family services, and they were put in a convent, where they lived for three years.
In 2003, their aunt wrapped money into their hair, made them memorize the phone numbers they needed, and put the sisters and their little brother, Alan, on a bus north to be with their mom. Monse, who was twelve, still remembers her outfit that day—a yellow shirt with white letters, blue jeans, and new bright-white sneakers. She took care with her hair and makeup, wanting to look nice when she saw her mom for the first time in three years.
At the Reynosa-Tamaulipas border, they met their coyote—the person who helped them cross the border—and waited in a hotel room. Nine- year-old Alan was smuggled across the bridge by female coyotes. Monse and Maria were to cross the Río Bravo. “I didn’t know there was any other way to come to the United States.” They walked with a group to the riverbank, hiding in bushes when helicopters flew overhead. Monse was cold, so Maria gave her the sweater she was wearing. They crossed with inner tubes, walking through deep mud and swarms of mosquitoes, praying and holding hands so as not to be swept away. On the other side, they hid in a ditch while a border patrol truck’s blinding light searched the ground, then were instructed to run to the light of a nearby mobile home. They rested inside and waited for their ride. Monse’s new shoes and clothes were black with mud, her hair ruined. She felt stupid for dressing up. Monse lay in the truck’s bed looking up at the stars as they drove toward an interior immigration checkpoint. They had fake documents—Monse’s new name was Bianca—but she was asleep when they passed without incident. On the drive from Texas to Delaware, they crossed the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, and Monse saw the ocean for the first time.
In Delmar, Monse’s mom and her two U.S.-born children were living in a two-room trailer shared with another family.
“When we arrived, everybody jumped out of the car to go see Mom. I stayed in the car, so she came to look for me. I looked up at her, and she looked at me and said, ‘What are you doing, my love?’ I replied, ‘Are you my mommy?’—because at that moment I wasn’t sure if she was my mom.” 

Table of Contents

Foreword – Ali Noorani

A Short Note

LEGACIES

JOURNEYS
BORDERS
PURSUITS
JOBS
COMMUNITIES
IDENTITIES
ADVOCATES
FUTURES

A Longer Note

Acknowledgments

Index of Participants

About the Author

Editorial Reviews

Beautifully reveals the intricate tapestry of humanity with remarkable sensitivity, poise, and creativity. Colin has skilfully offered us a window into our own stories. A true masterpiece.”
—Deepak Ramola, Founder & Artistic Director of Project FUEL and author of 50 Toughest Questions of Life

“This is beautiful work that really forces us to think about what it means to be American—and, indeed, human. Rich, layered, and poignant, it is a reminder that there is more that connects us than divides us.”
—Heaven Crawley, Head of Equitable Development and Migration at United Nations UniversityCentre for Policy Research

"Through Colin’s lens and the participants’ stories we see the realities of immigrant life in America: sometimes beautiful, sometimes harrowing, always human."
—Barbara Davidson, Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist and Guggenheim Fellow

“At a time where anti-immigrant sentiment is painfully high around the world, when we are aching for bridges, not borders, this book offers us necessary hope through storytelling and human connection. Timely, provocative, and compassionate, Finding American should be in every home, to be combed through carefully and thoroughly."
—Ruchika Tulshyan, author of Inclusion on Purpose and The Diversity Advantage

"The beautiful photographs and moving stories provide a powerful antidote to anti-immigrant racism in the United States. Highly recommend!"
—Reece Jones, author of White Borders and Nobody is Protected

"Finding American is an exploration into the complex, at times violent, history of the United States of America and the people who make and remake it with every generation. Rather than some essentialised list of characteristics, this generational process of mixing and renewal is what America and being American is. America is the only place where these particular stories of immigration, hope, despair and renewal so vividly and movingly captured in this collection can unfold. It is this process that produces something new and never fixed, uniquely American."
—Nando Sigona, professor of International Migration and Forced Displacement, University of Birmingham, UK

"Finding American is a book about the polyphonic narrative of the United States, but it is also a book about our whole glorious, hybrid, complicated, heartbreaking, heartlifting world. It is a loving documentation of humanity's most precious resource: our stories. It is a timely reminder to stop, see each other, and listen, because there is no single story."
—Preeta Samarasan, author of Evening Is the Whole Day

"It's no simple feat to travel across the entire American map, but perhaps Colin’s most significant achievement is connecting deeply—through photography—with his truly global cast of subjects."
—Rory Doyle, documentary photographer and winner of the Zeiss Photography Award and Smithsonian Photo Award

"Shafer allows our newest citizens to share their stories using their own words, and his camera. The book feels like a collaboration between everyone involved, not unlike the nation that we all call home."
—Kenneth Jarecke, photojournalist, author, and founding member of Contact Press Images

"When I met with Colin and his wife in the Río Grande Valley, I immediately saw the heart he was putting into this project. We talked for a while; his sincere interest, curiosity, and respect allowed me to open up about my life, what it is to be an immigrant in this country, about the many things I missed, including my grandfather, who had recently passed away. He was interested in the experience, the common thread that unites us all. I feel humbled to be part of this encompassing project, and I can't wait to read the stories that will be forever kept in this piece of history."
—Rossy Evelin Lima DePadilla, assistant professor of translation, Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi; founder, Jade Publishing; board president and executive director of Latino Book Review

"Individual stories are often lost in ever-sharpening political narratives around human movement. Colin Boyd Shafer’s critical, sensitive, and nuanced look at the various reasons why people make the journeys they do forces us to consider the people at the center of these complicated stories."
—Petra Molnar, Associate Director, Refugee Law Lab, York University; author of Artificial Borders: AI, Surveillance, and Border Tech Experiments

"Finding American is a powerful reminder of the struggle in pursuing the American ideal. Immigrants are respectfully photographed, their stories told with sensitivity and insight. Page after page will somehow strike a deep chord in all of us as fellow human beings—immigrants or otherwise."
—Richard Beaven, photographer and author of All of Us: Portraits of an American Bicentennial

"In Finding American, Colin Boyd Shafer pays tribute to those who, from the beginning, have made America great: hard-working immigrants who chose this land as their home, and have devoted the fruit of their lives' efforts to it. Beyond faceless numbers there are people who deserve to be seen, heard, and respected. In their dreams, there is hope; in their work, pride; in their smile, the future. And every page in this book gives us a taste of how bright that future can be if we open our arms to this spectacular diversity of colors and accents."
—Martha Bátiz, author of No Stars in the Sky

"The book is absolutely incredible and beautiful … In a world where 30 second clips rule and we are rewarded for our ability to be quick and concise, this book is a reminder of how much art can encompass when we make the time and take the time."
—Lucie Pohl, Immigrant Jam Podcast

From the Publisher