We Are Home: Becoming American in the 21st Century: an Oral History

by Ray Suarez

Overview

From a veteran broadcaster and historian comes a richly reported portrait of the newest Americans, immigrants from all over the globe who are living all across the country, filled with their own voices.

We are a nation of immigrants, never more than now. In recent decades, the numbers have skyrocketed, thanks to people coming from many continents—especially Asia, Africa, and South America. Just like their predecessors, they face countless obstacles, including political hatred. And yet, just like their predecessors, they work hard. They persist. And they become us. The newest Americans are poorly understood and frequently presented only in stereotypes. Veteran journalist, broadcaster, and interviewer Ray Suarez has criss-crossed the country to speak to new Americans from all corners of the globe, and to record their stories. This portrait of our newest citizens is full of their own, compelling voices. It’s a story as old as the country, yet each new wave of arrivals tells that classic story in new and crucially important ways.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316353878
Publisher:	Little, Brown and Company
Publication date:	04/23/2024
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Ray Suarez is a writer and broadcaster who currently hosts the weekly foreign affairs radio program and podcast On Shifting Ground. He was the chief national correspondent for The PBS NewsHour, host of NPR's Talk of the Nation, and a reporter in Chicago, Los Angeles, London, and Rome. His books include Latino Americans, The Holy Vote, and The Old Neighborhood. He lives in Washington, DC. 
 

Editorial Reviews

Ray Suarez is that rare national treasure who is as compelled by other people's voices as his own. We Are Home is the work of someone who has long found poetry in ordinary people's words, both on air and on the page. In this volume, a snapshot of an urgent, even desperate, era, Suarez's signature wit and care for his interview subjects radiates.”
 —Alissa Quart, author of Bootstrapped and Squeezed

From the Publisher

2024-02-09
A broadcaster delivers a charged account of the lives of immigrants.

When Donald Trump snarled to the members of Congress’s progressive “Squad” that they should “go back where they came from,” although three of the four were U.S. born, “it was not a violation but a reminder,” implying that although they were as American as Trump, they were somehow different. “I heard what he said and immediately knew what he meant,” writes Suarez, author of Latino Americans. “And so did you.” It’s something most immigrants experience at some point, more so if they lack the required paperwork. One of Suarez’s subjects is a first responder whose heroic actions during a Houston hurricane saved many lives; despite this, he is subject to “regular reminders he is not like his neighbors”—at least until his immigration status is settled. The son of Hungarian immigrants recounts that although both parents were experienced doctors, they were denied accreditation until they went through another internship and residency, doubtless a way to keep outsiders out rather than any bulwark for reasons of safety, given the shortage of doctors in the country. In this blend of oral and social history, Suarez turns up a fascinating account of a Sikh who came to the U.S., served in the Army during World War I, and was granted citizenship by a federal court, which was then revoked by the Bureau of Naturalization for reasons of race, with an appellate court asked to rule on the question, “Is a high-caste Hindu of full Indian blood…a white person?” Sadly, such racial divides endure, as strong as ever. The easiest-going of Suarez’s subjects is a blonde New Zealander who admits, “I was very conscious of the difference between me and other undocumented people.”

A provocative work that urges reconsideration of immigration rights in a nation of immigrants.

Kirkus Reviews