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 of __Mexican 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 of __Writing to Cuba: Filibustering and Cuban Exiles in the United States__ Looking at the work of Junot Díaz, Cristina García, Julia Alvarez, and other Latino/a authors who are U.S. citizens, Marta Caminero-Santangelo examines how writers are increasingly expressing their solidarity with undocumented immigrants. Through storytelling, these writers create community and a sense of peoplehood that includes non-citizen Latino/as. This volume also foregrounds the narratives of unauthorized migrants themselves, showing how their stories are emerging into the public sphere. Immigration and citizenship are multifaceted issues, and the voices are myriad. They challenge common interpretations of “illegal” immigration, explore inevitable traumas and ethical dilemmas, protest their own silencing in immigration debates, and even capitalize on the topic for the commercial market. Yet these texts all seek to affect political discourse by advancing the possibility of empathy across lines of ethnicity and citizenship status. As border enforcement strategies escalate along with political rhetoric, detentions, and deaths, these counternarratives are more significant than ever before, and their perspectives cannot be ignored. What we are witnessing, argues Caminero-Santangelo, is a mass mobilization of stories. This growing body of literature is critical to understanding not only the Latino/a immigrant experience but also alternative visions of nation and belonging. Looking At Fiction And Nonfiction By Citizen Journalists And Undocumented Writers, Caminero-santangelo Finds That Latino/a Writers Increasingly Express A Sense Of Solidarity With Undocumented Immigrants. She Also Notes, However, That The Literary And Narrative Response Is Far From Heterogeneous. Narrating The Non-nation: Literary Journalism And Illegal Border Crossings -- The Lost Ones: Post-gatekeeper Border Fictions And The Construction Of Cultural Trauma -- The Caribbean Difference: Imagining Trans-status Communities -- Selling The Undocumented: Life Narratives Of Unauthorized Immigrants -- Unauthorized Plots: Life Writing, Transnationalism, And The Possibilities Of Agency -- Undocumented Testimony: American Dreamers. Marta Caminero-santangelo. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. 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.