Undocumented in L.A.: An Immigrant's Story

I highly recommend this book. It is a joy to read the story of a Nicaraguan lady who makes a journey with members of her family. The destination is the U.S.; the length of stay is short term. As Yamileth will tell you, plans don't always come out the way they were intended. The heroine of the book is a woman, mother, and activist, who has strong family values supported by age old ideals, and who has the courage to live them. The best feature of "Undocumented in L.A." is that it is apolitical. The ideals to which Yamileth is commited and her ways of expressing them are delightful. Through her clear reasoning I was able to have a clearer understanding of the immigrant experience without all the media hype or the outragious editorialization. In the retelling of Yamileth's saga, we are also given an insider's view of foreign relations, inter-racial conflicts, and the divisions of labor in a household where all the occupants are "Undocumented in L. A." "For me the future is thinking about tomorrow and preparing yourself for it. The only heritage a parent can leave is the intellectual preparation of a child... An education allows them to fight for survival, wherever they go. No one can take away that inheritance."--one of Yamileth's values.

With government looking for ways to limit rights of immigrants in California, Dianne Walta Hart's newest book is very timely. Ms. Hart has culled her interviews with a Nicaraguan woman to tell the immigrant's side of the situation. Ms. Hart's first book, Thanks to God and the Revolution: The Oral History of a Nicaraguan Family (1990) introduced 4 members of the Lopez family, who described their difficult life in Nicaragua during the revolution. Each family member presented his view of their attempts to survive in a society where employment is difficult to find and the life style is meager. The closeness of the Nicaraguans within their families and neighborhoods is a contrast to the American individualism. Ten years later, Yamileth and her son Miguel are living as undocumented immigrants in L.A. Through the interviews, their difficulty of survival in a new land is apparent. Again, the close family ties and cultural values weigh heavily on the decisions to be made in their lives. In T. Coraghessan Boyle's The Tortilla Curtain, the reader meets Mexical illegal immigrants who go to great lengths to find work and take care of themselves in a foreign land. One might discount these characters as fictional and idealized, but the true story Ms. Hart presents shows the actual extreme efforts made by hard working illegal aliens who wish to survive and to find a better life. The stories present people who will not eat a meal if they have not contributed or earned it; people who are honorable and will not always choose the easiest way. Decisions which seem plain to an American do not always fit with the cultural responsibility felt by a person from another country. This book helps one better understand the plight of illegal immigrants in the United States.