The New American
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Narrated by:
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Timothy Andrés Pabon
About this listen
One day, Emilio learns the shocking secret: he is undocumented. His parents, who emigrated from Guatemala to California, had never told him.
Emilio slowly adjusts to his new normal. All is going well, he’s in his second year at UC Berkeley...then he gets into a car accident, and—without a driver’s license or any ID—the policeman on the scene reports him to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Once deported to Guatemala, Emilio is determined to get back to California, the only home he has ever known. It is an epic journey that takes him across thousands of miles and eventually the Sonoran Desert of the United States-Mexico border, meeting thieves and corrupt law enforcement but also kind strangers and new friends.
Inspired in part by interviews with Central American refugees, and told in lyrical prose, Micheline Aharonian Marcom weaves a “powerful, heartbreaking” (Publishers Weekly) tale of adventure. In The New American, Marcom “depicts inhumanity with visceral force, but her bracing empathy (and hope) shines above all” (Entertainment Weekly). This is a compassionate story of one young man who risks so much to return home.
Critic Reviews
"With a thoughtful and heartfelt narration, Timothy Andres Pabon gives voice to 21-year-old Emilio, whose undocumented status in the U.S. upends his life. After spending most of his life in California and attending college there, Emilio is deported to Guatemala when he can't produce the police with identification after a car accident. Emilio is determined to return to his family, and Pabon creates an evocative depiction of his harrowing journey from Guatemala through the Mexican desert to Arizona. The unimaginable dangers he faces include threats of death, assault and kidnapping, police corruption, and insufficient food and water. Pabon splendidly conveys the resolve and lingering hopefulness of Emilio and his four young Honduran traveling companions—Matilde, Pedro, William, and Jonatan. An immersive and powerful listen."
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