★ 06/08/2020
Veteran broadcast journalist Hinojosa discusses immigration in a defiant memoir that probes family lore, public policy, and mainstream media bias. In 1962, when Hinojosa was a baby, her family emigrated from Mexico to Chicago when her father was invited to join the faculty at the University of Chicago, but an immigration agent, misinterpreting her minor skin rash as a disease, tried to separate her from her family. Annual visits to Mexico maintained her dual Mexican-American identity, but reentry to the U.S. was dependent on a green card and emphasized how “people were and are still looking at us—immigrants—as aliens.” As a student at Barnard College, she hosted a Latin radio show and earned an internship at NPR. Hired by “the one other Latino at the network,” she helped launch Weekend Edition Saturday. In 1986, while covering the Texas sesquicentennial, she visited Harlingen, “the first immigrant detention camp I ever saw” and the nation’s largest. Horrific conditions spurred her ongoing investigations which continue today. She discusses the history of immigration under presidents Clinton (while “Bill Clinton was being celebrated for eating burritos and enchiladas, the new president was also cracking down on immigration”) and Obama (“In 2014, under President Barack Obama, ‘removals’ clocked in at 414,481”), details the passage of immigration legislation, and highlights the high cost of detention (“$3 billion for the 2018 fiscal year”). The result is a powerful memoir that doubles as an essential immigration primer. (Sept.)
Once I Was You is many books in one, a searingly honest memoir by one of this country’s most accomplished women, an inside view of the media, and a fact-filled indictment of our treatment of immigrants over time. Because Maria Hinojosa identifies with each one, anyone striving to understand and improve this country should read her story of what’s wrong and how to change it.
With frankness, brilliance, and a generous heart, Hinojosa blends intimate experience and professional tales to correct the American story—or, as she puts it, to ‘deconstruct this bullshit.’ A consummate truth-teller, Hinojosa spares neither political side in doing so. Once I Was You, deeply researched and poetically told, will inspire you to create a better world.
I’ve known and admired Maria for many years. She is truly an outstanding journalist. I loved reading Once I Was You. It was so personal and moving, and told a very timely and critically important story for all Americans. I learned a lot about Maria, but more importantly, I learned a lot about what’s going on in so many parts of our country. Thanks, Maria, for writing this powerful book.
Maria Hinojosa writes about her life, her family, and her immigrant story in ways that will inspire you and break your heart—because that is what the immigration story is in America: part inspiration, hope, and triumph; part rejection, struggle, and heartbreak. Maria’s voice rings loud and clear, and her battle cry for America’s immigrants of color is both poignant and necessary.
Once I Was You is a testament to what great journalism can do—leverage privilege and power to tell the stories of those who are voiceless . . . Hinojosa’s book serves as a clarion call for us to re-examine where we stand as individuals and as a nation.
I loved the book, it is historical, entertaining, educational, instructive, heroic, honest and courageously brave. It’s a must read for anyone especially in this critical time in our country as we try to make sense of how the divisions in our country came to be, but also how to overcome them. The media has such an impact on our lives, to get an inside look at how it is rendered especially now when we are so dependent on the media.
Maria’s perspective is powerful and vital. Years ago, when In the Heights was just starting off-Broadway, Maria got the word out to our community to support this new musical about our neighborhoods. She has been a champion of our triumphs, a critic of our detractors, and a driving force to right the wrongs our society faces. When Maria speaks, I’m ready to listen and learn.
Award-winning journalist Hinojosa narrates her turbulent life story as a marginalized woman with allegiance to two countries [in this] far-ranging and politically illuminating memoir [that] is also laser-focused and intimate . . . A fascinating and essential journalist's memoir.
Once I Was You throws down, proving that Maria Hinojosa is beyond bad assery: esta mujer es una chingona to be reckoned with. In warm, journalistic prose, Hinojosa unfurls a map of una vida extraordinaria that shows her developing, nurturing, and sustaining a career best described as iconoclastic. Her skills as a writer and reporter enable her to trace the ugly contours of US racial politics as she simultaneously narrates a compulsively readable autobiography.
Written in Latina journalist Maria Hinojosa’s honest, passionate voice, Once I Was You is, quite simply, beautiful.
As a POC journalist, feminist, survivor of sexual assault, and truth-teller, Maria Hinojosa is tough as nails. This expressive and captivating book not only reveals how she has fought to tell stories that are so often silenced by the mainstream media, but also lays bare the deep fissures in our politics and our society. Once I Was You is essential reading for anyone who wants America to do better.
In these times of love and hate, Maria Hinojosa’s astonishing story is medicine, healing, illumination. She swallows fear as if she were a circus performer swallowing fire. She encourages, inspires, and challenges us to find our own courage. Once I Was You is a dazzling gift she has bestowed upon us and America.
Maria Hinojosa has assembled a full arsenal of facts, stats, and deeply complex histories to weaponize a revolution of justice in this country. The courage of Hinojosa’s reportage resides not only in her ability to enter the ground zero of a conflict, but to also turn the lens on herself.
I loved this heart wrenching, yet ultimately hopeful, book. Maria Hinojosa’s Once I Was You puts you in the shoes of frightened immigrant children while laying out a path from fear to success. A guide to joy and empowerment—even in the hard-knock business of journalism—this story is a must-read for anyone who ever wondered how an immigrant could possibly love an America that has always undervalued newcomers.
Maria Hinojosa is hands down one of the most important, respected, and beloved cultural leaders in the Latinx community. . . . Hers is a voice we need to hear at this moment in our country!
"The Latino USA anchor’s own story radiates with an optimism that is nonetheless tempered with the reality of decades spent reporting on inhumane, Kafka-eseque immigration policies. Once I Was You is packed with information about borders and the rise of xenophobia in the U.S., making it an informative read. But the memoir also acts as a lifeline to anyone feeling adrift or unwelcome in the so-called melting pot."
She beautifully renders stories of her personal life while weaving in the important historical context of immigration and policy during her lifetime . . . bringing her signature candor and knack for storytelling.
Once I Was You is a candid, timely, autobiography . . . intimate and unflinching, this memoir is packed with teachable moments.
Maria Hinojosa is a renowned journalist whose observational skills are legendary and on full display in this compelling work. But it’s her committed, compassionate, truth-seeking heart that makes this book so timely, necessary, and urgent.
Hinojosa is a fearless pugilist for truth, fighting to bring light to our nation’s hidden corners. Her stories are full of humanity, clarion calls for justice. She brings a journalist’s diligence and a feminist grace to her audience and subjects.
Maria Hinojosa is a national treasure. I always know I can trust her in her reporting. Here, as an author, she steps forward with her usual clarity and a new surge of power to tell us a deeply needed narrative about ourselves.
Hinojosa is a fearless pugilist for truth, fighting to bring light to our nation’s hidden corners. Her stories are full of humanity, clarion calls for justice. She brings a journalist’s diligence and a feminist grace to her audience and subjects.
Maria Hinojosa has assembled a full arsenal of facts, stats, and deeply complex histories to weaponize a revolution of justice in this country. The courage of Hinojosa’s reportage resides not only in her ability to enter the ground zero of a conflict, but to also turn the lens on herself.
★ 11/01/2020
Hinojosa's (Raising Raul: Adventures Raising Myself and My Son) latest is illuminating reading in many respects. Mexico-born, the author came to the United States with her family in the early 1960s as an infant. Here, she covers her early life growing up with her family in Chicago, and details her college experiences to explain how she became a reporter. Most important, her book focuses on the experiences of immigrants in America; Hinojosa's efforts as a reporter of these stories and struggles are also examined closely. She explains how to tell a story in a way that touches viewers but also the effect on her own life, as she discusses facing down media executives, who saw her work on Latino issues as having an "agenda." Hinojosa describes the documentaries on immigration she has produced and gives a thorough history of the past 30 years of immigration laws and their impact on people coming to this country. Seeing the world through Hinojosa's eyes, readers travel to the Texas for-profit prisons now housing immigrants who were cited for, in many cases, minor offenses, and those awaiting deportation to countries they left as infants. VERDICT This riveting account will appeal to anyone with an interest in the history of immigration and current U.S. policies.—Amy Lewontin, Northeastern Univ. Lib., Boston
Veteran journalist Maria Hinojosa, anchor and executive producer of NPR’s “Latino USA” and founder of Futuro Media Group, narrates her story of growing up in a Mexican immigrant family and finding her way in life and in her career in the big city as a young adult. She also describes how her background has influenced her approach to covering immigration issues as a journalist. Narrating her own work allows Hinojosa to put the most fitting vocal emphases on her text. She reads at a leisurely pace in a lower tone, and one hears her professional bearing. Her pronunciation of the Spanish words and phrases throughout the text is, naturally, an asset to the narration. S.E.G. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine
Veteran journalist Maria Hinojosa, anchor and executive producer of NPR’s “Latino USA” and founder of Futuro Media Group, narrates her story of growing up in a Mexican immigrant family and finding her way in life and in her career in the big city as a young adult. She also describes how her background has influenced her approach to covering immigration issues as a journalist. Narrating her own work allows Hinojosa to put the most fitting vocal emphases on her text. She reads at a leisurely pace in a lower tone, and one hears her professional bearing. Her pronunciation of the Spanish words and phrases throughout the text is, naturally, an asset to the narration. S.E.G. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine
