From the Publisher
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
APRIL 2024 - AudioFile
Longtime television and radio broadcaster Ray Suarez's professional voice, ease of delivery, and acute sense of story are a pleasure to listen to. His intimate performance gives the many oral histories and profiles in this audiobook a cumulative power. An empathetic reporter, Suarez has spent years gathering the material for this timely appreciation of immigrants at this fraught moment in this country's relationship with those seeking refuge here. He shares the complex history of immigration legislation and focuses on the challenges beyond the cacophony surrounding the Southern border. He recounts a tapestry of experiences ranging from the tragic--an Afghani who worked with the U.S. and struggled to get his family here--to the uplifting--a Vietnamese family who created a national baking company. A.D.M. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
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.
