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Showing posts with the label immigration

ESPERANZA RISING (audiobook) by Pam Muñoz Ryan

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  Originally published in book format in 2000. Published by Listening Library in 2003. Read by Trini Alvarado Duration: 4 hours, 42 minutes. Unabridged. Synopsis: Esperanza is the main character in a fictionalized version of the author's grandmother's adolescence.  In Mexico, Esperanza is the daughter of a wealthy landowner in Aguascalientes. On this ranch, life is wonderful. She has servants and attends a private school. But, life in Mexico in 1930 is fraught with danger. It is only 10 years after the 10 year long Mexican Revolution and armed bands still roam the countryside. One of these groups kills Esperanza's father and her conniving uncles take the ranch and burn the house down to make sure they keep the land.  The author, Pam Muñoz Ryan Esperanza and her mother join a family of their servants (the ranch manager, the household manager, and their son) and flee to America (California) with false paperwork. They hope to work on American farms and re-establish themselves.

AMERICAN REBOOT: AN IDEALIST'S GUIDE TO GETTING BIG THINGS DONE (audiobook) by Will Hurd

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  Published in March of 2022 by Simon and Schuster Audio. Read by the author, Will Hurd. Duration: 8 hours, 47 minutes. Unabridged. Will Hurd has done a lot of things in his 45 years. He has been an operations analyst for the CIA (working in Pakistan, India, and Afghanistan), he was worked in high-tech (including cyber-security and artificial intelligence), has served 6 years as a member of the House of Representatives from Texas, and is now a Republican candidate for President in 2024. This book was undoubtedly an attempt to introduce Will Hurd to a larger audience. I follow politics pretty well and I had never heard of Will Hurd until he announced his campaign for President in June of 2023 (to be fair, there are 535 members of Congress and most are not well known outside of their districts.) I heard about this book in a political podcast and, lo and behold, it turns out that my library had it. Just to let you know where I am coming from as I review this book, I am a Never Trump Repub

RIOT (audiobook) by Walter Dean Myers

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  Published in 2009 by Listening Library. Performed by multiple actors. Duration: 2 hours, 36 minutes. Unabridged. July of 1863 was the height of the American Civil War. The month contained the Battle of Gettysburg, the end of the long siege of Vicksburg, and the battle at Battery Wagner where the 54th Massachusetts demonstrated that African American soldiers would be an effective and important addition to the Union Army. It also featured one of the worst riots in American history - the New York City Draft Riot. The riot was ostensibly a violent reaction to the imposition of a draft to fulfill state military quotas, but it was more than that and this short audiobook does a very good job of looking at those reasons. The draft was unpopular for more than just the fact that the men who were drafted did not want to join the army. Rich people could afford to pay $300 to avoid military service if they were drafted. It took most workers more than 6 months or more to earn this sort of money. T

INSURGENCY: HOW REPUBLICANS LOST THEIR PARTY and GOT EVERYTHING THEY EVER WANTED (audiobook) by Jeremy W. Peters

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  Published in February of 2022 by Random House Publishing. Read by the author, Jeremy W. Peters. Duration: 13 hours, 46 minutes. Unabridged. Sorry that this will be a herky-jerky post. It deserves a better one, but that would have to be a much longer post, perhaps 3 or 4 times longer. That would be so lengthy that no one would bother to read it. Peters' book details how the GOP went from the party of Eisenhower and Reagan to the party of MAGA and Trump. The old GOP advocated Free Trade, welcomed immigrants , valued the NATO alliance and wanted to overturn Roe v. Wade. The MAGA party flirts with the idea of leaving NATO, denounces Free Trade agreements, openly despises illegal immigrants and openly discusses the idea that all immigrants (legal and illegal) are being brought into the U.S. to replace white people with more compliant people of color. As Tucker Carlson, the number one cable news voice of the MAGA movement, stated in April 202 1, " the Democratic Party is trying to

THE GOD WHO SEES: IMMIGRANTS, the BIBLE, and the JOURNEY to BELONG (audiobook) by Karen Gonzalez

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  Published by Tantor Audio in November of 2020. Read by Joana Garcia. Duration: 5 hours, 25 minutes. Unabridged. This is the second time in less than a month that I am reviewing and audiobook that covers the topic of immigration written by an Hispanic immigrant. In both cases, I came to the book highly prepared to like it and in both cases I was disappointed. The author, Karen Gonzalez I have no problem at all with the points that Gonzalez makes in this book. As a Christian, I think many Christians have been on the wrong side of this issue for decades (including me, for a while). However, this book just doesn't seal the deal. It says a lot of the right things, but it doesn't do the trick. Issues: 1) There are pieces of sloppy research, or maybe just sloppy writing or editing. For example, when the author asserts that the concept of borders came around with the end of the Thirty Years War and the series of treaties known as the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. I think she was refe

THE UNDOCUMENTED AMERICANS (audiobook) by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio

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  Published in 2020 by Random House Audio. Read by the author, Karla Cornejo Villavicencio. Duration: 4 hours, 53 minutes. Unabridged. Villavicencio is a "Dreamer", also known as a DACA kid. DACA is the program started by President Obama to deal with immigrants who came to the United States illegally as children. Generally speaking, the only country they've ever known is the United States and they had no say in immigrating to the United States. Congress refused to deal with this situation so President Obama created a program through executive orders. This meant that when President Trump came to office he was able to undo a lot of this plan with another executive order.  The author Villavicencio's very personal look at the DACA program and the general mess of our immigration policy was inspired by the election of Donald Trump, but it was not what I was hoping for when I started listening to this audiobook. I was really hoping for policy analysis with a healthy bit of p

SUPERMAN: DAWNBREAKER: DC ICONS (audiobook) by Matt de la Peña

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Published by Listening Library in 2019. Read by Andrew Elden. Duration: 7 hours, 28 minutes. Unabridged. Set in modern America, Matt de la Peña delivers a traditional Superman origin story with a little bit of a twist. This book follows along the line of the Smallville TV show, with Metropolis being within driving distance of Superman's Kansas hometown instead of basically being a stand-in for New York City. Big things are going on in Smallville. A tech firm has moved in, bringing in lots of jobs and a new corporate headquarters. They also are buying up farm land. And, a new smaller company has come in as well. Also, LexCorp is sniffing around. Smallville is considering passing a law requiring people suspected of being illegal immigrants (there is a burgeoning Hispanic population who serve as farm workers and work in a meat processing plant) to produce papers on sight and Hispanic men are disappearing. Clark Kent has always been amazingly strong, but that could be passed of

THE FUTURE of CAPITALISM: FACING the NEW ANXIETIES (audiobook) by Paul Collier

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Published in December of 2018 by HarperAudio. Read by Peter Noble. Duration: 9 hours, 26 minutes. The author, Sir Paul Collier Unabridged. Paul Collier is an award-winning economics professor at Oxford University. His name is symbolic of how he approaches this book, The Future of Capitalism: Facing the New Anxieties . Collier has been knighted for his work as an economist. This means that he could have listed his name as Sir Paul Collier, but he does not. Collier may be a big shot professor who holds three positions at Oxford University (possibly the best university on the planet), but he is also the guy from Sheffield, England. Collier repeatedly compares it to Detroit because they are of a similar size and both  lost a great deal of their industrial base over the last 50 years. This book is intended to be read by the layman. Collier could certainly bury the reader with obscure terms, but he does not. Instead, he uses plenty of real world examples of well-known companies (Toy

STRANGER: EL DESAFÍO de un INMIGRANTE LATINO en la ERA de TRUMP (en español) by Jorge Ramos

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Published by Vintage Español in 2018. If you are not a viewer of Univision, you may be unfamiliar with Jorge Ramos. He is a news anchor/reporter for the network. I knew Ramos for one reason - he was literally thrown out of a major press conference during the Iowa Caucus season for asking then-candidate Donald J. Trump too many pointed questions about the centerpiece of his campaign - the wall.  Ramos (on the left with no tie) trying to ask then-Candidate Trump a few tough questions during the Iowa press conference.  Ramos was born and raised in Mexico City, but moved to America for additional journalistic training and in search of the opportunity to be more free in his journalistic practice. He kind of lucked into broadcast journalism but he has run with it and done quite well for himself. He has become an American citizen as well. Ramos addresses the press conference story right away. It's not as dramatic as it looked on TV, because the future President did let him come ba

ASIANS and PACIFIC ISLANDERS and the CIVIL WAR by the National Park Service

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Published in 2015 by Eastern National A year and a half ago I visited the Lincoln home at Springfield, Illinois (a great place, by the way) and in the visitors center I found this book. I was intrigued for three reasons: 1) the Park Service books are always beautifully put together, like a National Geographic with lots of color pictures; 2) I knew nothing about any Asian participation in the Civil War - I figured there had to be some because the war was so vast and involved so many people - but I knew nothing about them; 3) This was the physically largest book in the series - even bigger than the books on the Underground Railroad and American Indians in the Civil War - two areas that are well documented. This book continues in the tradition of being beautiful visually. It is written as a series of articles, each telling a part of the overall story and each article is illustrated with high quality photos. However, the articles are often overlapping, with mentions of some of the sa

It Worked for Me: In Life and Leadership by Colin Powell with Tony Koltz

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Published in 2012 by Harper Colin Powell updates his 2003 memoir My American Journey with It Worked For Me: In Life and Leadership . The book is really two books. The first part is an expansion on an article that was written about him for Parade magazine in 1989. In that article he listed 13 rules he had for life: It ain't as bad as you think. It will look better in the morning. Get mad, then get over it. Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when your position falls, your ego goes with it. It can be done! Be careful what you choose. You may get it. Don't let adverse facts stand in the way of a good decision. You can't make someone else's choices. You shouldn't let someone else make yours. Check small things. Share credit. Remain calm. Be kind. Have a vision. Be demanding. Don't take counsel of your fears or naysayers. Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier. Colin Powell speaking at the United Nations Powell then expa

Rights at Risk: The Limits of Liberty in America by David K. Shipler

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Highly Recommended Published by Alfred A. Knopf in 2012 Last summer I read David K.Shipler's first book on this topic, The Rights of the People: How Our Search for Safety Invades Our Liberties (see my review by clicking here ) and I found it to be the most profound book I read that summer and maybe all year. I began my review of that book with this thought: "I always tell people that the traditional left-right continuum used to describe someone's politics is so inaccurate as to be useless. Really, what is the difference between an aging hippie living on a hill somewhere  raising some dope for personal use and telling the government to get out of his business and a Barry Goldwater-type conservative (like me) living by himself on a hill somewhere that tells the government to get its nose out of his business? Some dope. Otherwise, they are both determined advocates of civil liberties - keep out of my business if it is not hurting anyone else." When I read the f

Days of Obligation: An Argument With My Mexican Father (audiobook) by Richard Rodriguez

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Rodriguez writes a rambling, insightful and interesting work Published by Blackstone Audio in 2008 Duration: 8 hours, 14 minutes I first learned of Richard Rodriguez on C-Span's Booknotes program. He was an invited guest of First Lady Laura Bush to speak at an author's fair that she started hosting in Texas while she was the First Lady of Texas. Rodriguez was promoting his book Brown at the the time and I thought his observations were wonderful. Days of Obligations is in a similar vein, but not nearly as focused. He does (primarily) focus on the differences between Mexico and the United States Two interesting observations from Mexicans about America include: 1) "America is 'Organized'. Passive voice. Rodriguez notes that there seems to be no connection that actual Americans do the organizing. Rather it's almost like it is fate that America is organized. 2) Americans have too much freedom. Rodriguez digresses from his Mexico/America discu

Illegals: The Unacceptable Cost of America's Failure to Control Its Borders by Darrell Ankarlo

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A thorough discussion of the topic, from a stop-the-bleeding perspective Mark Twain once noted that, "Everyone complains about the weather, but no one does anything about it. I was reminded of this quote while reading Darrell Ankarlo's  Illegals: The Unacceptable Cost of America's Failure to Control Its Borders. Everyone has an opinion about illegal immigration, but precious few people have even seen the border, let alone know anything about the high cost of illegal immigration, the physical danger it creates, how it is done and the long-term damage it does to the United States. This is an eye-opening, scary look at the world of illegal immigrants - the dangers of crossing the border, the coyotes who guide them across, the drug gangs, and the U.S. Border Patrol. The first half of the  book is a powerful and consuming introduction to how immigrants cross the border, how the Border Patrol pursues its policy of "catch and release" and the extreme poverty of pa

The Great Progression: How Hispanics Will Lead America to a New Era of Prosperity by Geraldo Rivera

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Much like Geraldo himself, this book is a lot of sizzle and not much substance Sadly, I have to establish my bonafides here, otherwise I'll just get attacked in the comments section. I am a history and a Spanish teacher (20th year this year!). I live in an ethnically mixed neighborhood in which my best neighbors are, by far, a Mexican family. I live with illegal immigration every day, in my neighborhood and at my work. I am not a raving nut that says "round 'em up!" Nor am I an open borders guy that wants to take in the whole world. My neighborhood has been improved, my workplace has not - thanks to No Child Left Behind, my school's population of non-English speaking Hispanics will doom us to be labeled a failed school (fail just one category, you fail - period!) because they cannot pass the tests in English. So, now that we've gotten that out of the way, on to Geraldo's book, The Great Progression: How Hispanics Will Lead America to a New Era of Pro

Mexifornia: A State of Becoming by Victor Davis Hanson

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 Victor Davis Hanson Victor Davis Hanson's Mexifornia: A State of Becoming is one of the most thorough discussions about the topic of illegal immigration that I have read. Hanson is sympathetic to the plight of the aliens, is intimately familiar with the economic aspects that draw them to America (he owns a vineyard in the Fresno area) and he is witness to the changes and hidden costs that have come to California. He discusses the issue from the point of view of the illegal alien, the employers that hire them, the taxpayers that subsidize them, the way we used to bring immigrants into the larger American culture, the way we do it (or don't do it) now. It is not an anti-immigrant rate, despite some of the comments you may read in the reviews. I found this to be a fascinating read - It is much deeper than Geraldo Rivera's The Great Progression: How Hispanics Will Lead America to a New Era of Prosperity , a book that I've recently read that covers some o