Outlaw : My Life As An Undocumented Immigrants

Immigration affects families in many different ways. In the book “Enrique’s Journey” by Sonia Nazario, family is a core element. After Enrique’s mother leaves for the U.S., the whole concept of their family gets distorted. The walking out of Enrique’s father and the abandonment of his grandmother help to disband the family even more. Enrique also threatens to repeat the same mistakes his family made with his daughter when he considers leaving her behind in Honduras. Family is the central theme in Enrique’s Journey because of his relationship and resentment with his mother, the rejection of his father and grandmother, and Enrique’s decision to leave his daughter, Jasmin, behind.

Getting through high school, getting a license, getting into college, and getting a job are all extremely intimidating parts of every young adult’s life, but it is hard to imagine doing all these things illegally with the fear that at any moment everything could come crashing down. In Jose Antonio Vargas’s article, “My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant”, Vargas explains his take on the struggles of being a gay, illegal immigrant trying to achieve the American Dream. Throughout the article, Vargas tells his story and really makes the reader feel sympathy for his fight and his strength. He does a very good job keeping the readers drawn in as well as appealing to pathos and ethos.

Cristina Henriquez’, The Book of Unknown Americans, folows the story of a family of immigants adjusting to their new life in the United States of America. The Rivera family finds themselves living within a comunity of other immigrants from all over South America also hoping to find a better life in a new country. This book explores the hardships and injustices each character faces while in their home country as well as withina foreign one, the United States. Themes of community, identity, globalization, and migration are prevalent throughout the book, but one that stood out most was belonging. In each chacters viewpoint, Henriquez explores their feelings of the yearning they have to belong in a community so different than the one that they are used to.

The authors of “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” and “My life as an Undocumented Immigrant” both use rhetoric appeal in their letters to society. Jose Antonio Vargas uses it to tell his story of being an unwanted American. Martin Luther King Jr uses it to tell the leader of church to keep fighting for their equality just as the Declaration of Independencies states “all men are created equal”. Vargas and King both had task that they each handled differently and similar.

Immigrants face many difficulties while trying to better their lives. In the article “Illegal immigrants in greece” by it shows how many immigrants lost their lives trying to travel to america in hopes of bettering their lives. In enrique’s journey many immigrants faced being tortured, killed, and having to deal with starvation. Immigrants end up dying when they go on

In the novel Enrique’s Journey, Sonia Nazario demonstrates the onerous journey of illegal immigrants. Sonia Nazario aims for the readers to make them understand what most of the immigrants go through during their journey to the United States. By appealing to ethos and pathos throughout the book, Sonia Nazario portrays the path that Enrique undergoes to reunite with his mother.

Christine Bowman, writer of the essay “Undocumented Lives: Migrant Latinos in America”, presents a strong response to a book of a similar name. Bowman’s authority is already shown without having to read her review at all due to her choice of topic alone and how controversial it is. She brings up the stereotypes and misconceptions about immigrants and how they are exploited for their hard work, challenging the idea that migrants are only here to take away American jobs (Bowman 261). Along with this, she argues against the complaints relating to the miscommunications between our languages and reminds us that migrants are “scared because they do not speak English” (Bowman 262). As proof of her credibility, Bowman cites a quote that further expands on the language barrier. Her use of I throughout the essay adds a personal touch, allowing her to bring up the things she feels are most important, including how migrant workers should not all be treated as they’re part of the same story (Bowman 260).

The story of Enrique is fundamentally a story that stirs the emotions. While we may find reasonable the logical arguments laid out by the Nazario’s sources, and while Nazario’s ethos is backed by extensive notes, the tale is fundamentally an anecdotal account in the larger debate over immigration. Its appeal is pathetic in that it viscerally shows the life and travails of an immigrant from Central America, following the protagonist through drug addiction and beatings, danger and deportations, poverty and exploitation, and finally the thorny reunion with his mother. Nazario intentionally writes an engaging adventure (or misadventure) story using a third person narrative instead of focusing on Enrique’s own words. The writing and organizational style of Enrique’s Journey walks a thin line between ethnography and creative non-fiction, a choice that deliberately increases the emotional and imaginative appeal.

Ever since I can remember I have always wanted to be in scrubs, the idea of working in the hospital has always been something I wanted to do. I looked up and admired physicians as everyday heroes who worked hard to rescue those in need. Growing up I volunteered in hospitals during the summers and spent every Tuesday and Thursday night during the school year at Moses Cone Hospital taking part in their Medical Explorers program, a program designed to expose one to all the different careers available in the hospital. I was on the fast track of working towards my dream until the realities of living as an undocumented immigrant became very real. After I walked across the stage in 2005, this dream became a distant memory. Fast forward 10 years later

In an intense debate on solution to undocumented immigrants living in America, Journalist Jose Vargas opens with, “What do you want to do with us? And to me, the most important question, as a student of American history, is this: how do you define American?” This is but a few emotion striking moments captured in the documentary “Documented”. Washington Post reporter Jose Antonio Vargas uses his own life as a glimpse of the hardships faced by hardworking Americans who are labelled as undocumented immigrants. Feeling as if he had been living in fear for 18 years while establishing a career as a successful journalist, Vargas came out as being undocumented and began documenting his journey toward humanizing the millions of illegal immigrants who

“Tell me the moment she feels any pain!” Dr. Cueto shouted. I relayed the message in Thai to

Immigration is a very problematic and debatable topic in many ways. Its isn’t easy being an immigrant no matter what country you come from or where you settle. The novel shares stories of Chinese immigrants and the article shares how it is as a Hispanic immigrant. Although being very differing culture, they are still share many similarities.

Dinaw Mengestu, Richard Rodriguez and Manuel Munoz are three authors that have been through and gone through a lot of pain to finaly get accepted in their societies. They are all either immigrants or children of immigrants that had trouble fitting in America’s society at the time. They struggled with language and their identities, beucase they were not original from the states and it was difficult for others to accept them for who they are. They all treated their problems differently an some tried to forget their old identeties and live as regulalr Americans others accepted themselves for being who they are, but they all found a way to deal with their issues.

We often wonder about immigrants’ motivation for parting with their homeland to reallocate with us in the United States. We question whether they relate to other immigrants, with similar objective and mindset, or simply just pursuing for an improved life. The Book of the Unknown Americans by Cristina Heriquez, provides a glimpse of the lives of immigrants who moved to Wilmington, Delaware for the hope of the American Dream and take advantage of their new opportunities. One of the families who strived to establish a new path was the Rivera family. The Rivera family consisted of Alma, the homemaker, Arturo, the head of the family, and Maribel, their child who suffered from brain malfunction. The Riveras differ from other immigrants in a way that they came to America not to seek for economic aspect of the American Dream, but to endow the proper education for Maribel. As their family began to adapt to their lives, several obstacles occurred to them that may have challenged their feelings, hope, and purpose.

Many refugees and immigrants come to the U.S. to get a better life, and face many difficulties. The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henriquez writes about a family that comes to the U.S. for a better life. It shows the difficulties a family faces in the U.S. At the same time, Cristina Nunez writes an article telling about challenges refugees and immigrants in the U.S. face. Cristina Henriquez narrative reflects the ideas of Cristina Nunez of challenges faced by refugees and immigrants by telling on how refugees and immigrants face hard challenges everyday on education, jobs, and learning english.