The undocumented game

I'm making this sound heavy, so I'm failing miserably. Jay Mohr plays a venal politician with a troublesome laptop. Oliver Hudson finds another good use for his very punchable face as a sleazy FBI agent who slept with his last informant and seems to be the last toxic male left in the bureau.

The ever-splendid Navid Negahban plays Arman's boss Hayak, an ice-cold killer plotting his own casino-buying American dream.

In the second episode, Thony has to clean up Arman's office after murders happen, and she finds a picture of the monstrous Hayak hugging his big white dog. So fuzzy! Don't miss Lou Diamond Phillips , who guest-stars in episode 4 as a preening car salesman with precious bone marrow. Is The Cleaning Lady ridiculous? Yes, and not always in the good way. Sin City trash whiplashes with mawkish cute-kid sensitivity.

People keep describing Arman's nightclub as an amazing place full of decadent debauchery; we can see it looks like an and-over soda dungeon with aerial dancers. Still, creator Miranda Kwok and showrunner Melissa Carter have adapted an original Argentine series into a drama with decently complex cultural politics. There is a subplot about a DACA application the lawyer costs a fortune. Arman's entanglement with Hayak's family revs up the underworld succession counter - plotting.

Episode 5 delves into the horrors of an immigrant detention center. For a twisty soap to work, there has to be at least one completely lovable character, with relatable problems that counterbalance the hysteria. Millan makes Fiona the wild melodrama's lone real person, struggling through tough circumstances with unfussy desperation.

She's trying to build a life for her kids right on the edge of poverty or deportation, none of which stops her from trying to have a good time. The show could follow Fiona's lead and deepen its portrait of the everyday trials of undocumented paranoia. Ama and Ella lead the discussion.

Photo courtesy of Mustard Seed. Please visit The Alliance for a Just Society to download the game Ama and Ella used to demonstrate the difficulty of being an undocumented immigrant in the United States. Ella reflects on the issue of Immigration and its link to Scripture in her blog. Previous Post. Next Post. Please use the form below to receive our monthly newsletter and occasional email alerts. I really loved all that she shows in this book.

Mar 01, Jessica rated it it was amazing. Journalists are not allowed to get involved the way I have gotten involved. Journalists, to the best of my knowledge, do not try to change the outcome of their stories as crudely as I do. I send water. I fight with immigration lawyers. I raise money. I make arrangements with supernatural spirits to stop deportations. Either you will be familiar with these challenges and see yourself or your family and friends in these pages or you will be enlightened to the reality that many face.

Getting a drivers license in some states, health insurance, obtaining clean water, facing the threat of being deported at any moment, being able to retire with dignity or having any financial safety net are just some of the daily struggles that this book shines a light on.

Karla, one of the first undocumented immigrants to graduate from Harvard, gives a piece of herself to each of the people she interviews, and to readers of this book. You can feel her exhaustion and rage in each page. She has created something here that is really special. Pre-order, read, and share this book as much as you can. Mar 24, Never Without a Book rated it it was amazing. This book is everything!!!! A must read! Nov 29, Jessica rated it liked it Shelves: , memoir , nonfiction , migration.

Important stories but an odd mix of reportage and insertion of self. Neither completely journalism nor memoir, the mix can be off-putting. View all 4 comments. Sep 06, Ileana Cartagena rated it really liked it. I am Ecuadorian and have lived in Ecuador my whole life. Ever since I can remember, people around me left Ecuador for the United States: one of my aunties, one of my best friends, my mom's best friend with her family, one of my dad's best friends, several acquaintances, neighbors, friends of friends, etc.

Most of them left with tourist visas and then just stayed. Some of them fared better than others and could send their kids to college; some of them come back only to visit, others came back for I am Ecuadorian and have lived in Ecuador my whole life. Some of them fared better than others and could send their kids to college; some of them come back only to visit, others came back for good.

Some of them we never heard of again. But there is something common to all of them: they never speak about how they make a living in the US. Some may tell that they do this or that but without any details. So, in my opinion, Karla has written a book that needed to be written.

She has truly given a voice to those without a voice. Her own story is interlaced with the stories she tells, which make such stories more real. I also think that this book is relevant not only in the US, but in the whole world, especially in Latin America. Our countries have received thousands of Venezuelan immigrants in the last 5 years.

And I am ashamed to tell that they have not been well received. They have suffered the same abuse our immigrants endured in the US, from people who is indignant about immigrants being abused in the US. I hope that this book and books like this one help to change minds about immigrants. May 28, Will rated it it was amazing Shelves: memoir , nonfiction.

In her introduction to The Undocumented Americans Karla Cornejo Villavicencio writes: On the night of the presidential election, I spent a long time deciding what to wear…I wore a burgundy velvet dress with a sheer lace paneling, a ribbon in my hair, and a leopard print faux fur coat over my shoulders…I would not be ushered to an internment camp in sweatpants. Her stories are not focused on the border crisis.

There are stories of hope and love, but many of the stories are heartbreaking, resulting in my feeling not only sad but angry. She is vulnerable, empathetic, often funny and, well, a little kick ass.

My only criticism is the book is slim. I wanted more and was not ready to part with the author. I think she accomplished that, in her own unique way. I love and respect Erdrich so I'm sharing.

A better review than I could ever possibly write. Jan 26, Skyler Autumn rated it it was amazing. This book is heart-wrenching and eye-opening and will elicit compassion from anyone willing to read it. Books like this should be required reading in American Schools not by George Orwell which let us be honest isn't helping American people and their socialism paranoia. Jun 02, Jiny S rated it it was amazing Shelves: society. There are so much love and eloquence in this discourse which the author exposes the injustice and discrimination of undocumented Americans.

The United States has always had a complicated, dependant, and abusive relationship with its southern neighbors, especially in the current political climate. Its treatment of those who chose to cross the border for asylum or better opportunities is unsympathetic and vulgar. This novel seeks to break the popular and very false stereotypes of South Americans b There are so much love and eloquence in this discourse which the author exposes the injustice and discrimination of undocumented Americans.

In reality, they often work very hard, with minimal pay, doing jobs that no other Americans want to do. And yet, they have to deal with condescending attitudes as if being born in a different geographical location makes them less of a person. Without proper papers, undocumented Americans live in constant fear of deportation. They do not receive social resources despite contributing to society. It is heartbreaking to learn that undocumented Americans who risk their own lives during the attack on the twin towers are denied social and health services and resources.

In Flint, when auto manufacturers stopped production because the water quality was so bad it would erode machine parts, citizens who drink the water every day were the last to find out. The public notices do not take into account the actual demographic, and some people only found out when they talked to their families in Mexico on the phone. There will always be a double disadvantage for documented Americans in difficult times.

Their status made them especially vulnerable because they could not receive help and resources as members of society. The US has a history of ingrained racial divide, not only with its neighbor in the south but also with its African-American population and recently China. Discrimination and exclusion create problems in societies that affects everyone. Understanding undocumented Americans start with understanding their plight and sharing their voices.

It could be the first step to improving the lives of citizens. Mar 18, Jaclyn sixminutesforme rated it really liked it. The author was one of the first undocumented immigrants to graduate from Harvard and in this book she utilizes creative nonfiction to tell the stories of undocumented Americans across the country. The stories speak of issues including healthcare access and employment and family stability and love, among so much more.

Her writing is immediate and sensitive and informative particularly for me, having lived in the US relatively briefly , and what I found most striking was her own personal and family journey that she continued to reflect on throughout writing and speaking with the community.

That and her comments around her ability to even write this content and use her own name to do so. Jan 26, Mbgirl rated it it was amazing Shelves: immigrant , justice , memoirs. Best book in this new month of that I have read. Brilliant, sharp writer. Funny, edgy, quick, irreverent, and conflicted. Sharp, incisive, piercing points. For example, that there could be brown Latinx whose loss was way more personal than for a white person, but simply is not culturally acceptable.

Or the super heartbreaking vignette of drowned homeless who tried to save a squirrel or chipmunk Peter, Javier As well as her own complex history. Did she ever say at what age exactly she left Ecuador? Her maternal great grandmother saved her mother, and the irony of her own grandmother saving her.

Does a great job in showing how there is no clear-cut, black and white at viewing this very very prescient topic. I too thank the however many benefactors she had, all of whom helped catapult her to Harvard and Yale.

Feb 17, Bonnie G. This was an illuminating and surprisingly often sweet and funny listen, though its center is the personal impact of US immigration "policy," something that is not sweet or funny at all.

This is a 3-star I think everyone should read. Its not average as the star-rating implies. It is truly worth reading, though really flawed. The way in which the US treats black and brown immigrants has been one of the greatest shames of the 19thst centuries, but the Trump administration upped the ante.

We bega This was an illuminating and surprisingly often sweet and funny listen, though its center is the personal impact of US immigration "policy," something that is not sweet or funny at all. We began subjecting people, whose only crime was a wish for a better life and consequent penetration of a national boundary, to horrors we would most likely not deploy against murders, rapists, and enemy combatants.

People hiding in plain sight for years were suddenly being scooped up often as a result of complying with the mandatory reporting rules that had been set before as a condition for remaining in the US and sent to countries to which they often no longer have any connection and sometimes where they face physical danger. The author shares stories of people impacted in an engaging and edifying way. That said, things get a little complicated when Villavicencio weaves together memoir, reporting, and political polemic.

To be fair the author does not fail, so much as she makes no attempt, to maintain any sort of journalistic objectivity. She explicitly says, somewhere, near the halfway point as I recall, that this is not reporting and that she is not objective. She sort of holds herself out as a reporter until she doesn't, and it becomes hard to figure out what she wants the book to be.

If it is a memoir, that is fine -- she has a particular story to tell and she is a hell of a good storyteller. But if its a memoir what is the point of her hauling herself to Florida and Michigan to tell these other stories. Do they bolster her tale, add dimension? They are interesting stories which not told nearly often enough, but did they belong in the middle of one woman's attempt to find her place in the American immigrant story?

I was honored to have access to these other stories. I loved that she did not fall into the trap of portraying immigrants as "the wretched" Most of the people we meet find joy and pleasure in their lives.

They are not perfect, they are sometimes generous and sometimes selfish and petty, they are abused and abusers, they are hard working and not. They are people navigating a cruel and insane system and they are just trying to survive. These are stories I want to hear, stories that create connection. I just didn't understand what this author was doing with them. These people shared difficult stories, for some stories that embarrassed them or put them at risk, and then the author made their stories all about her and sometimes about her dog.