Synopses & Reviews
The new immigrant experience chronicled in words and pictures. The percentage of foreign-born people living in America today is almost as high as it was at the peak of the early twentieth century immigrations. But while previous waves of migrants settled in urban areas, today's migrants are spread across the country. Now, Emmy-award-winning journalist Rubén Martínez, along with celebrated photographer and longtime collaborator Joseph Rodríguez, have set out to capture and contextualize this multifaceted new immigrant experience. In The New Americans, a companion book to the PBS documentary from the award-winning producers and director of Hoop Dreams, we experience the day-to-day lives of the immigrant families chronicled in the series: an Indian couple in the Silicon Valley; a Mexican native and a Vietnamese couple working in meatpacking plants in Kansas; a family of Nigerian refugees, including the sister of slain Ogoni activist Ken Saro-Wiwa; two top Los Angeles Dodgers prospects from the Dominican Republic; and a pair of Palestinian newlyweds carving out a life in Chicago. Weaving personal stories together with stunning portraits from Rodríguez, The New Americans is a moving meditation on the experience of a new generation of immigrants.
Review
"Fresh, nuanced and insightful.. . . [A] thoughtful, readable contribution to the immigration debates." —
Houston Chronicle"Seven new immigrant families . . . all have their stories told with an impeccable eye. . . . A positive anthology of human determination and the capacity for change and growth." —Midwest Book Review
"Martínez has penned five powerful and perceptive immigrant portraits . . . skillfully tying them together with essays on the emerging immigrant pop culture." —Booklist
"A map of exile in global times, designed from within." —Eduardo Galeano, Author of Upside Down
"Martínez writes with moral clarity and razor-sharp wit." —Mike Davis
"Recommended for school, public, and academic libraries." —Library Journal
Synopsis
Spanning four continents and several years in the lives of seven immigrant families, The New Americans is at once the most globe-trotting and intimate introduction to the new American immigration. Emmy Award–winning journalist Rubén Martínez’s “powerful and perceptive chronicle” (Booklist) lyrically recounts the dramatic voyages and day-to-day experiences of a small group of families who were featured in the PBS documentary of the same name. They come from Mexico, Nigeria, Palestine, India, and the Dominican Republic, and wind up in Chicago, Montana, Silicon Valley, and the California badlands. Their stories—told with “enthralling” (Publishers Weekly) literary skill and illustrated with stunning portraits from award-winning photographer Joseph Rodriguez—paint a portrait of the new, multicultural America.
Martinez weaves his own family’s moving immigrant history into the book, and essays on the films of Indian American director Mira Nair, the contemporary corridos of Mexican border musicians Los Tigres del Norte, and other immigrant artists explore the ways the new immigrant culture is transforming the United States.
About the Author
Rubén Martínez is the author of Crossing Over: A Mexican Family on the Migrant Trail; The Other Side: Notes from the New LA; and other books. He is an associate editor at Pacific News Service and a regular commentator on radio and television. Joseph Rodríguez is an award-winning photographer whose work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Life, The Village Voice, Vibe and Sí.