<b>Tracing his story of becoming a US citizen, JosΓ© OrduΓ±a's memoir explores the complex issues of immigration and assimilation.</b><br><br>In July of 2011 JosΓ© OrduΓ±a was naturalized as an American citizen, a decision made, he admits, in bad faith and purely out of self-interest. Though grateful to
The Weight of Shadows: A Memoir of Immigration & Displacement
- Publisher
- Beacon Press
- Year
- 2009
- Category
- Fiction
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
β¦ Synopsis
Tracing his story of becoming a US citizen, JosΓ© OrduΓ±a's memoir explores the complex issues of immigration and assimilation.
In July of 2011 JosΓ© OrduΓ±a was naturalized as an American citizen, a decision made, he admits, in bad faith and purely out of self-interest. Though grateful to his parents for their many sacrifices, which resulted in his citizenship, he feels anger and resentment towards a punitive and racist government. With a searingly original voice, OrduΓ±a reflects on the complicated and contradictory experience of morphing into a "legal" young, brown immigrant. He describes the absurd feeling of being given a piece of paper--his naturalization certificate--handed to him by a robed judge to certify something he has always known: he has a right to be here and is, at least in theory, equal under the law. A trenchant exploration of race, class, and identity, The Weight of Shadows chronicles the process of becoming a...
π SIMILAR VOLUMES
<p>In recounting her life's journey from Romania to the United States, Vlasopolos writes movingly of the peculiar attributes of displacement in the contemporary world. Vlasopolos renders a loving portrait of her mother, an Auschwitz survivor courageously raising a young girl alone after the death of
<P><i>No Return Address</i> is a vivid memoir of a life in exile and a poignant meditation on pleasure and loss, repression and transgression, and the complexities of love under harsh human conditions. In recounting her life's journey from Romania to Paris and Brussels, then on to the United States,
An unforgettable story of an ordinary woman in astonishing circumstances who defies the odds. Timea Nagy was twenty years old when she answered a newspaper ad in Budapest, Hungary, calling for young women to work as babysitters and housekeepers in Canada. Hired by what seemed like a legitimate re
xii, 345 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : 24 cm