These three episodes of stories explore the power and impact of American immigrant writers, including works from a Dream Project writing workshop with college students and other emerging authors. The Dream Project empowers Virginia students whose immigration status creates barriers to higher education through access to scholarships, resources, and mentors.
Telling Our Story
In 2022, Enya joined other first generation immigrants in a writing workshop hosted by the publisher Restless Books and Arlington, Virginia’s Dream Project. Restless Books is a nonprofit publisher “devoted to championing essential voices from around the world whose stories speak to us across linguistic and cultural borders.”
Later in the show: Workshop participants Nataly Montano, Karen Vallejos Corrales, Cecilia Morales, and Hareth Andrade Ayala share their stories of immigrating to this country and read some of their written work.
Episode Excerpts
Enya Cid was only three when she moved to the United States. But she says her legal status as an American always feels uncertain. Enya is a writer and recent graduate of Grand View University.
Most of the Restless Books workshop participants were college students or relatively recent grads. Cecilia Morales says she was a bit like the mother of the group. She immigrated to the United States as an adult, along with her young children. Cecilia Morales is a writer and Program and Business Manager at the Dream Project.
The Dream Project started in 2010 when a group of teenagers, parents, and educators got together. Their mission: to find a way to give students with undocumented status a path to college. Karen Vallejos Corrales was one of the founding student members and she’s now back with the organization as the Executive Director.
Nataly Montano is living her dream as a medical student at Stanford University, following in her father’s footsteps in medicine. She joined the Restless Books writing workshop as a way to recover some of her early memories of immigrating to the U.S.
Hareth Andrade Ayala was a student co-founder of the Dream Project. During the Restless Books writing workshop, she reflected on what it was like to see her parents move through their careers, both in Bolivia and in the United States. Hareth is now inspiring courage, love, and authenticity as the creator of Amor Vincit Beauty.
The People’s Tongue
Who decides what makes a language? In countries all over the world, there are official organizations with that job–in France, Croatia, India, Denmark, Nigeria, Mexico. But Ilan Stavans reminds us that in the United States, the people decide our language.
Later in the show: Christina Rodriguez says Hispanic barrios play a big part in Latinx literature; Cristina Stanciu argues that it’s worth looking at turn of the century immigrant narratives alongside those of Native Americans; and Katrina Powell shares how writers are resisting the stereotypical migrant story.
In Our Words
Teenagers have long turned to books for a guide on how to live, but for kids of immigrant parents, those guides can be particularly important. Addie Tsai’s first novel was a YA book that wrestled with many of the same complex issues they faced as a kid.
Later in the show: SJ Sindu says that everything she writes is translated through the lens of her experience as an immigrant, a refugee, and a queer person; Majo Delgadillo, an immigrant from Mexico, explains how she writes in both English and Spanish; and Yuemin He takes on the extra challenge of translating poetry.
This program is made possible by funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the United We Stand: Connecting Through Culture initiative. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this episode do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
