Structure

The Undocumented Americans has two major story lines: the interviews of undocumented immigrants from different places in the country and the memoir-like writing of events from Villavicencio’s childhood through adulthood. The book is partitioned into six chapters and each chapter represents a place in the United States: Staten Island, New York City (Ground Zero), Miami, Flint, Cleveland, and New Haven. Within each city, Villavicencio interviews undocumented immigrants to understand their experiences of arriving and living in the United States. She asks questions about what jobs they took in order to survive and/or send money back to their families in home countries, how they handle healthcare or separation issues, and the treatment they have received from employers and others.

The two major story lines, the interviews and memoir, are intimately connected. Villavicencio is an undocumented immigrant, and she often comments upon the information unearthed from the...