Summary

The afterword, titled “American Dreamer,” is written by Lorena, one of the interviewed subjects of Undocumented America. She explains how, since her parents brought her to the U.S. when she was six years old, she has learned how to “be invisible” (348). She describes how, one day before Lorena was granted deferred action, her brother Julio passed away unexpectedly: “Julio is a citizen of God’s Heaven now. He doesn’t need documentation there” (350).

She explains how her undocumented status has affected her marriage. Self-conscious about having no papers, she repeatedly insisted that she was independent and did not pursue legalization because she wanted to demonstrate that she had married him for him, not for his papers. Based on her life and the lives of the undocumented immigrants she knows, she takes issue with an article she read recently, which argued that children of...