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Notes on an American Myth
by Daisy Hernández
A provocative, personal, blazingly intelligent examination of one of the most vexing questions facing the United States today: Who is, and should be, a citizen?
In this one-of-a-kind book, Daisy Hernández fiercely interrogates one of the most complicated subjects of contemporary life and politics: citizenship. Braiding memoir, history, and cultural criticism, she exposes the truths and lies of how we define ourselves as a country and a people. Turning to her own family's stories—her mother arrived from Colombia, while her father was a political refugee from Castro's Cuba—Hernández shows how the very idea of citizenship is a myth, one of the stories we tell ourselves about the American soul and psyche.
Reframing our understanding of what it means to be an American, Citizenship is an urgent and necessary account of the laws, customs, and language we use to include and exclude, especially those who come from Latin America. With her scholar's mind and memoirist's gift for narrative, Hernández weaves a story both personal and national, while reckoning with our country's ongoing debate about who belongs and providing fresh ways of thinking about citizenship. At once bracing, fearless, and tender, Citizenship is a powerful portrait of one family's experiences in the borderlands of citizenship and an honest illumination of the country in which we live.
"Award-winning writer and journalist Hernández courageously delves into the concept of citizenship in this personal, profound, engaging, and comprehensive study...Based on rigorous scholarship documented in exhaustive notes, this is an essential book for these contentious times." —Booklist (starred review)
"A fine contribution to the swirling discussion around citizenship, birthright or otherwise." —Kirkus Reviews
"The most comprehensive book on citizenship/immigration I've ever read. Daisy Hernández marvelously blends her family's story with the story of citizenship itself. In her pen, everything is illuminated to a point in which we can understand our present moment better. This book is a must-read!" —Javier Zamora, New York Times bestselling author of Solito
"I have deeply admired Daisy Hernández's previous work, and Citizenship has cemented my status as her ultimate fan. Her singular voice and profound insights feel more essential than ever. This is a book that demands to be read by everyone." —Reyna Grande, author of The Distance Between Us
This information about Citizenship was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Daisy Hernández is the author of The Kissing Bug, winner of the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award and the inaugural title for the National Book Foundation's Science + Literature Program. Her memoir, A Cup of Water Under My Bed, won Lambda Literary's Dr. Betty Berzon Emerging Writer Award and was a Publishing Triangle Award finalist. She co-edited the classic feminist anthology Colonize This! and is an associate professor of creative writing at Northwestern University.
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