Stranger: The Challenge of a Latino Immigrant in the Trump Era by Jorge Ramos
”There are times when I feel like a stranger in this country. I am not complaining and it's not for lack of opportunity. But it is something of a disappointment. I never would have imagined that after having spent thirty five years in the United States I would still be a stranger to so many. But that's how it is."
Jorge Ramos, an Emmy award-winning journalist, Univision's longtime anchorman and widely considered the "voice of the voiceless" within the Latino community, was forcefully removed from an Iowa press conference in 2015 by then-candidate Donald Trump after trying to ask about his plans on immigration.
In this personal manifesto, Ramos sets out to examine what it means to be a Latino immigrant, or just an immigrant, in present-day America. Using current research and statistics, with a journalist's nose for a story, and interweaving his own personal experience, Ramos shows us the changing face of America while also trying to find an explanation for why he, and millions of others, still feel like strangers in this country.
Even though Ramos states that this isn’t a book about Trump, the Big Orange One is a key player. What I wish is that there had been more of Ramos’ personal experiences. There were some, but much of what he wrote about were the policies put in place by the current, and, unfortunately, the past administration.
But I wanted to learn more about Ramos’ own experiences in order to compare it to what my own grandparents might have experienced. Since it was never talked about, I really don’t know what they went through, though, going by history, it was probably just as rough then as now.
I already knew most of what is covered in the book, so I’d say it’s very much a book for someone new to the subject.
Links are to more information regarding each book or author, not to the review.
1. The Outsider
2. War on Peace: The End of Diplomacy and the Decline of American Influence
3. Lost Dogs and Lonely Hearts
4. The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America
5. Frozen in Time: The Fate of the Franklin Expedition
6. From Baghdad to America: Life after War for a Marine and His Rescued Dog (Lava #2)
7. The Gap Into Vision: Forbidden Knowledge (Gap #2)
8. The Family That Couldn't Sleep: A Medical Mystery
9. First King of Shannara (Original Shannara Trilogy 0)
10. Legends of the Fall
11. Moon of the Crusted Snow
12. Mio, My Son
13. Circe
14. Al Franken: Giant of the Senate
15. Memoirs of a Polar Bear
16. Of Mice and Men
17. A Dog's Purpose
18. A Quiet Victory for Latino Rights: FDR and the Controversy Over "Whiteness"
19. The Gap Into Power: A Dark and Hungry God Arises (Gap #3)
20. The Face of Apollo (Book of the Gods #1)
21. The Talisman
22. The Sword of Shannara
23. The Scarlet Lion
24. 999
25. The Sugar Solution
26. The Court of the Midnight King
27. Children Of the Sun
28. Stranger: The Challenge of a Latino Immigrant in the Trump Era