The American DREAMer: From Undocumented to Wall Street to Immigration Advocate

Julissa Arce
November 3, 2016, 3:00pm
Phelps-Stokes Auditorium

Julissa Arce is a writer, speaker, and social justice advocate and author of MY (UNDERGOUND) AMERICAN DREAM (Hachette Book Group, September 2016). She made national and international headlines when she revealed that she had achieved the American Dream of wealth and status while undocumented. She is the co-founder and chairman of the Ascend Educational Fund, a scholarship fund for immigrant students regardless of their immigration status. She is also on the board of directors of the National Immigration Law Center and the national board of directors of CollegeSpring. Prior to becoming an advocate she built a successful career on Wall Street as a vice president at Goldman Sachs and a director at Merrill Lynch.  Julissa now uses her inspirational story to change the conversation around immigration.

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My (Underground) American Dream by Julissa Arce

Call Number: 973.046 A668m 2016 (2nd floor)

Publication Date: 2016-09-13

What does an undocumented immigrant look like? What kind of family must she come from? How could she get into this country? What is the true price she must pay to remain in the United States? JULISSA ARCE knows firsthand that the most common, preconceived answers to those questions are sometimes far too simple-and often just plain wrong. On the surface, Arce's story reads like a how-to manual for achieving the American dream: growing up in an apartment on the outskirts of San Antonio, she worked tirelessly, achieved academic excellence, and landed a coveted job on Wall Street, complete with a six-figure salary. The level of professional and financial success that she achieved was the very definition of the American dream. But in this brave new memoir, Arce digs deep to reveal the physical, financial, and emotional costs of the stunning secret that she, like many other high-achieving, successful individuals in the United States, had been forced to keep not only from her bosses, but even from her closest friends. From the time she was brought to this country by her hardworking parents as a child, Arce-the scholarship winner, the honors college graduate, the young woman who climbed the ladder to become a vice president at Goldman Sachs-had secretly lived as an undocumented immigrant.

Immigrants Raising Citizens by Hirokazu Yoshikawa

Call Number: 305.906 Y656i 2011 (3rd floor)

Publication Date: 2011-03-11

An in-depth look at the challenges undocumented immigrants face as they raise children in the U.S. There are now nearly four million children born in the United States who have undocumented immigrant parents. In the current debates around immigration reform, policymakers often view immigrants as an economic or labor market problem to be solved, but the issue has a very real human dimension. Immigrant parents without legal status are raising their citizen children under stressful work and financial conditions, with the constant threat of discovery and deportation that may narrow social contacts and limit participation in public programs that might benefit their children. Immigrants Raising Citizens offers a compelling description of the everyday experiences of these parents, their very young children, and the consequences these experiences have on their children's development.

Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt by Chris Hedges; Joe Sacco

Call Number: 305.5609 H453d 2012 (3rd floor)

Publication Date: 2012-06-12

Two years ago, Pulitzer Prize winner Chris Hedges and award-winning cartoonist and journalist Joe Sacco set out to take a look at the sacrifice zones, those areas in America that have been offered up for exploitation in the name of profit, progress, and technological advancement. They wanted to show in words and drawings what life looks like in places where the marketplace rules without constraints, where human beings and the natural world are used and then discarded to maximize profit. Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt is the searing account of their travels.