A Book List to Kick Off Immigrant Heritage Week 2020
Immigrant Station, Ellis Island. NYPL Digital Collections, Image ID: 416752
Happy Immigrant Heritage Week 2020!
Since April 17, 1907 when Ellis Island had its busiest day—processing a record 11,747 new arrivals in a single day—New York has always celebrated immigrants and the beginning of the American Dream to so many new Americans. Since 2004, New York City has celebrated Immigrant Heritage Week (IHW) around April 17 to highlight that incredible milestone. Since 2014, the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs (MOIA) has coordinated events to celebrate IHW, occurring this year from April 13-April 17.
Immigrant Heritage Week has been a staple and exciting week for both MOIA and the New York Public Library. We want our vibrant immigrant community to be celebrated and seen, especially during these difficult times. Given the global pandemic, this year we have put together a week of blog posts with lists of books available in digital formats, so you can read them from the comfort of your home or wherever you may be. Today's list highlights adult memoir, nonfiction, and fiction.
I hope that the titles on this list will allow you to get lost in the vivid and caring representations of the New York you are familiar with, of the boroughs that you have plenty of memories in. These titles represent each authors’ unique immigrant experience, through various mediums, genres, backgrounds and neighborhoods. Each setting offers a character's distinct perspective of someone who grapples with two lives: life back home and life in New York. But these stories capture a feeling you might find familiar: a love of New York, a celebration of where we come from and where we are now, and the magnificence of making a life that is your own. These titles brilliantly display that we all have our own New York City, one that is shaped from our experiences and histories, that is unique to us yet not unfamiliar to other New Yorkers who are also proud to call themselves immigrants.
During these hard and difficult times, I hope these titles remind you that even when we are all inside, New York is still your city. We thank the following staff for their recommendations: Elizabeth W, Alessandra A, Maura M, Jenny C, Sydney R, Jeremy M, Genoveve S, Lynn L, Adriana B-H.
Please note that only books that take place partly in New York have been included, so many wonderful books about the immigrant experience are not on this list. Please recommend your favorite immigrant experience books in the comments section below.
Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post with Adriana highlighting our next book list: Youth Fiction.
See you then!
Memoirs
97 Orchard: An Edible History of Five Immigrant Families in One New York Tenement by Jane Ziegelman (2010)
Explores the food traditions and habits of five families who lived at 97 Orchard Street in the 19th century: the Glockers (Germany), the Moores (Ireland), the Gumpertzs (Germany), the Rogarshvskys (Lithuania) and the Baldizzis (Italy). 97 Orchard Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan is now the site of The Tenement Museum.
The All-of-Kind Family series by Sydney Taylor
This is a semi-autobiographical story of five young sisters in a Jewish immigrant family living on the Lower East Side of Manhattan (and later in the Bronx) in the early 1900s. Sweet and full of historical details, including a great scene set at the Seward Park Library!
My Beloved World by Sonia Sotomayor (2013)
Sotomayor details her life from growing up in the projects of the Bronx to the Supreme Court bench. Very inspiring! This book is available in both English and Spanish as an e-book and in English as an e-audiobook.
Becoming Maria: Love and Chaos in the South Bronx by Sonia Manzano (2015)
The true and amazing story of Sonia Manzano, Emmy Award-winning actress, writer and star of the renowned television show Sesame Street.
Bird of Paradise: How I Became Latina by Raquel Cepeda (2013)
Journalist, filmmaker, and writer Raquel Cepeda explores her Latin American roots in this memoir; the first to be published by a Dominican American.
Love, Loss, and What We Ate by Padma Lakshmi (2016)
From her grandmother’s South India kitchen to her television chef stardom, Lakshmi explores food, family, and what home means in this memoir of her immigrant childhood and her life in front of the camera.
Not for Everyday Use: A Memoirby Elizabeth Nunez (2014)
Novelist and scholar Nunez returns to her mother’s deathbed in her native Trinidad. As she and her family prepare for the funeral, she reflects on her childhood under the British colonial system, her parents’ marriage, and her experiences as a college student and finally a distinguished professor in the United States.
The Rise of Abraham Cahanby Seth Lipsky (2013)
Abraham Cahan, born in Vilnius, Lithuania and longtime editor of the Jewish Forward (Forverts), New York’s Yiddish language newspaper, also authored the classic immigrant novel, The Rise of David Levinsky (1917).
'Tis: A Memoir by Frank McCourt (1999)
In the sequel to the international bestseller Angela's Ashes Frank McCourt describes his life in America, beginning in 1949 with his arrival in New York at the age of 19. His story continues in Teacher Man.
When I Was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago (1993)
The author tells the story of her childhood in Puerto Rico and her teenage years in New York in this coming of age classic. Her story continues in Almost a Woman.
Undocumented: A Dominican Boy's Odyssey from a Homeless Shelter to the Ivy League by Dan-El Padilla Peralta (2015)
At one point in his memoir Peralta, who came to the U.S. at the age of four and is now a professor of classics at Princeton, describes himself as "illegal alien, hoodrat, Dominican, classicist.” His story offers a window into the hardships faced by undocumented families.
Non-Fiction
City of Dreams: The 400-Year Epic History of Immigrant New York by Tyler Anbinder
Written by an acclaimed historian, this is a sweeping history of the peoples who have come to New York for four centuries: a defining American story of millions of immigrants, hundreds of languages, and one great city.
The Displaced: Refugee Writers on Refugee Lives edited by Viet Thanh Nguyen
These essays reveal moments of uncertainty, resilience in the face of trauma, and a reimagining of identity, forming a compelling look at what it means to be forced to leave home and find a place of refuge.
The Good Immigrant edited by Nikesh Shukla
Presents essays by first- and second-generation immigrant writers on the realities of immigration, multiculturalism, and marginalization in an increasingly divided America. From President Trump's proposed border wall and travel ban to the marching of White Supremacists in Charlottesville, America is consumed by tensions over immigration and the question of which bodies are welcome.
My (Underground) American Dream by Julissa Arce
The author, a vice president at Goldman Sachs, tells her personal story of separation, grief, and ultimate redemption, changing the perception of what it means to be an undocumented Hispanic immigrant.
One Out of Three: Immigrant New York in the Twenty-First Century edited by Nancy Foner
This absorbing anthology features in-depth portraits of diverse ethnic populations, revealing the surprising new realities of immigrant life in twenty-first-century New York City. Contributors show how nearly fifty years of massive inflows have transformed New York City's economic and cultural life and how the city has changed the lives of immigrant newcomers.
Tell Me How it Ends: an Essay in Forty Questions by Valeria Luiselli
This is a short read centered on the questions that Luiselli asks undocumented migrant children in her work in the federal government immigration system. Answers to those questions determine the path these children take who face deportation—a powerful read.
Fiction
Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue (2016)
This book offers a contemporary insight into the dynamics of a first-generation West African immigrant family in Harlem, their challenges and triumphs realistically depicted.
Bread Givers by Anzia Yezierska (1925)
On Manhattan’s Lower East Side, the daughter of an Orthodox rabbi rebels against her immigrant father’s view of what a young Jewish woman should be.
Call it Sleep by Henry Roth (1934)
Recounts the experiences of an Austrian-Jewish family living on the Lower East Side in the early 20th century.
Dominicana by Angie Cruz (2019)
The award-winning author of Soledad draws on her mother’s story in a tale set in a turbulent 1960s Dominican Republic, where a young teen agrees to marry a man twice her age to help her family’s immigration to America.
How I Found America by Anzia Yezierska
Individually, each of these 27 stories is authentic and immediate, as memorable as family history passed from one generation to the next; taken together, they comprise a vivid, enduring portrait of the struggles of immigrant Jews―particularly women―on New York's Lower East Side.
How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez (1991)
A family moves from the Dominican Republic to the Bronx in the 1960s, and a linguistic and cultural gap develops between generations.
Ice Cream Queen of Orchard Street by Susan Jane Gilman (2014)
Centers around Malka, who comes to America with her Jewish family, but is abandoned after she is accidentally crippled by the driver of an Italian Ices cart on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. She gets taken in by that family, learns the ice cream business and becomes a wealthy businesswoman… until her past starts catching up with her.
Maggie, A Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane (1893)
An Irish immigrant family struggles to survive on the Bowery in late 19th century New York.
The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos (1989)
The novel tells the story of Cesar Castillo, an older musician who experienced a small amount of fame when he and his brother appeared on an episode of “I Love Lucy”. Cesar and his brother left Cuba in 1949 and dreamt of becoming Mambo stars in New York. The book chronicles Cesar’s last hours in a seedy hotel room, drinking and listening to recordings made by his band, the “Mambo Kings”.
Native Speaker by Chang-rae Lee (1995)
Becoming a "native speaker" is not so simple for a Korean American man who tries to assimilate into mainstream American society but has been raised with different cultural norms.
Netherland by Joseph O'Neill (2008)
Set in New York City and told through the eyes of a Dutch expat in the months following 9/11, this book is centered on a group of cricket enthusiasts from every corner of the globe. Most notable among these enthusiasts is Chuck Ramkissoon, a crooked but upbeat Trinidadian clawing at the American Dream.
Open City by Teju Cole (2011)
A young Nigerian doctor wanders the streets of New York, listening to other immigrants’ stories and reflecting on his own.
Strength in What Remains by Tracy Kidder (2009)
Deo arrives in the United States from Burundi in search of a new life. Having survived a civil war and genocide, he lands at JFK airport with two hundred dollars, no English, and no contacts. He ekes out a precarious existence delivering groceries, living in Central Park, and learning English by reading dictionaries in bookstores. Then Deo begins to meet the strangers who will change his life, pointing him eventually in the direction of Columbia University, medical school, and a life devoted to healing. Kidder breaks new ground in telling this unforgettable story as he travels with Deo back over a turbulent life and shows us what it means to be fully human.