Cristina Jimenez talks 'Dreaming of Home,' immigration, climate change

The Herald Scotland

a day ago

"Dreaming of Home: How We Turn Fear into Pride, Power, and Real Change" (St. Martin's Press, pp. 320, out now) is more than a memoir, "it's about the story of many undocumented and courageous people," Jimenez said, and an invitation for readers to organize and dream of a more just place for all.
"I had dreamed of a better world and for this book to be in a different context, but here we are," Jimenez said, sounding determined. "I think about this book as an organizing tool, as a story and as a way for us to come together to remember that we do have power."
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Jimenez's parents brought her to New York from Ecuador when she was 13, she said. When she was in the 11th grade in New York City's Queens borough and ready to apply for college, she found out that due to her undocumented status, the road to higher education would look different than that of her peers.
Although Jimenez recalls feeling defeated then, she said her mother, who was proudly in attendance at her daughter's book event, was the one who told her not to back down and fight for the necessary resources to pursue her educational goals.
Those small but significant seeds of courage and community have led her to this moment. "Community is what's going to give us the energy, ideas and strategies for what we need to do to move us forward," she added.
That, and love.
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Why love is at the center of 'Dreaming of Home'
During the Q&A, led by actress Francia Raisa, Jimenez opened up about the effects of migration, how climate change plays a role in people seeking a new place to call home, and why love is at the heart of her new memoir.
"So much of the migration story is the story about love, and we barely think about immigrants and our conversations about immigrants as stories of love," she said.
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Jimenez said she wanted to shed light "on the fact that love is at the center of the courageous act of leaving everything behind for your loved ones.
"Love is at the center when immigrant communities are doing the best and struggling to accomplish dreams, to lift each other up, to do better for their families. And when I think about my parents and many of the parents that had to leave everything behind to come here and take on great risk, I think it was love at the center of their courage and their ability to make that scary decision."
'Why do we even have such a thing as migration?'
Jimenez asked attendees to examine their thoughts and preconceptions around immigration.
"What I also wanted to do with this book is to really pull the curtain and let the reader have an opportunity to understand why do we even have such a thing as migration and people being forced out?" she said in response to a question from Francia about the impact of climate change on migration patterns.
"So much of what we, as migrants and as immigrants, get from the media and from everything we hear is that somehow we are bad - that we are criminals because we migrated to seek a better life, to seek safety," she said. "I wanted to really talk about what's underneath migration: unjust laws, violence, corruption and increasingly more and more now, climate change."
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She added: "If you care about our democracy, if you care about climate change, if you care about having a world that we all can share, you have to deal with immigration."
Cristina Jimenez immigration advocacy work knows no bounds
In 2020, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, USA TODAY named Jimenez one of its Women of the Century for her work in helping establish Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, and inspiring young immigrants to find their voice.
Jimenez cofounded United We Dream, which became the country's largest immigrant-youth-led network with 400,000 members across 100 local groups and 28 states.
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The group pressured then-President Barack Obama to protect young immigrants brought to the U.S. as children. In 2012, his administration created DACA, which allowed these young immigrants to obtain work permits, get driver's licenses, and go to college. The organization helped change public perception of undocumented youth.
Contributing: Nicole Carroll, USA TODAY