Just Like Us: The True Story of Four Mexican Girls Coming of Age
Written by Helen Thorpe
Narrated by Paula Christensen
4/5
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About this audiobook
Helen Thorpe
Helen Thorpe was born in London and grew up in Medford, New Jersey. Her journalism has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Texas Monthly, and Slate. Her radio stories have aired on This American Life and Soundprint. She is also the author of Soldier Girls and Just Like Us. Her work has won the Colorado Book Award and the J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award. She lives in Denver, Colorado.
More audiobooks from Helen Thorpe
Soldier Girls: The Battles of Three Women at Home and at War Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Just Like Us: The True Story of Four Mexican Girls Coming of Age in America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
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Reviews for Just Like Us
14 ratings10 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This was another choice for my office’s equity and social justice book club. I’m really happy that it was picked, as it covers the topic of immigration to the US. Specifically, it focuses on the challenges those without documentation face as they make their way out of high school and try to figure out what options are available. I think I would have preferred a book written by one of these women, though, which factors into my three-star rating.
Author Ms. Thorpe is a journalist who was also married to the mayor of Denver while writing her book. This is relevant because much of the book focuses on the broader policy and political issues focused on during the immigration debate, and her husband often found himself (or put himself) in the middle of those discussions. Ms. Thorpe decided to follow four young women from their junior year of high school until they were in their early 20s. Two of the four women had documentation; two did not.
Some of the challenges are ones you could probably imagine – how do you go to college, for example, if you have very little money, don’t qualify for any financial aid, AND have to pay out-of-state tuition since you can’t prove residency? But others might not be top of mind to everyone – like how to handle the stress of knowing your parents could be arrested and deported at any point.
I appreciate the skill and research necessary to write this type of book that covers nearly seven years in the lives of many people, but I also think that people can best tell their own stories. Additionally, I often find myself annoyed with this book as Ms. Thorpe bends over backwards to appear neutral and give time to ‘both sides,’ but the ‘other side’ of the debate is often quite hateful. I do think there are real policy issues to be sorted out about how to address the needs of those who are here without documentation, but so many people who are so vocal about it seem to have really screwed up ideas about immigrants in general, and (in the case of at least one prominent politician), choose to think of their own immigrant ancestors as totally different, since they were European.
I also found myself cringing at times when she would use the term ‘illegal’ to describe the women or their families. I fall firmly in the camp that no person is ‘illegal.’ And of course I cringed whenever the author spoke of or with Tom Tancredo. Because ugh. That guy.
I do think I got a lot out of this book, but reading it also made me more interested in reading Diane Guerrero’s “In the Country We Love.” - Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Narrated by Paula Christensen. Journalist Helen Thorpe followed four Mexican girls living in Denver as they graduated from high school through college. Two are undocumented and the others have green cards; the focus of the story is on the undocumented girls, Marisela and Yadira. This illustrated the dilemma and stress of living as undocumented immigrants that I never realized. Yet Marisela and Yadira thrive in school, becoming politically and socially active, earning good grades, and working jobs while dealing with family issues, and balancing their two cultures. It's actually pretty remarkable that they all did as well as they did. And while I understand why immigrants would be desperate to settle here illegally, after reading this, I now wish for all would-be immigrants to realize the terrible limbo their non-American-born children will suffer for years because of their decision.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Denver's own Helen Thorpe does a great job of humanizing the issue of immigrants who have entered this country illegally and the long term affect this action has on the lives of their children. She chronicles the personal experiences of four intelligent, ambitious girls from Mexico who were brought into the country illegally when they were very young. She follows them from senior year in high school through college. All of the girls are facing promising futures, but only two have papers showing them as in the country legally, and the difference this makes in the opportunities and resources available to each girl, even though their backgrounds are very similar, is astounding. Ms. Thorpe also includes her own experiences and impressions of the immigration issues being discussed nationally and locally, both as a journalist and as the then-wife of our then-mayor, John Hickenlooper. I think she does a great job of remaining open-minded and seeing all sides of the issues, even if she doesn't necessarily agree.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Just Like Us tells the story of four high school students whose parents entered this country illegally from Mexico. We meet the girls on the eve of their senior prom in Denver, Colorado. All four of the girls have grown up in the United States, and all four want to live the American dream, but only two have documents. As the girls attempt to make it into college, they discover that only the legal pair sees a clear path forward. Their friendships start to divide along lines of immigration status.Just Like Us is a coming-of-age story about girlhood and friendship, as well as the resilience required to transcend poverty. It is also a book about identity—what it means to steal an identity, what it means to have a public identity, what it means to inherit an identity from parents. The girls, their families, and the critics who object to their presence allow the reader to watch one of the most complicated social issues of our times unfurl in a major American city. And the perspective of the author gives the reader insight into both the most powerful and the most vulnerable members of American society as they grapple with the same dilemma: Who gets to live in America? And what happens when we don’t agree?
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This is an important book for our time. Immigration is a hot topic in America today, morally and politically. This book puts the spotlight on four young Hispanic women as they deal with this issue from the inside.We meet four lifelong friends: Marisela, Elissa, Clara and Yadira. The girls grew up together, with the dream of an education and life as free Americans, earning the freedom from generations of poverty.Only two of the girls, Clara and Elissa, have legal immigration status, however. Yadira and Marisela do not have the required, necessary papers to be in America legally. They become adept at working around the system, such as paying for fake social security numbers, enabling them to work.As the four girl become adults, they are faced with the facts of the consequences of illegal status. Though gifted and college bound, Yadira and Marisela must have the necessary paperwork to further themselves. They cannot even fly without papers. Deportation is a significant and very real concern. They are acutely aware that their legal friends do not have this issue.Adding to the book is the fact that the author's husband is the mayor of Denver, while Denver is embroiled in a national immigration battle. The case involves a Mexican immigrant who shoots and kills a police officer.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This was an impressive undertaking by Colorado's first lady, Helen Thorpe. She followed four young Mexican women (two US citizens and two who are undocumented) in the Denver Public School system and on into college. The book was very well researched for years and I got a great glimpse into the life of women I might not typically hear about.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Unless you are doing research or in to immigration policy, I would not recommend. It was (semi) intereting to me because I live in Denver and it discusses a lot of major events that occurred in Denver; also talks about people whose names I am familiar with even though I do not have a major stance on immagration policy.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5So beautifully written, with honest efforts at allowing both sides to speak, although Thorpe acknowledges that her sympathies lie with the four girls she interviews. Powerful, intelligent, riveting.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Just Like Us by Helen Thorpe is the story of four Mexican-American girls in the first decade of the twenty-first century as they graduate from high school in Denver, Colorado and move into adulthood. The girls are from working class families; two of the young women are here legally & two are not. All have the grades and the ambition to attend college, but none of them have the money, and the two who are here illegally cannot apply for financial aid because of their immigration status.The author is a reporter and is married to the mayor of Denver. During the time covered by the book, a local police officer is killed by an illegal immigrant, adding to local tensions about the best way to handle immigration across the border between the US and Mexico.Thorpe’s book explores not only the issues these women face, but the complexity of the immigration discussion the US is embroiled in. The book is quite readable.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This book chronicles four Mexican girls in the United States from High School through College. Two of them are legal immigrants and two of them are not. It is very interesting look at the disparity of the situation. What stops me from giving this book a higher rating is the tangents the author goes into. The chapters that focus only on the girls are quite engaging. However, the author spends alot of time covering a murder trail and political activities on immigration reform.