Poignant… An eye-opening exploration of the DREAM Act and those who have tried to find safe harbor in the United States under its aegis. A well-crafted, timely contribution to the immigration debate.” — Kirkus Reviews
“Deeply reported, empathetic, and beautiful, The Making of a Dream is the definitive account of the moral drama that created a new group of Americans and empowered them to call on their country to live up to its ideals.” — Alexis Madrigal, staff writer at the Atlantic
“This inspiring, well-written, well-documented account is an important read for Americans on all sides of this lingering issue.” — Library Journal
“Wides-Muñoz movingly traces the 12 years of attempted legislation and political activism that culminated in the DREAM Act… This is a timely look at a contentious issue.” — Publishers Weekly
“A sweeping chronicle of the immigrant rights movement… Wides-Muñoz expertly describes the broader reform movement, through vivid thumbnail portraits of key students… Wides-Muñoz reminds us that thanks to the ability of young people to dream, what seems impossible today may yet prove achievable tomorrow.” — Helen Thorpe, New York Times Book Review
“An intimate look at the complicated lives and remarkable aspirations—thwarted and fulfilled—of people searching for a way out of a peculiar historical trap. The Making of a Dream is, in turns, inspiring, heartbreaking, hopeful, and maddening…just as it must be.” — Ray Suarez, author of Latino Americans: The 500-Year Legacy That Shaped a Nation
“Powerful. Evocative and illuminating. A deeply empathetic look at those caught between two worlds and who risk losing everything in a time of deceitful political rhetoric. Read it.” — Alfredo Corchado, author of Midnight in Mexico: A Reporter’s Journey Through a Country’s Descent into Darkness
“A necessary and exciting book about five young people whose dreams and struggles are interwoven with this country’s best hopes for itself. This is also the story of the legislators, activists, and ordinary citizens who stand behind them, and of the very slow grinding of the wheels of justice.” — Alma Guillermoprieto, author of Dancing with Cuba: a Memoir of the Revolution
“Essential… A valuable and detailed look at lawmaking and policy that affect people and communities across the nation as well as portraits of heroic youth willing to put their own status in jeopardy to advocate for fair treatment, not only for themselves and their families but for all immigrants.” — Booklist
“Eye-opening… Poignant… A well-crafted, timely contribution to the immigration debate.” — Kirkus Reviews
“Wides-Muñoz probes deep into the dreamers’ relationships with their parents and often finds empathy and concern.” — Washington Post
An intimate look at the complicated lives and remarkable aspirations—thwarted and fulfilled—of people searching for a way out of a peculiar historical trap. The Making of a Dream is, in turns, inspiring, heartbreaking, hopeful, and maddening…just as it must be.
A sweeping chronicle of the immigrant rights movement… Wides-Muñoz expertly describes the broader reform movement, through vivid thumbnail portraits of key students… Wides-Muñoz reminds us that thanks to the ability of young people to dream, what seems impossible today may yet prove achievable tomorrow.
A necessary and exciting book about five young people whose dreams and struggles are interwoven with this country’s best hopes for itself. This is also the story of the legislators, activists, and ordinary citizens who stand behind them, and of the very slow grinding of the wheels of justice.
Deeply reported, empathetic, and beautiful, The Making of a Dream is the definitive account of the moral drama that created a new group of Americans and empowered them to call on their country to live up to its ideals.
Powerful. Evocative and illuminating. A deeply empathetic look at those caught between two worlds and who risk losing everything in a time of deceitful political rhetoric. Read it.
Essential… A valuable and detailed look at lawmaking and policy that affect people and communities across the nation as well as portraits of heroic youth willing to put their own status in jeopardy to advocate for fair treatment, not only for themselves and their families but for all immigrants.
Wides-Muñoz probes deep into the dreamers’ relationships with their parents and often finds empathy and concern.
Essential… A valuable and detailed look at lawmaking and policy that affect people and communities across the nation as well as portraits of heroic youth willing to put their own status in jeopardy to advocate for fair treatment, not only for themselves and their families but for all immigrants.
Wides-Muñoz probes deep into the dreamers’ relationships with their parents and often finds empathy and concern.
The Making of a Dream is an indispensable book to understand how the Dreamers became the leaders of a new civil rights movement in this country. Here’s the incredible story of how a group of young immigrants conquered their fears, put two Presidents on their side and, in the process, changed this nation forever. This is a must read to understand the new America.
★ 05/01/2018
Wides-Muñoz follows the personal accounts of a handful of undocumented young people, tracing their arrival in the United States, their school years, and how and why they turned to activism for immigration rights. A longtime AP reporter, she offers a deep but engaging history of recent immigration issues and policy—both within the immigration rights movement and the halls of power in Washington, DC. Touching on the changes to immigration law while Ronald Reagan was in office, the narrative moves to the beginnings of the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act. First proposed during George W. Bush's administration, the bill would have granted residency to certain undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as minors, but political priorities changed after September 11. The bulk of the volume covers immigration issues under Barack Obama—the resurrection of the DREAM Act and the protest tactics and legislative goals of different immigrant rights groups. The final chapter introduces some of the changes that occurred during the first year of Donald Trump's presidency. Of note, the author addresses issues that have gone unexplored in the national discourse, such as the emotional and physical toll of years of activism. She also discusses the guilt that many feel about Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, as it potentially grants young people legal status but leaves their parents unprotected. VERDICT A compelling, eye-opening work; recommended for all collections.—Jennifer Rothschild, Arlington County Public Libraries, VA
2017-12-19
An eye-opening exploration of the DREAM Act and those who have tried to find safe harbor in the United States under its aegis.Relating her often poignant narrative through tales of aspiring citizens such as a Bolivian immigrant who arrived as a child, remained illegally, and has since become a leading activist in immigration-related causes, Wides-Muñoz, the vice president for special projects and editorial strategy at Fusion TV, examines changes in legislation and the national mood alike over the last 20 years. The DREAM Act, she writes, was the outgrowth of a George W. Bush-era series of legislative efforts to make it more difficult for so-called illegal aliens to find a path to legal permanent residence and even citizenship. The "Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act," born of an unlikely alliance between Sens. Dick Durbin and Orrin Hatch, recognized that children brought to this country illegally were not willful criminals and therefore not deserving of punishments such as being denied educational opportunities. The story is full of ironies: the postal worker who discovered anthrax in the mail had long overstayed a tourist visa, while "the second US casualty in the [Iraq] war turned out to be a young man from Guatemala who had crossed the California border illegally." After 9/11, writes Wides-Muñoz, efforts to improve the status of DREAMers were put on the back burner. During the Obama administration, those efforts were halfhearted enough that Hispanic voters "sat out the 2010 election in greater numbers than white or black voters," to disastrous results for the Democrats in the face of the tea party onslaught that would go on to put Donald Trump, an avowed opponent of the act and of immigration, in the White House. Against that new tide of anti-immigrant sentiment, the book concludes, the DREAM Act may be doomed despite efforts in the Senate to initiate meaningful immigration reform.A well-crafted, timely contribution to the immigration debate.
