San Antonio College Library

From Anchee Min, the author of the internationally bestselling memoir "Red Azalea"--The eagerly awaited sequel, in which she comes to America to find her way, her voice, and her love. Coming to America in 1994, Min speaks no English, has no money and no clear path. She marries badly and then divorces, taking on the challenge of being a single mother. Her eventual success-- as a mother, a wife, a writer, and a woman-- is an immigrant story that illuminates...

Mathabane recounts his new life in America and provides a fascinating explanation on Americans mores.

"Have you ever imagined what you might be when you grow up? When he was very young, Juan Felipe Herrera picked chamomile flowers in windy fields and let tadpoles swim across his hands in a creek. He slept outside and learned to say good-bye to his amiguitos each time his family moved to a new town. He went to school and taught himself to read and write English and filled paper pads with rivers of ink as he walked down the street after school. And...

For some it was the Isle of Hope. For others, it was the Isle of Tears. For half a century, Ellis Island was America's "golden door," where entrance meant a new life and rejection meant a heartbreaking return to hopelessness. In this A & E Special, we meet an ethnically diverse group of immigrants who recall their extraordinary adventures, from the treacherous passage across the sea to the daunting challenge of starting life over in a new and foreign...

The child of Salvadoran immigrants, Roberto Lovato grew up in 1970s and 80s San Francisco as Salvadoran gangs were forming in California. In his teens, he lost friends to the escalating violence, and survived acts of brutality himself. As a human rights advocate in wartime El Salvador, he joined the guerrilla movement against the U.S.-backed, fascist military government. Lovato channeled his own pain into activism and journalism, focusing on how trauma...

The condition of exile is an exaggeration of the process of change and loss that many people experience as they grow and mature, leaving behind the innocence of childhood. Eva Hoffman spent her early years in Cracow, among family friends who, like her parents, had escaped the Holocaust and were skeptical of the newly imposed Communist state. Hoffman's parents managed to immigrate to Canada in the 1950s, where Eva was old enough to feel like a stranger--bland...

"A debut collection of tender, biting essays on sex, dating, and identity from a gay Filipino immigrant learning to navigate race and resistance in America"--

Christopher Hitchens is one of the most noticed and debated public intellectuals of our time. Hitch-22 tells of his complex and warm relationship with his late mother (whose Jewish heritage he discovered only after her suicide), his formative experiences as a socialist and activist, and the authors who shaped his intellect (from Evelyn Waugh and P.G. Wodehouse, to Karl Marx and Richard Llewelyn).-Derived from book jacket.

"As a teen, Anna Qu is sent by her mother to work in her family's garment factory in Queens. At home, she is treated as a maid and suffers punishment for doing her homework at night. Her mother wants to teach her a lesson: she is Chinese, not American, and such is their tough path in their new country. But instead of acquiescing, Qu alerts the Office of Children and Family Services, an act with consequences that impact the rest of her life. Nearly...