First published 2018
America Ferrera opens this collection by sharing her own experience of feeling fully American while maintaining deep ties to her parents' Honduran heritage. She danced salsa in the kitchen on Saturday mornings and ate tamales at Christmas alongside apple pie, yet she longed to see her bicultural identity reflected in broader American stories. Ferrera invited thirty-one friends, colleagues, and admired figures to contribute their own narratives about navigating life between multiple cultures. The contributors include actors, comedians, athletes, politicians, artists, and writers who are immigrants, children of immigrants, indigenous people, or others with personal connections to more than one culture. Each writer wrestled with questions of identity, belonging, and visibility. Some embrace the label American eagerly, others with hesitation, and some reject it entirely. Their accounts range from deeply personal to laugh-out-loud funny, illuminating an experience shared by millions of Americans who maintain complex relationships with family heritage and cultural identity.
Genres: american, non-fiction, biography-memoir, personal-development, ethnic-studies, cultural-studies
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, personal-journey
Setting: Honduras, United States
Period: 21st-century
309 pages · Hardcover · Gallery Books