I don't like to rate biographies with a star rating. Who am I to judge someone's story?

Elizabeth is tough and I admire her grit and her heart. This book is sad in so many ways. As if poverty, horrible living conditions and domestic violence were not enough to contend with she also had to navigate her last years of high school alone in the States after her parents were not allowed back into the country.

Her story is compelling and engaging and you will be rooting for her the whole time. Five stars for Elizabeth and her tenacity. Three stars for the writing style. Averaging out at four stars. The narrative felt distant at times, as if the story was being told from a third person's perspective rather than Elizabeth's first-person account. As a result, I found myself longing for a deeper connection with her thoughts and emotions.

Thank you to the publisher, Net Galley and the author for the ARC of this book.

My Side of the River is a well written book covering the struggles of ‘anchor babies’ as they navigate life as an American citizen with parents deported from the country. Most people will never comprehend the struggle of being an orphan left in a country to gain the benefits of an education while knowing their parents and siblings are struggling just a few hundred miles south. The drive and determination Elizabeth has is the pressure many first born children experience. Knowing the weight of the family’s livelyhood rests on her shoulder, she pushes on to overcome all the obstacles that she faces along the way to success.

This was a beautifully written story. I'm struck by the immense love and tenderness that she shares with her Mom, Dad, and brother Fer. Camarillo Gutierrez writes with such a beautiful prose that I hope her next book is a novel. I'm looking forward to reading books she writes in the future and I highly recommend this book.

Thank you for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. This is a memoir that is needed but by no means an easy read. I can't help but wonder how many stories are similar or the same. It will make you cringe, cry and question how this could be in this day and age.

Wow! Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez is an amazing young woman!

Elizabeth was born in America, as was her young brother, but her parents were Mexicans. As a youngster, her parents would clean movie theaters at night. For a while, Elizabeth would go to the theater with her parents and sleep there while her parents worked. Her mother had a baby and the company that employed her parents didn't pay them for months.

Her parents had to renew their visas and returned to Mexico, leaving Elizabeth and her brother in the US. And of course their visas were denied, twice. It seemed that the odds were so stacked against Elizabeth; I'm not going to give away any further details, but if this were a novel ... I'm not sure I would believe her story.

This may be a spoiler ... Even before I got to the TED Talk section I googled her and found this link. https://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_camarillo_gutierrez_what_s_missing_from_the_american_immigrant_narrative

Thank you to Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez for writing My Side of the River! Thank you to NetGalley for providing the opportunity to review the Advance Read Copy in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to the publisher St. Martin's Press for approving my request to read My Side of the River.

Also filing under "best of 2023".

Elizabeth’s story is one that is so important for people to know about! So many people endure situations like hers. I appreciate how open and honest she is about the pressure and anxiety that can burden people who have such high expectations on them. I’m sure it couldn’t have been easy to share such personal information, but I think many people will connect with her story and see themselves in her words. I highly recommend this one!

The author tells us the story of her life as a US born daughter of immigrants in Tucson Arizona and what happens when at fifteen years of age her parents and brother, also US born, go back to Mexico, but then the parents are not allowed back into the US.
Her parents were adamant that she should always be her best and to achieve the American dream that they so wanted for their children. She is a strong person and an excellent student and she finds a way to be able to stay and follow her dreams.
We suffer with her as she has to overcome so many obstacles, to get what she wants and to be able to bring her brother back to the US to have an easier time than she had, at getting a good education.
She is an incredible person and this memoir, makes us think about what is going on at the borders right now, and all of the people that just want a better life.
Thank you NetGalley and St Martin's Press for a copy of this book.

What a fantastic memoir…let’s get that out of the way. This book is an EDUCATION that I highly recommend. There is so much to share on every level honestly. It is full of heart, intense moments you wouldn’t wish on your family or anyone else’s. The insight into a life of a strong minded child who is suddenly without her parents (and a brother) due to complicated immigration constraints that are keeping them on the other side of the border and very much apart (and not just mentally or physically) in all the other ways, on all the other levels that one small human may need from their family to feel secure but is no longer their logistical or "legal" right to have.

There's a build as she learns to navigate a system that is both for and against her. The history of US indigenous in comparison to her own ancestry is striking. The systematic racism vs the educational system… and all the pluses the latter offers and lifts her up is worth exploring further. Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez's voice is often one of frustration, hunger, heartbrokenness but also one that strikes me most—the determination and hyper vigilant strength that won. She shows you how she earned her way, made her mark and came out the other side. Quick read yet incredibly emotionally honest.

If you want to read a story a child who takes "a little back" and shows up for herself thru blood sweat and tears/constantly in fifth gear-you'll be proud of her too. Yes it’s full struggle but it is ultimately balanced with success (financial and familia) — I offer you this book as inspiration. It’s full of hope under the rubble of laws and rules, never ending racism. Its navigating of multiculturalism and dialogue is in such a way that it teaches and does not distract. My Side of the River is a solid resource of first hand experience of what it is like to be brown skinned, homeless, and full of fire to get ahead and succeeding in a world stacked up against you. Regardless of where she was born–she proves she will always be the right side of history…and right side of the river wherever she goes.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press NY for sharing + for the opportunity to read an early release copy.

The immigration situation in the US is a mess. Gutierrez seems to have been deeply traumatized in ways that she can't even begin to comprehend or articulate, and has not even started to try to heal. How sad that she works so hard to get into an Ivy League school, and then ends up on antidepressants and with a job she hates. Then she just wants to force her brother into the same mold. I can't help feeling that her "must get ahead" persona causes a harmful disintegration of her real self, and that the frantic pursuit of wealth and prestige covers up terrible hurt which is just being passed on to the future generations. How will this cycle end? How CAN we change the world? I don't have answers, only the feeling that the "American dream" that's been sold to immigrants as the solution is a mirage.

I'm truly appreciative of the author's attempt to be honest and to speak up for what she believes in. My rating reflects her pedestrian writing style -- she probably comes across as more dynamic in person -- and the lack of a trajectory of healing insight and self-knowledge. This seems like just half the story to me, but maybe it will continue.

My view won't be popular, let's just say that up front. I'm the child of European immigrants, so this was fascinating reading.

This gripping memoir tells the story of current immigrants, legal and illegal. It shows how arrivals "work the system," not necessarily because they cannot stay in their own country but because they want more = what American citizens have worked hard for.

"Why should someone else be rich? Why should they be privileged to attend good schools? Why not me?" What these newcomers don't realize is that life is not easy for most citizens, either. Much of American wealth is generational - many past immigrants struggled for decades until they became part of the country.
In my parents' generation, you waited - often for years - until you got papers to emigrate and work. Some of your farmily or friends may have been killed while they waited. Many friends never got those papers and stayed behind.

It was not your right to be a citizen; it was considered a great privilege that you worked toward. There was no sense of entitlement. There were no handouts from the government, scholarships, or benefits based on race or language in previous generations. Our parents never taught us not to climb the ladder. The goal was to be good people. If you could, you got citizenship and became part of the country. Some immigrants were returned to Europe or had to relocate elsewhere, but that was a chance you took.

Fellow immigrants even a few years ahead of you introduced the customs and cultures so you could blend in. You didn't bring your customs with you in a disruptive way. There was no trashing where you lived. No keeping your yard and the street a mess. No playing loud music or disturbing the neighbors.

Our parents had no whisper network to elude the law or run scams. They expected those in similar circumstances to share jobs, benefits, and how to save money honestly. They neither stole from work or shops or thought of dealing drugs at night. If someone broke the law, they were shunned or reported.

If and when you got to your new home, you worked brutal hours and began to save. You did without until you could afford better food or shelter. There were no expensive parties or extravagant events to impress others. (Weddings and funeral were frugal, catered by friends in a yard or at church.) No one went to restaurants. Mothers sewed the family's clothes with cheap cloth. (No one expected or splurged on designer bags or shoes!) The minute they could afford a down payment, immigrants bought or built a house, not always in a great neighborhood. Then everyone in a family put their earnings together, scrimping to pay off the mortgage. They took care of what they had, repairing before replacing. It took decades for some but they valued becoming citizens.

My parents and their friends worked hard to assimilate into the community. They expected to benefit the city they lived in, not just to milk the system. Those with similar roots met at church or lived near each other.

Gutierrez tells a different story - of Mexicans who bring their culture and expectations to the USA without recognizing the values of the country they enter. They want benefits without assimilation, saving, or maintenance. Theirs is a day to day struggle for survival rather than a planned path of wealth or health. It's not popular to say that I did not gain any sympathy for those who game or milk the system, trash their surroundings, and then whine about the consequences. Who'd want such neighbors?

Gutierrez understood even as a child that those kinds of immigrants would not reap the advantages of being in the USA. They were users who became the used. It was a dead end, frightening and never safe or secure.

She chose another path.

Going against most of your culture is difficult and the challenges are many. Gutierrez writes honestly and sometimes resentfully about the mental and physical strain of creating a new life in a new country. I admire her grit and her resourcefulness. I am glad she came to a country where the government provides a hand up and handouts to those who work for them.

Is making a new life competitive? Is it hard? Sometimes almost impossible? YES. But Gutierrez shows that it's not impossible. Just like my parents never expected to be wealthy, build Fortune 500 companies, or compete with the well-off, she is in the builder generation. The benefits will be for her kids and those behind her. That's normal. That's usual. That's neither discrimination nor cruelty.

For Gutierrez to work hard for justice for immigrants, fair pay for fair work (with no theft please!), and to advocate for the poor and oppressed is admirable. 2nd generation immigrants like me can totally cheer her on and hopefully open doors for her and honest immigrants, just as citizens did for our parents. I want her to teach her own children generosity, honesty, helping others, and how to benefit the country they are part of, as my parents did for me.

That said, it's not a right to get into another nation. It's a privilege that will cost you big parts of your history. It will stretch you in the present. And it may earn you and your children a future. You - like Gutierrez - have to decide if it's worth it.

I loved this book and was so impressed with how well the author tells her story. I was engaged the entire time. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. Five stars!

Thank you to Netgalley & St Martin's Press for an Advanced Review Copy of this book.

This is the tragic and heart-wrenching, but inspirational story of Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez, the US-born daughter of immigrant parents. It tracks the story of her youth and the immense sacrifices she and her parents made to give her a chance at the American dream.

This memoir was very moving and often had me in tears. It was very well-written. So many feels - the heartbreak of her parents' decision to leave their kids in the US for a better life, the hardships she faced first with her family, then on her own after they left. The highs and the lows of a life lived in extremes. The strength this young girl had, and continues to have.

"Poverty teaches you a resourcefulness you never need to learn if you are nurtured in privilege." Resourceful, indeed. This young girl worked her butt off and forged her own path in the world with a fortitude, determination, and resourcefulness possessed by so few.

Elizabeth should be an inspiration to all of us. This is the type of story that the public needs to hear, that our lawmakers need to hear, that our kids need to hear, to make this country a better place. I will help spread the word and encourage friends and family to read this. Excellent book!

An inspirational memoir about a young Mexican girl who is forced to stay and finish high school alone in AZ because her parents' visas expired and they have to remain in Mexico.
The themes of immigration, education, and poverty, among others, are clearly elucidated in a compelling manner that allows the reader to become immersed in the kind of life experienced by new immigrants to the U.S. It's almost impossible also not to root for the success of the author and her family.

This is the story of Elizabeth. She was born in the U.S. to Mexican parents so she {and her brother} would have U.S. citizenship.The things we all take for granted, a place to live, an education, were a struggle for her. As she entered high school her parents were unable to renew their visas and moved back to Mexico with her brother. Elizabeth chose to stay and pursue her education. She was able to access many helps for underprivileged youth and completed high school as valedictorian. She then moved on to Penn always pushing herself to be the best, even to the exclusion of her health. After graduating she was able to find a job and bring her brother to the States for his education.
Such a relevant book today with so many countries becrying their immigrant crisis. It makes me wonder if we ever will see these immigrants as people who contribute so much to society instead of looking right through them or worse yet claiming them to be the problem. If you read "Educated" you need to read "My Side of the River". I guarantee you won't regret it.

Synopsis (from Netgalley, the provider of the book for me to review.)
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Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez reveals her experience as the U.S.-born daughter of immigrants and what happened when, at fifteen, her parents were forced back to Mexico in this galvanizing yet tender memoir.
Born to Mexican immigrants south of the Rillito River in Tucson, Arizona, Elizabeth had the world at her fingertips as she entered her freshman year of high school as the number one student. But suddenly, Elizabeth's own country took away the most important right of a child a right to have a family.
As her parents’ visas expired, they were forced to return to Mexico, leaving Elizabeth responsible for her younger brother, as well as her education. Determined to break the cycle of being “a statistic,” she knew that even though her parents couldn’t stay, there was no way she could let go of the opportunities the U.S. could provide.
Armed with only her passport and sheer teenage determination, Elizabeth became what her school would eventually describe as an unaccompanied, homeless youth, one of the thousands of underage victims affected by family separation due to broken immigration laws. For fans of Educated by Tara Westover and The Distance Between Us by Reyna Grande, My Side of the River explores separation, generational trauma, and the toll of the American dream. It’s also, at its core, a love story between a brother and a sister who, no matter the cost, is determined to make the pursuit of his own dreams easier than it was for her.

Oh, DOJ, ICE, etc., another reason to hate you: ripping families apart and leaving a 17-year-old girl in charge of a younger brother. But she certainly overcame it - an Ivy League school, three years as a Corporate and Investment Banking Analyst at Wells Fargo and now a speaker whose fees start at $10-20k a night. She also apparently has a TED talk but I don't do podcasts. (Or YouTube or TikTok but I will probably suggest to our outreach and promotional department that they look into it to get the younger readers into this book.)

This girl has guts and grit and her determination to not be a statistic paid off very well. The book was gripping to read and made me so angry at the US government in general: Mayne this is why so many people are crossing into Canada in hopes of staying here vs. the US shipping them back to a country the children don't even remember. (I think of some of the prisoners on "Orange is the New Black" being put on a plane and returned to a place where they were born but don't know a single person .. how are they to survive?? Prostitution?)

Children deserve families and through her talks and speeches, I would not doubt that Miss Camarillo Gutierrez could bring about some real change. This book was utterly gripping, and fascinating and it inspires such anger that I would make it recommended reading in any modern US history or civics class. A book like this could incite real change in the government, but I hate to say that it all depends upon who gets elected in 2024.

HIGHLY recommended, I will suggest it to friends, family, patrons, book clubs and those who are interested in government and social policy that needs to be changed...if I start talking it up now, by the time it comes out, it will be a book with a lot of requests for and reserves on.

It is a short read and a #shortbutsweetreview to accompany it.

This was a thoughtful memoir, written by a woman born in the Arizona to Mexican parents here on temporary visas. The book presents a compelling and heartbreaking story of the hardships she faces when her parents’ visas are not renewed, and then her younger brother returns to Mexico as well. Unbeknownst to her, her parents’ return to Mexico technically makes her an unaccompanied homeless youth, allowing her to qualify for support benefits. Through amazing grit, determination, and hard work, Gutierrez makes it through her high school years, focusing on her academics. Her straight A record gets her to the University of Pennsylvania and the job world.

Throughout this gripping saga, Gutierrez faces standard assumptions about the immigrant experience. This is especially true after the passing of AZ bill 1070 regarding immigrants in the state illegally and their treatment. The way that she raises herself, gets through college, gets a job, and then takes on raising her brother through high school is amazing. Her determination to ensure that her brother’s life is easier than hers is all consuming and a remarkable achievement.