Voices of the Undocumented ed. by Val Rosenfeld and Florence Fortunati (review)

The volume discussed here is a useful contribution to contemporary research, education, and action regarding current local and national discussions surrounding undocumented persons of Hispanic origin in the United States. The two editor-translators of Voices volunteer as English as a Second Language instructors at the Worker Day Center in affluent Mountain View, California. The personal stories shared are translated interviews from undocumented clients of the Center, one of some 70 Centers across the country which serve as community-based organizations to help workers find day jobs as well as partake in ESL classes. As the authors note, and as is so often the case with such institutions, the Center in Mountain View also functions as an extended community resource for document translation, sharing a meal, apartment and medical care referrals, and workshops on consumer, tenant, and civil rights. The implicit security provided by the Center for the undocumented to ask such questions in a safe environment also allowed the interviewers to develop trust with the workers whose stories appear in the book, and made their responses an even richer source of information.

The nine interviewees range in age from 64 to 26, hail from three different countries (Guatemala, Mexico, and Peru), and all but two (a mother and daughter from Oaxaca, MX) come from a different region in their respective countries. What is also interesting about the choice of stories is that, including the daughter mentioned above who graduated from Columbia University, all were interviewed in Spanish. Maps of the region each interviewee comes from are also provided, which are a particularly useful resource given that most interviewees come from smaller towns not necessarily known to most. Some interview subjects allowed their picture to be printed along with their stories, while others did not. The editors also state that some names needed to be changed, either of the interviewees or of persons to whom they make reference. That in itself is an unfortunate but quite obvious commentary on the fear and concern even older, seasoned immigrants face knowing that they have no official legal status to permit them to work or reside in the USA and who could be deported if their status was discovered.

Stylistically and structurally, there is very little to criticize in the flow or organization of the volume. It is especially admirable that the translations, assumed to be a shared project of both editors, permit each interviewee to retain his or her unique style of expression in the English renderings. Whether it be Ernesto from Peru who talks about his adventures in Japan prior to coming to the USA, Ruben from Guatemala sharing the deep roots of his faith, or Laura, also from Guatemala, relating the struggles of being an immigrant with a small child, one has the feeling of listening to a uniquely expressive voice each time. It is also positive that the editors chose–one assumes–to publish a variety of stories of people who arrived with very different educational backgrounds, work histories prior to emigration, and current career and social trajectories. The reader is left with the unmistakable impression that if not for the simple fact of citizenship status, the stories related could be similar to those of individuals in one's own extended family or friendship circles.

One can offer three suggestions that would benefit the book in any future edition. First, it would have been helpful to have the questionnaire, the basic questions each person was asked, or the leading topic areas reproduced in an appendix. Because each story not only has unique elements, but also shares few common narrative trajectories, knowing what questions were asked would be of great benefit to those who would like to engage the book on a more scholarly level. In addition, more unified editing of the text would certainly benefit future editions. Some stories are told strictly in the first person, whereas others include not only the protagonist's voice but also one or more paragraphs of context...