What Is Padilla Paralta's Undocumented?

I found Dan-el Padilla Paralta’s biography Undocumented to be a very insightful, enjoyable read. It is certainly a departure from previous readings in this class, as it is not theoretical and is not based on sociological research, ethnographic or otherwise. This is a very personal, longitudinal perspective we have not gotten before in this class. Undocumented follows Paralta’s adolescence and young adulthood, beginning with his immigration to New York from the Dominican Republic when he was four and concluding with him beginning his doctorate program at Stanford and meeting his wife. In between, he details his experiences as a young boy in a homeless shelter in Chinatown, as a high school student living in public housing in Harlem and attending a private prestigious school on the upper west side, as a Princeton undergrad studying Classics, and as a masters degree candidate at Oxford. The book is ostensibly about Paralta’s academic journey, but Paralta also pays close attention to his varied attempts to understand and embrace the dual identities of academic and poor immigrant, as well as his struggle to legalize his
As the book concludes and Paralta gets older, he seems to emphasize this luck, structure, and context as powerfully determining. This is, of course, tragic because the perspective highlights all the children who could achieve in a similar manner as Paralta, if given more resources, attention, and opportunities. Ultimately though, Paralta ends the book by celebrating the achievements, potential, and contributions of the 1.5 generation, who he calls DREAMers, and demands comprehensive immigration reform for their benefit and for the benefit of the US. He writes, in one of the most powerful quotes from the book (and there are many), that “along the path I took, many more are