WINONA, Minn. – A memoir by a man who grew up homeless and undocumented has been chosen as the centerpiece Winona State University’s annual project to give students campus-wide a common reading experience. The book: “Undocumented: A Dominican Boy’s Odyssey from a Homeless Shelter to the Ivy League” by Dan-El Padilla. English prof April Herndon, head of the Common Book Project, said the book chosen for its timely subject matter, engaging writing, appropriateness for a range of upper and lower division courses, and ability to be used in a variety of research and writing projects. Programming built around the book will be announced in the fall, she said. Additionally, a packet of teaching and contextual materials for prospective adopters will be available by midsummer, Herndon said.
The book: ‘Undocumented’
From publisher Penguin’s blurb about “Undocumented”: “Dan-el Padilla Peralta has lived the American dream. As a boy, he arrived in the United States legally with his family. Together they had traveled from Santo Domingo to seek medical care for his mother. Soon the family’s visas lapsed, and Dan-el’s father eventually returned home. But Dan-el’s courageous mother decided to stay and make a better life for her bright sons in New York City. Without papers, she faced tremendous obstacles. While Dan-el was only in grade school, the family joined the ranks of the city’s homeless. Dan-el, his mother, and brother lived in a downtown shelter where Dan-el’s only refuge was the meager library. At another shelter he met Jeff, a young volunteer from a wealthy family. Jeff was immediately struck by Dan-el’s passion for books and learning. With Jeff’s help, Dan-el was accepted on scholarship to Collegiate, the oldest private school in the country. There, Dan-el thrived. Throughout his youth, Dan-el navigated two worlds: the rough streets of East Harlem, where he lived with his brother and his mother and tried to make friends, and the ultra-elite halls of a Manhattan private school, where he immersed himself in a world of books and rose to the top of his class. From Collegiate, Dan-el went on to Princeton, where he made the momentous decision to come out as an undocumented student in a Wall Street Journal profile a few months before he gave the salutatorian’s traditional address in Latin at his commencement.“Undocumented” is essential reading for the debate on immigration, but it is also an unforgettable tale of a passionate young scholar coming of age in two very different worlds.”