MY SIDE OF THE RIVER

A second-generation immigrant’s story of holding her dreams, her parents’ expectations, and America’s demands in balance.

Born in Arizona to Mexican parents on tourist visas, Camarillo Gutierrez was told from an early age that she would need “to be the best.” This directive became her mantra as she moved through her childhood in Tucson, and both volatility and education were driving forces. In this debut memoir, the author, a product manager at a big tech company, leaves almost no facet of the immigrant experience unexplored: dire economic circumstances, arbitrary and opaque visa policies, the premium placed on achievement, organizing in the face of rising anti-immigrant sentiment. Camarillo Gutierrez’s life and interests have breathtaking scope. We follow her from scenes set at the gate between Mexico and the U.S. to the halls of the Ivy League and positions in finance and technology, and the author offers memorable thoughts about religion, the environment, and mental health. She displays the voice, insight, and personal connection to turn any one of these topics into its own volume. At a few points in the narrative, however, the scope is unmatched by the depth, leaving some threads without continuity, others without closure, and many with surface-level analysis. If this trait sometimes leaves readers unsure where to focus, it also reveals the enormity of the pressure immigrants in America, especially immigrant youth, must withstand—the compromises and sacrifices that must be made, the contradictions that elude reconciliation. Camarillo Gutierrez’s open and candid personal exposition hints not only at the tensions inherent in her own life, but also at those in American culture and policy. By bringing readers into the precarious and emotional positions that these tensions force individuals and families to endure, she invites deeper, more compassionate analysis and conversation.

A moving story of the humanity at the center of the often-breathless and uninformed immigration debate.