Once I Was You: A Memoir

This book should be required text book in all of the American Schools. It's an example of who one can live the American dream while also embracing our roots fully. It's a great read by a great writer!!

This was an incredible work of journalism within a heartfelt memoir. It has great pacing and keeps you on your toes. It goes beyond the personal experience of Mexican American immigration and shines light on different ethnicities and their experience of arriving to/ living in the U.S. throughout history. It also mentions the involvement of the U.S politics in other countries. All in all a very well rounded, well written, very important and relevant book.My only criticism would be the quality of the paperback cover. It feels cheaply made and always curls up. This is definitely a book worth buying as a hardcover though!

Maria Hinojosa doesn't shy away from tough topics and stories that others might ignore. In "Once I Was You," she shares things I didn't know before.The book is honest and direct, with Maria telling her own stories, admitting mistakes, and celebrating victories. She strongly supports immigrants, shedding light on the difficulties they face in America. She speaks from personal experiences, making it a powerful read."Once I Was You" talks about the challenges immigrants go through in the United States. It shows both slow and fast changes, some positive and some not so good. While one book can't cover everything, I highly recommend this one. It's an important voice that needs to be heard.

Maria Hinojosa, what else is there to say? An intelligent, passionate woman. Great book and I enjoyed learning so much about her in this memoir.

The book is more journalism and autobiography than it is memoir. This in itself wouldn't be such a bad thing (just a blending of genres, which memoirs often do), but the writing is just pandering to a young liberal audience so she can hopefully expand her following to the next generation. That's all well and good for marketing and capitalism--I'm all for it--but it makes for horrible reading when the pandering is just nonstop.Her voice suddenly changes to throw in the latest cultural and political buzzwords so she can show the kids how hip she is. In one sentence, she goes as far as saying that a person in slavery is bad because that means they were "(trafficked)"--yes, she wrote it as an aside after the word slavery to clarify how bad it really is.Her voice isn't that clear when she's just writing her story either. For example, she often goes back and forth between calling her parents mom/dad in English and Spanish. In some cases, it is clearly as part of memories tied to her Mexican identity while at other times it feels as though she said, "I've not used the Spanish in a while, let's throw it in now."Hinojosa's greatest strength is her ability to build decent narrative out of biographical exposition. She has a good sense for when to speed up and skip stuff and when to slow down and build out a scene. She also does a good job of including a lot of researched facts in a way that doesn't overwhelm the narrative. However, a lot of her similes and metaphors might make you cringe. She's better off with simple and understated description than she is with more literary styling.Overall, this book is poor writing that doesn't make me want to read anything else from her.