New Americans

In The New Americans, a companion book to the highly-anticipated PBS miniseries from the award-winning producers and director of Hoop Dreams, Emmy Award-winning journalist Rubén Martínez recounts the dramatic voyages of five new immigrant families, from home country to arrival and settlement in the United States. The detailed portraits—woven together in the miniseries to present a kaleidoscopic picture of immigrant movement—present a personal view of the new America: we follow an Indian couple to Silicon Valley, a Mexican family to a meatpacking plant in Kansas; a family of Nigerian refugees, including the sister of slain Ogoni activist Ken Saro-Wiwa; two LA Dodgers prospects from the Dominican Republic; and a pair of Palestinian newlyweds carving out a life in Chicago.

The book also provides context for fans of the television series, with stunning original photographs from award-winning photojournalist Joseph Rodríguez. The New Americans is at once the most personal and accessible introduction to the experience of a new generation of immigrants, and a beautifully written meditation on the ways newcomers are transforming America, socially, economically, and culturally. 50 duotone photographs.

Author Biography: Rubén Martínez is the author of Crossing Over, The Other Side, and other books. He is an associate editor at Pacific News Service and a regular commentator on radio and television. He lives in Joshua Tree, California. Joseph Rodríguez is an award-winning photographer whose work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Life, the Village Voice, Vibe, and Sí.

In this companion to the PBS television series of the same name, Martínez (creative writing, U. of Houston) narrates the journeys of recent American immigrant families from Palestine, Nigeria, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and India, offering a portrait of the United States' new multicultural landscape. In addition to these intimate sketches of exile and relocation, he provides briefer vignettes of more famous figures dealing with the similar issues, such as Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, Nigerian political activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, and Indian filmmaker Mira Nair. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Library Journal

Although an increasing volume of research is being done to document an immigrant population of unprecedented size and diversity in the United States, the story of most of these newcomers remains untold. An accomplished author and journalist and himself the son of Mexican and Salvadoran immigrants, Martinez (creative writing, Univ. of Houston; Crossing Over: A Mexican Family on the Migrant Trail) does much to remedy our ignorance. This book, a companion to a PBS miniseries, details the lives of seven families who have recently arrived in the United States from the West Bank, Nigeria, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and India. Some of them occupy the bottom rungs of society, while others are middle-class professionals, but all of them experience a sense of inner conflict between the Old World and the New. Martinez sympathetically tells the story of each while at the same time maintaining the objectivity of a journalist. Though he occasionally reflects upon his own experiences, Martinez generally succeeds in making the book about his subjects rather than himself. He does not offer much in the way of policy recommendations other than to advocate a more compassionate approach to the "problem" of immigration. Well illustrated with images by photojournalist Rodriguez, this book is recommended for school, public, and academic libraries.-David A. Timko, U.S. Census Bureau Lib., Washington, DC Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.