
Once I Was You
A Memoir of Love and Hate in a Torn America
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Narrated by:
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Maria Hinojosa
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By:
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Maria Hinojosa
About this listen
NPR’s Best Books of 2020
BookPage’s Best Books of 2020
Real Simple’s Best Books of 2020
Boston.com readers voted one of Best Books of 2020
“Anyone striving to understand and improve this country should read her story.” (Gloria Steinem, author of My Life on the Road)
The Emmy Award-winning journalist and anchor of NPR’s Latino USA tells the story of immigration in America through her family’s experiences and decades of reporting, painting an unflinching portrait of a country in crisis in this memoir that is “quite simply beautiful, written in Maria Hinojosa’s honest, passionate voice” (BookPage).
Maria Hinojosa is an award-winning journalist who, for nearly 30 years, has reported on stories and communities in America that often go ignored by the mainstream media - from tales of hope in the South Bronx to the unseen victims of the war on terror and the first detention camps in the US. Best-selling author Julia Álvarez has called her “one of the most important, respected, and beloved cultural leaders in the Latinx community”.
In Once I Was You, Maria shares her intimate experience growing up Mexican American on the South Side of Chicago. She offers a personal and illuminating account of how the rhetoric around immigration has not only long informed American attitudes toward outsiders, but also sanctioned willful negligence and profiteering at the expense of our country’s most vulnerable populations - charging us with the broken system we have today.
An urgent call to fellow Americans to open their eyes to the immigration crisis and understand that it affects us all, this honest and heartrending memoir paints a vivid portrait of how we got here and what it means to be a survivor, a feminist, a citizen, and a journalist who owns her voice while striving for the truth.
Also available in Spanish as Una vez fui tú.
©2020 Maria Hinojosa (P)2020 Simon & Schuster AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Editorial Review
What listeners say about Once I Was You
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- Anonymous User
- 09-21-20
A must read!
Great chronological details about immigrants through the decades. So many events and sentiments that have been overlooked by the mainstream media, thanks Maria for putting this forward.
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- Kindle Customer
- 08-18-21
wow!
I loved your strength and vulnerability you are truly inspiring to all women! As a daughter of a Mexican immigrant mother with many undocumented cousins, I am grateful for you providing us with a voice.
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- Dewey Morris
- 01-11-23
Our Voice
The raw honesty touched my soul.
I recommend this book to anyone who has immigrant blood.
Thank you for writing this book that has forever changed me.
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- charles anasco
- 03-13-23
an intimate and vulnerable memoir
I'm sad that I can't hear this for the first time again! This book is an outpouring of love that paints a complex portrait of american life for migrants across generations.
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Overall
- Jennifer Venancio-Berg
- 11-14-20
María the Unbreakable
This book is absolutely amazing. María you're a BAD ASS! This book gives voice to so many of those that have been silenced. It gave a voice to me that like María, struggle with imposter syndrome. A latina who is born in the United States to immigrant parents. A must read for anyone who wants to understand immigration in our country.
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Overall
- Anonymous User
- 08-27-21
Educational & Entertaining
Loved learning more about Ms. Hinojosa and the Mexican & broader Latin culture. Revitting. inciteful & entertaining
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- Cassandra Cordova
- 02-20-21
Powerful
This book was full of powerful stories that very few are willing to share. It shows the injustice of the innocent people fighting to have a better life for themselves. It uncovers the disgusting nature of people who use power to hurt women and children. Thank you Maria for sharing your stories, and being fearless woman and narrarator you are..
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- Nada
- 08-28-22
Great memoir, read beautifully by the author.
Loved it and was inspired by many aspects of her life. Thanks for sharing your story Maria and for fighting for your dreams. Her story of life, challenges and takeaways is impactful. The journey is not an easy one but the story it creates is a beautiful one. Just got to remember to think about perspective and sometimes we're lucky to see the lessons in the struggle.
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- Jan T.
- 02-11-23
A great and honest story
At times heartbreaking to listen to, but always honest and true facts, without sugar coating or excuses for bad behaviors. As a multi year listener to Latino USA, I was surprised to learn how much more Maria Hinojosa have accomplished, as a lifelong critical journalist, and still having a sound & functioning family, great achievement
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- Rodrigo Leal
- 02-08-21
Of course Maria Hinojosa would blow us away
Maria Hinojosa, host of Latino USA and In The Thick, tells her story with passion and compassion - drawing the listener in and helping us understand what makes her such a brilliant journalist.
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