The I Index

Once I Was You: A Memoir of Love and Hate in a Torn America

Top of the pile

83

/100

I Index Overall Rating

Readers

71/100

Critics

94/100

Scholars

N/A

Author:

María Hinojosa

Publisher:

Atria Books

Date:

September 15, 2020

Emmy Award-winning NPR journalist Maria Hinojosa shares her personal story interwoven with American immigration policy's coming-of-age journey.

What The Reviewers Say

Fernanda Santos,
The New York Times Book Review
... Hinojosa embraces her whole self to offer an evocative portrayal of her experiences as women of color in an industry where whiteness is still a factor in determining who gets first dibs on opportunities that pave the way to the top.
Amy Scribner,
BookPage
Hinojosa offers a searing, clear-eyed account of growing up in America after she emigrated from Mexico as an infant. Weaving her own life story with key milestones in U.S. immigration history, she produces a brave examination of the United States’ shortcomings.
Anisse Gross,
The San Francisco Chronicle
Hinojosa’s writing is often workmanlike (readers should not come to this book for the pretty prose) but her overall story is compelling, not only for its ability to convey her own life as a survivor of rape and one of the only Latinas in the room during her career, but also in its ability to humanize the history of immigration.
Amy Lewontin,
Library Journal
... illuminating reading in many respects.