Thank you Atria Books and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader's Copy!

Now available.

Up close and personal, "Once I Was You" is an unflinching look into award winning first generation Mexican American journalist Maria Hinojosa's journey in the United States. Starting with being screened out for potential measles and being heroically protected by her mother, Hinojosa has had to navigate notions of white American supremacy in the classroom, relationships and in the newsroom. As she grows up, Hinojosa becomes more and more aware of the structural inequities that drive immigration policy in the United States. Unflinchingly brave, she presents a case that highlights one of the chief contradictions of the Democratic party - that however progressive it may seem at the moment, Clinton and Obama have led some of the most regressive national crime policies that criminalized undocumented immigrants. Such policies laid the foundation for the current state of ICE today.

Yet for all its political analysis, this is a memoir at heart and the best moments come when we see Hinojosa grappling by herself to come to an understanding of what it means to be a Latinx woman, a daughter, a wife, a mother in the United States today. These are the moments where we see her vulnerability and humanity at its best and these are the moments where we feel most connected and most emotional. A well balanced, informative and poignant read!