(NAME-MCE) Immigrant teenager writes book about her American Dream

[Bill Howe]

http://www.examiner.com/printa-1067242~Immigrant_teenager_writes_book_about_her_American_Dream.html


Immigrant teenager writes book about her American Dream

By MONICA RHOR, The Associated Press

2007-11-25 14:32:12.0



HOUSTON -

On her first day of fourth grade, Yuliana Gallegos stood in front of her
classmates, looking out on a roomful of students who stared back at her as
if she had landed from Mars.



Only a few weeks earlier, Yuliana had brimmed with excitement about moving
from Mexico to Houston, where she and her family would start a new life in a
new country. Only a few hours earlier, she had been bubbling with eagerness
about meeting her new classmates.



Suddenly, all her enthusiasm deflated. She just wanted to be invisible.



Today, less than seven years later, the girl who could not understand a word
her teacher said that first day is the author of a book - in English and
Spanish - about her experiences as a newly arrived immigrant.



The slim volume, called "Mi sueno de America/My American Dream," published
by Houston-based Arte Publico, tells the story of the obstacles Yuliana had
to clamber past in her first year in the United States and offers lessons
for other young people who may feel like outsiders.



"At first, it's going to be difficult. Nothing in the world is easy. There
will be many rocks in your path, but if you fall, keep going," says Yuliana,
now 16, recapping the message of her book - and the philosophy of her life.
"After I learned English, I knew I could do anything I wanted to. That was
my barrier and I got past it."



Yuliana remembers spending five hours a night plodding through her homework,
stacks of English dictionaries by her side. Her walls, doors and mirrors
were papered with new vocabulary words. All part of an unrelenting mission
to master English.



"It wasn't enough to learn English. I had to prove that I could be equal to
or maybe even better than my classmates," Yuliana recounts in her book. "I
had to do even more to be better than them."



Within two months, Yuliana had gained a foothold in the new language.



"I was really proud of myself, of what I accomplished, of learning to speak
English well and above all, having shown that I, a Latina, could make my
dreams come true."



But the book only tells a small fraction of Yuliana's story, which already
overflows with accomplishments and achievements. On a recent evening,
Yuliana sat cross-legged on the living room floor of her family's Houston
home, flipping through a scrapbook filled with laminated newspaper
clippings, awards and commendations and rattling off her successes in
flawless, rapid-fire English.



Here, a piece from a Mexican newspaper about Yuliana's first published book
- an inspirational text for children. She wrote it when she was just 7 years
old. There, another article describing a motivational speech she gave to
inmates at a jail in Apodaca, Mexico. She was 8.



A proclamation noting her appointment that same year as the "official
orator" for the governor of Nuevo Leon, Mexico. A "student of the week"
award she earned six months after arriving in the United States.



Oh yes, Yuliana adds, there was that stint where she dispensed advice to
young people in one-minute segments aired on the local Telemundo station in
Houston. She was 10.



It was during another television appearance, where Yuliana was reciting some
of her work that Nicolas Kanellos, director of Arte Publico, first met the
emerging author - and immediately spotted her nascent talent.



Kanellos offered Yuliana a summer internship at the publishing house, where
the young girl worked as a go-fer and received coaching and editing
guidance. "Mi sueno de America/My American Dream," was born shortly
afterward. Yuliana, who was 12 at the time, finished the first draft within
four months.



"We saw how committed she was to writing. It was very evident that she was
truly engaged in the writing craft," Kanellos said. "Yuliana's book gives
insights into what immigrant kids face, and can help people appreciate their
diverse experiences and trauma."



These days, the girl who once wished to be invisible is a kinetic,
charismatic bundle of energy who spends her days earning stellar grades at
Houston's Bellaire High School, her weekends giving motivational speeches or
appearing at book fairs, and her late nights writing in her journal or
working on new manuscripts. (Inspiration often strikes after midnight, says
Yuliana.)



She has finished writing nine more books, with two already in the publishing
process. And she is looking ahead to a future as productive as her childhood
has been. Some of her goals include: undergraduate work at the University of
Houston, earning a graduate degree at Princeton University, becoming a child
psychologist and a television anchorwoman.



"A lot of people stereotype Hispanic people. We have to stop those
stereotypes and show that we can become President. We can become lawyers,"
said Yuliana. "We can do whatever we want."






-- 
Bill Howe

Travel to China - June 1-14, 2008 - Teachers & Health Care Professionals -
http://www.billhowe.org/China2008.htm

Web - http://www.billhowe.org
Blog - Travel - http://billhowe.org/BillBlog/
Blog - Multicultural Education - http://billhowe.org/MCE/

Everything now, we must assume, is in our hands;
we have no right to assume otherwise.
If we do not falter in our duty now,
we may be able, handful that we are,
to end the racial nightmare,
and achieve our country,
and change the history of the world.

James Baldwin, "The Fire Next Time"