A provocative, personal, blazingly intelligent examination of one of the most vexing questions facing the United States today: Who is, and should be, a citizen?

How did Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free turn upside down to where we are today? Everyone needs to read this book, citizens and non-citizens alike. Brilliant!Sandra Cisneros

The most comprehensive book on citizenship/immigration Ive ever read. A must-read!Javier Zamora

In this one-of-a-kind book, Daisy Hernndez fiercely interrogates one of the most complicated subjects of contemporary life and politics: citizenship. Braiding memoir, history, and cultural criticism, she exposes the truths and lies of how we define ourselves as a country and a people. Turning to her own familys storiesher mother arrived from Colombia, while her father was a political refugee from Castros CubaHernndez shows how the very idea of citizenship is a myth, one of the stories we tell ourselves about the American soul and psyche.

Reframing our understanding of what it means to be an American,Citizenshipis an urgent and necessary account of the laws, customs, and language we use to include and exclude, especially those who come from Latin America. With her scholars mind and memoirists gift for narrative, Hernndez weaves a story both personal and national, while reckoning with our countrys ongoing debate about who belongs and providing fresh ways of thinking about citizenship. At once bracing, fearless, and tender,Citizenshipis a powerful portrait of one familys experiences in the borderlands of citizenship and an honest illumination of the country in which we live.

Daisy Hernndezis the author ofThe Kissing Bug,winner of the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award and the inaugural title for the National Book Foundations Science + Literature Program. Her memoir,A Cup of Water Under My Bed,won Lambda Literarys Dr. Betty Berzon Emerging Writer Award and was a Publishing Triangle Award finalist. She co-edited the classic feminist anthologyColonize This!and is an associate professor of creative writing at Northwestern University.

• Publisher: Hogarth
• Publish Date: Feb 17, 2026
• Pages: 304
• Language: English
• Type: Hardback
• EAN/UPC: 9780593730171
• Dimensions: 8.3 X 5.6 X 0.0 inches | 1.3 pounds
• BISAC Categories: Politics, Society & Current Affairs, Biography & Memoir