Each week, the My America blog series will introduce you to one of the writers featured in our new exhibit My America: Immigrant and Refugee Writers Today, opening November 21, 2019. The exhibit is designed to elicit thoughtful dialogue on a wide array of issues with contemporary immigrant and refugee writers delving into questions about writing influences, being multilingual, community, family, duality, otherness and what it means to be American. Check back every Wednesday to learn more about these writers and their thoughts on these themes, as we highlight select quotes from the exhibit as well as reading recommendations. Today, we’ll focus on Julissa Arce, a contributor for CNBC, a bestselling writer, and a staunch advocate for social justice.

Selected Quotes from My America
On Representation in Literature
“When I was growing up in Texas I never read a book that was written by a Latina or a Mexican, or that talked about undocumented people. And that experience made me feel really lonely…Later on in my life I discovered Sandra Cisneros, and Reyna Grande, and Erica Sánchez, and they are not only writers that I admire, they’ve become friends and they’ve become mentors, and they continue to inspire me so much…And hopefully we’re showing young Latinas that they too can be writers, and that their stories are important.”
On Trying to Belong
“Recently I’ve really been thinking a lot about the damage that [assimilating] does to people of color, the damage that it did to me, because I always felt like in order to belong I had to be something else. I had to speak English better, I had to stop listening to Spanish music or I had to lose weight, I had to have lighter skin or lighter hair. And now I sort of have tried to take all of that back and have tried to piece myself back together so that I know that who I am is enough and that I don’t have to change anything about myself to belong.”
On Family
“In some ways my mom and my dad felt like strangers to me because I didn’t grow up with them. From the time I was three to the time I was eleven I lived in Mexico and they lived in the U.S., and they came to visit me every once in a while. But I didn’t live with them. So this idea of family is something that I’ve had to redefine over and over again, about what it means to be family…Family is much more than just your DNA.”On Defining “American”
“This question about what it really means to be American, I don’t think we’re ever gonna find one right answer for it. I think that each of us needs to figure out who we are, and whoever we are also means to be American.”Selected Works by Julissa Arce
My (Underground) American Dream Someone Like Me