In the introduction to her book, Villavicencio offers the reader a list of differentials to orient her book. The Undocumented Americans (2020) is not a DREAMer memoir, nor is it a detached journalistic take on the eleven million undocumented people living in the US. By her own admission, the book should be read as a “work of creative non-fiction.” What stands out immediately is a strong narratorial voice that is self-reflexive, and is uncomfortable with normative genre conventions.
Villavicencio herself is an undocumented migrant and her book is born out of a need to self-represent. She draws on journalistic methods, doing interviews and fact-checking exercises, but departs from them at will as she blends her reports with the personal and the magical. This essay details some of these creative overtures and discusses how and why Villavicencio’s work sits uncomfortably between fact and fiction, between memoir and manifesto, as she sets out to represent America’s undocumented.
Much after the publication of her book Villavicencio has continued the behind-the-scenes work to position her voice, doing book readings and interviews. This essay is interested in Villavicencio’s efforts to retain the autonomy over her voice within the textual boundaries and beyond.