Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen

In the opening chapter, the author notes that he comes “from a family of gamblers” (13). When he is still a child, he leaves the Philippines in a rush to emigrate to the United States of America. Until that day, he spent almost all of his time with his mother. At the airport, he is introduced to a man and told that this is his uncle. With little warning, he says goodbye to his mother for the last time and goes to live with his grandparents. He remembers flying over the Philippines archipelago and conflates the thousands of islands of his home country with bodies of water in the US. The author leaves the Philippines in 1993, aged 12.

Television—specifically the Academy Awards and the Miss Universe pageant—shape the author’s nascent idea of American culture. Arriving in the Californian airport, he finds people speaking dozens of languages. The weather, too, has more variety than his home country. He is introduced to his grandparents; Lolo is his grandfather and Lola is his grandmother. His uncle is named Rolan and has lived in the US since 1991. Lolo is a naturalized citizen and has changed his name from Teofilo to Ted (after Ted Danson).