First gen A memoir

Former White House aide to President Obama and founder of the Well Woman Coalition, Campoverdi has lived a life of extremes. From humble beginnings in a Mexican immigrant neighborhood in Santa Monica to the rarefied air of the Ivy League and the White House, she shines a nuanced and tender light on her younger self. She defines First Gen not only as the first in a family of immigrants to be born in the U.S. but also as people who are the first or the only person in their family or group to cross a threshold and navigate "a delicate balance of surviving where you came from while acting like you belong where you're going." She illuminates the challenging dynamics First Gens confront, including the "Parentified Child," the "Bicultural Balancing Act," "Chutes and Social Ladders," and "Breakaway Guilt." Campoverdi's dedication and affection for young women in difficult circumstances is evident throughout this midlife memoir as she provides a rich harvest of encouragement and a solid list of resources, including an especially valuable list of culturally competent therapists for people of color.

The White House deputy director of Hispanic media for the Obama administration shares her story. For Campoverdi, a women's health care advocate and policy adviser, breaking a multigenerational cycle of poverty, domestic abuse, and limited education was "a radical act of healing." In this memoir, she aims to correct the "sugar-coated, stereotypical narrative about social mobility and the American Dream." After years of therapy for trauma-induced anxiety, panic attacks, and suicidal thoughts, the author has learned to recognize symptoms and syndromes that she could not identify when she was growing up. Campoverdi maps out some of the emotional relationships in her family, especially the experiences of the women. "Three generations of women in my family had primarily been single mothers," she writes. "Three generations of women in my family struggled to make ends meet….Three generations of women in my family had been in emotionally tumultuous relationships with chaotic men." When she was younger, the author was drawn to rough, charismatic gang members, and she also bore significant emotional burdens for other family members, becoming "Parentified"--i.e., "enlisted into the role of family caretaker." However, "acknowledging my own experience as a Parentified Child was never about pointing fingers or assigning blame," she writes. "Parentification is rarely done with malicious intent, and in my case, I truly believe that everyone was doing the best they could with what they knew and had." Campoverdi was a high achiever, and she earned degrees at USC and Harvard's Kennedy School. Despite enormous debt, she was sure that her big-name education was "the single most powerful professional 'validator' I could earn." Ultimately, the "breakaway guilt" of succeeding where her family did not humbled her, and she went on to great success in politics, health care activism, and documentary production. In this psychologically astute work, the author calls out her difficult childhood experiences in order to demonstrate how to overcome stigma and trauma. An inspiring story and an invaluable resource for first-generation immigrant children striving for success in America. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.