“You sound like a white girl.” These were the words spoken to Julissa by a high school crush as she struggled to find her place in America. As a brown immigrant from Mexico, assimilation had been demanded of her since the moment she set foot in San Antonio, Texas, in 1994. She’d spent so much time getting rid of her accent so no one could tell English was her second language that in that moment she felt those words—you sound like a white girl?—were a compliment. As a child, she didn’t yet understand that assimilating to “American” culture really meant imitating “white” America—that sounding like a white girl was a racist idea meant to tame her, change her, and make her small. She ran the race, completing each stage, but never quite fit in, until she stopped running altogether. In this dual polemic and manifesto, Julissa dives into and tears apart the lie that assimilation leads to belonging. She combs through history and her own story to break down this myth, arguing that assimilation is a moving finish line designed to keep Black and brown Americans and immigrants chasing racist American ideals. She talks about the Lie of Success, the Lie of Legality, the Lie of Whiteness, and the Lie of English—each promising that if you obtain these things, you will reach acceptance and won’t be an outsider anymore. Julissa deftly argues that these demands leave her and those like her in a purgatory—neither able to secure the power and belonging within whiteness nor find it in the community and cultures whiteness demands immigrants and people of color leave behind.

What does an undocumented immigrant look like? What kind of family must she come from? How could she get into this country? What is the true price she must pay to remain in the United States? JULISSA ARCE knows firsthand that the most common, preconceived answers to those questions are sometimes far too simple-and often just plain wrong. On the surface, Arce's story reads like a how-to manual for achieving the American dream: growing up in an apartment on the outskirts of San Antonio, she worked tirelessly, achieved academic excellence, and landed a coveted job on Wall Street, complete with a six-figure salary. The level of professional and financial success that she achieved was the very definition of the American dream. But in this brave new memoir, Arce digs deep to reveal the physical, financial, and emotional costs of the stunning secret that she, like many other high-achieving, successful individuals in the United States, had been forced to keep not only from her bosses, but even from her closest friends. From the time she was brought to this country by her hardworking parents as a child, Arce-the scholarship winner, the honors college graduate, the young woman who climbed the ladder to become a vice president at Goldman Sachs-had secretly lived as an undocumented immigrant. In this surprising, at times heart-wrenching, but always inspirational personal story of struggle, grief, and ultimate redemption, Arce takes readers deep into the little-understood world of a generation of undocumented immigrants in the United States today- people who live next door, sit in your classrooms, work in the same office, and may very well be your boss. By opening up about the story of her successes, her heartbreaks, and her long-fought journey to emerge from the shadows and become an American citizen, Arce shows us the true cost of achieving the American dream-from the perspective of a woman who had to scale unseen and unimaginable walls to get there.

Someone Like Me is the young readers edition of Julissa Arce's adult memoir My (Underground) American Dream. Born in Taxco, Mexico, Julissa Arce had to share her parents with America from the age of three. Her parents made trips to different parts of the United States to sell silver, often spending weeks and even months away. That is until one day they decided to bring Julissa to Texas to live with them. From then on, Julissa would be spend every day gripped with fear as she secretly lived as an undocumented immigrant. This surprising, at times heart-wrenching, but always inspirational story takes readers deep into the little-understood world of a new generation of undocumented immigrants in the United States today--children who live next door, sit in your classrooms, or may even be one of your best friends.

Someone Like Me is the young readers edition of Julissa Arce's adult memoir My (Underground) American Dream. Born in Taxco, Mexico, Julissa Arce had to share her parents with America from the age of three. Her parents made trips to different parts of the United States to sell silver, often spending weeks and even months away. That is until one day they decided to bring Julissa to Texas to live with them. From then on, Julissa would be spend every day gripped with fear as she secretly lived as an undocumented immigrant. This surprising, at times heart-wrenching, but always inspirational story takes readers deep into the little-understood world of a new generation of undocumented immigrants in the United States today--children who live next door, sit in your classrooms, or may even be one of your best friends.