Facebook. We want to hear from you. Tweet us, twitter. Com book tv post a comment on the facebook page. Hello Everyone Welcome to books and books. Thank you for being here. Especially the plan. Under little housekeeping and remind you to turn off your cell phones during the presentation. Immediately following the presentation will have a reception and book signing on the other side of the courtyard. If you exit through the courtyard so you will not interrupt the flow of the cafe, please do so. Tonight, we have laura in the making of a tree. This is her amazing book should tell you more about. But just to say they call this a mustread to understand the new america. Our moderator, tim will be introducing and say more about laura and her panelists. Tim is miami heralds news americas correspondent covering latin america and the caribbean is covered latin america from is 25 years for newsweek in mexico city. Chief from 1990 to make 1996. From time first in mexico from 1996 until 1989. In miami where he covered florida of the u. S. Southeast. Welcome have a great evening. [applause] thank you. Thank you to mitchell the books and books. It is always a delight to come and present these important books such as the one were going to hear from. Yall know laura, veteran miami journalists one of the best to cover immigration in the city in my estimation. Sitting with her the dreamers hell be reading about frederick a and maria, we also have another, alex. [applause] is wonderful for another reason to be here amongst all of you. I remember one of the things laura told me in her interview a few weeks ago was as she was writing this book it became a love letter to south florida. So much of the Dreamers Movement had its genesis here not only the genesis of the movement that the genesis of one of the most important moments which was the 2010 want to washington headed by dreamers. Its one of the most moving parts of her book one of the most moving passages of her book and i like her to read that. [applause] thank you first to say that books and books is one of the reasons i want to come to florida. When i first came here had the good fortune to stop and fell in love with books and books that help me fall in love with miami. Had covered immigration for more than a decade at some point i got frustrated doing they piece stories here and there course i love aps but i kept thinking, theres a bigger story to be done about this movement of young people and somebody should write a book and someone turned to me and said, your journalists, you cover immigration, what are you waiting for. Those in 2012. Here we are. Im good to read from a section that starts with this walk from miami to d. C. On january 1, 2010, just as felipe had a vision, he and isabel, they stood outside the Freedom Tower, across from the basketball arena in the heart of downtown. About 100 family and friends gathered as well as reporters, local tv reporters and others looking for an alternative to the traditional miami beach hangover story. The they tried not to let his nerves show. He licked a small crowd that had gathered that his usual smile was absent. The Miamidade College that a bit about during partition and modeled after the bell tower it served throughout the 1960s and 70s as a Reception Center for cuban exile. Now, a gathering in the Cultural Center for the college. The older cubanamerican americans sometimes to refer to it as the refuge. A place where the u. S. Government first welcome them with open arms. The symbol and symbolism is not lost. People at liberty but the opposite is happening were announcing to the world that we are coming out of the shadows. They were blue sweat pants blazing with trail of dreams and fast for families. That latter was a group of farmworker activists had driven nearly an hour from the winter Strawberry Fields to show theres solidarity. Many farmworkers are company but Young Children clasping their mothers hands, one woman lost her husband to deportation. Another were tracking bracelet as she waited for the u. S. Government to determine her faith. They were new to protests. They had fought for years like the students, they couldnt afford to take off work and walk for months at a time. The farmworkers indigenous heritage was clear, they spoke mostly in spanish as they describe their barely livable wages, abuses in the field and the threat of immigration rates. The students kicked off the trail and they cannot walk but there solidarity would activate a network of workers across florida. The anchor the call to action in the moment in history you have a century earlier which a filipino protest by more than 300mile march from california to sacramento to demand better wages. The florida farmworkers might not join the trail but admit the students were not walking alone. The group had done emily for refurbished rv. It would also provide Pro Bono Legal support. Various Group Despite the precautions, felipe a sister worried about her brother safety. She drove 45 minutes to attend the rally and simon. Promise me youll come back she whispered to him. Fully they wondered if he could promise that much but he nodded and hugged her. As maria predicted the four students were not well prepared. That winter was the coldest in history. It was 65 in miami the day they left but the temperature kept dropping. While the students were busy contemplating lifeanddeath not had winter jackets. By the time they were reached the beach the temperature had dropped to a record low of 50 degrees during the day. They made a quick shopping detour. For city kids whose experience of nature involves the trip to the beach the physicality of the walk often 60 miles a day in the intensity and exposure to untamed horrible for the habitat was shocked to their system. The day started at don and ended at midnight. The prewere covered in blistered and the bandages fell off throughout the day anyway. By day six he met with the podiatrist who taught him how to pop his blisters with a sterile needle. [applause] that was beautiful. Thank you is a said in our interview, this is obviously a wonderful book, its a remarkably rich and informative book about the dreamers and their movement. The book has another key attribute, it has impeccable timing as a think everyone here who watches cnn would agree. Its a blessing and a curse. It can be for a book. While it heightens awareness makes people want to talk about the news surrounding the book rather than the book itself. Were not going to do that, as i said its a rich book by way of introducing you fuller, one of the things i want to know is, because your journalists you covered immigration for the p for many years, currently Vice President of said special projects at the fusion networks, your respected veteran journalist here in miami south florida. One day ask you, as a journalist what intrigues me whenever journalist puts out next flipbook is, how do you arrive at the process moving from an event that may be of written articles about to putting that into a fulllength feature about an entire movement. Im interested in the moment when a journalist like you loses her sanity and decides to write a book. Can you describe the process how a journalist moves from periodical work to this wonderful fulllength feature you wrote about a movement, one of most important immigration movements of the century. It was an exciting shift. In my house i had a timeline going across my wall and tracing paper that was 10 feet of where wanted to start the story in 2000 when the first. Reporter proposal was made, back then it didnt seem like a big deal is a bipartisan thing ran out by dick turpin, democrat lauren hatch. From utah. This was something moving forward and that september 11 happened and everything stopped. I knew i had the structure from then until now but i wanted to cover. I wanted to get different voices. It is important for me to show it wasnt just a Movement Made by one or two people and people did not come out as activists or leaders. I think its unrealistic that we set these perfect heroes, none of us can lead it. There are parts of the book where felipe had a lot of doubts. So i chose people willing to be written about us humans with flaws and all. It shows people with many different backgrounds, different geographic areas to flush out the different players in different ways. How, for example to make the transition from a daily story and talking to people to saying hey can i talk to for about a year . So how do you make that shift to approaching them in such a drastically different manner . Also to flee fan maria, how do you give up the trust for an entire five years to a journalist has now decided to write about something much bigger . It definitely helped that i covered this issue for more than a decade. I have a novel in my duster, got into journalism in part because i wanted to document the world but also because i love telling stories. I didnt want to make a book for the choir, i wanted it to start conversations. The other day i was in a cafe and i heard people talking about how excited they were about some of the trim policies and i had my book out and i have a book out and it was a vehicle to have some of these discussions. Wanted to tell good stories. What i was looking for people to look for people who had compelling stories to tell. I knew that i could sit with this person for five years and if their stories make me laugh and cry at their audience will feel the same way. And then felipe and maria, why was this the vehicle . It was difficult at first. When she called me, she said id like to write a book and i said great we have talked for many years on and off because of articles or when something will come up she would call her she would call me so there is some trust that happen would be for the book was written. She said actually i like to write a book and i like you to be one of the people. And then i said you want me to look like a hero or person . One of the many issues i think that movement has had is we picture the dreamer or the undocumented youth as this perfect immigrant. The person that came and worked hard and got good grades et cetera. Honestly, thats not how my life was. I had good grades but i was depressed, i tried to commit suicide. I struggled with coming out. I had many struggles with my family about being gay. There are many problems throughout my life the many moments where socalled the leader and i really doubted myself. I didnt know what i was doing. I was absolutely sure i didnt know what i was doing. And i really wanted that to show. I think she did a good job. There many unflattering things about in this book. Im not the dreamer, but im not the only one. Now that trump has declared that were all dreamers, what i am is is an organizer. Organizers take pride in being organizers not activists, i was excited about lauras and richard and i knew within the concept of movement, so within our Movement Therapy people might be hypercritical, but its the first time i have seen her since i read the book, and its beautiful. It really is. She gave me the first copy and dedicated. Ten minutes worth of i think its a really important book such an appealing book. It has both the combination of the stories as well as such a great documentation of history. Really help the people not only read it, i hope others are inspired to write about it about their experience. This is one of an infinite number of perspectives of a particular slice of american history. Early on theres a description you write that i think crystallizes maybe what you saw is a journalist that can make a full or you say the fight to save themselves from deportation heralded a Quiet Revolution among advocates. It was beginning to dawn on them what they had in their corner, young, american raised immigrants who the rest of the country can more easily relate to in their less assimilated relatives. Im curious as im sitting here, was that really the linchpin is why he thought it should be a larger story . Did you is dreamers realize that about yourself as well . Did you realize that was the factor that could make your movement so different . I think what made me captivated by this movements was the energy and the power. It sounds corny when they say it but in this hyper cynical, polarized moment to see the impact of young people throwing themselves toward democracy trying to be civic when engaged in they couldnt even vote. I grew up watching them eyes on the prize i saw the parallel and the legacy and its not just immigration, is the young people who are doing this. Is on my facebook those who process the freedom our people they want the ocean without a roar of its many waters. Might be physical or both but it must be a struggle. Thats from Patrick Douglas to answer your question to this quote it wasnt necessarily that the fact that we speak english into the system the were willing to put our bodies on the line. Were willing to protest it had to do with the fact that we were young were trying to change the game. So when isabel came home when they wanted to walk from miami to d. C. My first reaction was, what its a really long way if you ever meet isabel and finally when isabel answers their phone, their talk and unlike what if i say that because there many moments people took different actions is like we feel like we are more assimilated than our parents. But theres something that clicked in our mind and we saw that we are powerful because were willing to struggle. I personally have people like marie and my life taught me to organize one of the first times i talk to her said lets play chess together. And because of people like her to were able to advance a much. Everything that he says, theyre also people in my book who just graduated from harvard last year is not directly in the struggle and who is in an activist but i wanted to include people who are making the difference so there are a lot of different ways the movement has moved forward and some of it is like at the border coming back, theres a lot of different ways. What makes this is this not just the perfect activist, their real kids these are people with this are wrenching past the about a dreamer they seem to be in jeopardy when their father got a dui. And thats how this book the book really took us into the flesh and blood of the movement. So in that vein i wanted to ask, how hard was it for you for dreamers and activists to let laura not just its try but sometimes its failures and strategies. And how hard it was for you as an author to balance this need to celebrate this movement and also to show the nittygritty. I just knew i couldnt write a book that wasnt real. I needed to include as much as i could this much was relevant to the book. That included perspectives of people in Washington People who werent necessarily inside of the dreamers. Some incredibly grateful for the people who bear their souls there were very honest with me. I think we all want to root for humans. In terms of the youth going back to previous questions, the first hire we did was of a haitian woman as a youth organizer, because we understood that we needed a cultural bridge. So i think its important to understand that we all live in a context of rural a product of a series of experiences. As organizers were trying to do is connect people to their own story, and understand that its not an individual problem, its a social situation. Thats why its a Human Experience of connecting to the characters in this book. I like the fact that you mentioned the civil rights movement. Another comparative movement. Because i think one though most insightful things laura does in this back also is to realize that the dreamer mom took a lot of i dont know if inspiration this movement but guidance from the lesbian, gay, bisexual, Lgbtq Movement at a time when you were experiencing setbacks, and the fact that during this drama, you were wrestling with your own sexuality, and you mentioned, for example, that for you and is bell, your partner, it felt safer to be back about their immigration status than about their sexual orientation. For another, dreamer named tanya who kept out as a lesbian in college and kept her immigration status quiet for fear of losing her humanitarian parole, the opposite is true. The lgbtq is the more for most movement of these activists generations. What code of lessons rick you take from that movement that eventually led to then successes like daca in 2012 . Well, so, one, a lot of us are actually part of the lgbtq. Im one of them. Look at that. I kissed a boy and really liked it. Thats a nice thing. And its still true today. I mean, like, the fact that so many of us were part of the Lgbtq Movement and were in leadership of different local organizations across the country, really helped to us see ourselves not only part of one movement but part of many movements. Part of many struggles. So, if i become a u. S. Citizen today, like, say, magically, that does not take away all of the racism and xenophobia and also homophobia i live in hi everyday life. I dont get to pick and choose. Like today aim going to be an immigrant. Tomorrow a were person, thats not how it works. I am who i am all the time and i live my life the way i do. So some of the lessons we took on, like the concept of coming out as being one of the big ones, came out, and tanya was someone who really kind of like pushed that not only at something we were doing sporadically and actually as a strategy, and she, like, had discussions with us and she said, were coming out of the closet. You came out of the closet. Yeah, i did. I remember that. That was awful. And then but gave me a secret, can i guess . But then this idea of coming out of the shadows, because so like, people dont quite realize this whole shadow concept was actually created by antiimmigrants. They were like, oh, theyre living in the shadows. You should be scared of them. We took it back. Were like, no. Were not leaving the shadows. Were actually right here withyou all the time. So thats one. But like this idea of being unapologetically us and embrace thing fact were part of multiple struggles, part of multiple movements is a lesson we have learned. I also wanted to kind of quickly say that there is amazing immigrant organizers here so we say hi to alex and marco from orlando came all the way from orlando to be here today. [applause] i saw paula coming in. Paula woohoo. And i see he tomas there, and im sorry for ira. So, has been here and he is as many of you foe a veteran immigration attorney, known not only in miami but he literally wrote the book on immigration. Has his name on it. He was long a source for me and very helpful for immigration law, and he figures into this book and it gets back at the history because he had worked with the Haitian Community and had some wins early on legally, and i think he saw in the dreamers and in filipe himself a little bit as coming in and just trying to fight the big fight, and so he was one of many veterans leaders in miami, and nationwide, who these young people learned from, who backed them early on, and threw their support for them and thats also part of the story. And i remember distinctly running down the steps of the Freedom Tower on the january 1, 2010, because i was moderating or facilitating. Very embarrassed to say, we have to go, ira, but ira has been an incredible pioneer and support of the Florida Immigrant Coalition and many other organizations. I also wanted to add, do you feel that south florida and florida have been largely overlooked in its role as nurturing the Dreamer Movement and do you think and do you hope this book is going to be a corrective, if it has been overlooked, as a nurturer, an incubator, as you indicate it, for the Dreamer Movement. I dont know if its been overlooked but i certainly became fascinate with the role that south florida has played, and clearly. Is in this community are such leaders from the mayor to the doctors, business people, and so lawmakers, early on, bipartisan support for immigrants and republicans, democrats across the board, and so theres a different dynamic here. In some ways it helps the movement a lot because theres access and theres strength and theres money, and other ways you dont see this same level of people taking to the streets because they do have other avenues. So it can appear theres less interest and less activism here, but i dont think there is and its amazing so many leaders have come out of south florida in particular. I mean, the south Florida Movement is actually pretty awesome and active and has been active for many years, the Haitian Community has been organizing for a very, very long time. One of many campaigns we took on swear, paula is thanks for the shoutout. And back in we had this whole process of choosing our top three prioritys and our top priority at the time was haitian tps in 2009. And so i was sent off to speak to a crowd of haitians, haitian immigrants i dont know creole. So i went up and said, just tell me something to say, something that i can actually pronounce. So she said america is for everyone, and i did, and i said it. And there were 500 people outside of the transitional center, buses of people coming from little haiti. To protest. So, just because were in not showing up in the headlines does not mean were not active. When i joined Miamidade College, we quickly understood that there were, like, burn of campuses and a bunch of neighborhoods and that we could sort of like in my church days, go to the neighborhood and try to organize the neighborhoods. Thats what we did. We used the Miamidade College infrastructure because that it would let us use their rooms if we were student club. And sometimes they would give us a little bit of money to have pizza, too. So, those are yes, there is infrastructure access, there are organization like the Florida Immigrant Coalition but i want to acknowledge there has been many years of activism and organizing, and several communities that many times is overlooked by the media and also by us. Just because we dont see them does not mean that does not mean theyre not in struggle. Actually, i dont have anything to say. Im a little behind. Im stuck on the im not satisfied, so im not going to sit here and celebrate and glow of our movement because while we have had many wins and many campaigns, i think that we have underperformed what we could actually do in south florida, and so i was going back to toe the question about the Lgbtq Movement and the immigrant rights movement, and both in 2010 to see the failure dream act but the passage of the dont ask, dont tell, and in texas we saw the failure of the bathroom bill and the passage of the antiimmigrant bill, and i feel like in this country there is this serious disconnect between where the people are, when you see, for example, support from the dream act is at 86 , among all americans, and 79 among republicans, but yet we cant even get the bill to be heard and voted on. So theres a disconnect, and i think thats not just on immigration. In south florida, is also similar. Where the electorate and the population, which we wish the population was the electorate reflected the population closer, where we are is not where our leaders are. I take the mayor as an example, with this detainer. I strongly agree with maria, that this is theres been a cultural shift. You have people tweeting all sorts of support. You have the polls, all of that. And the jerrymandering and the way the congress is set up, not just on immigration, makes these extremes which, a. , wont compromise which my find and nine year know how to do better, and, b. , we have the log jam. But i do think that the cultural shift often comes first and that leads to political shifts. I think we have want to move to questions from the audience. To launch that issue just had one last question. As the chronicler of the movement, going back to what you were just touching on, why did they have so much success getting president obama to finally decree the daca program and yet the movement has not had success in getting the daca bill, the dream act, that the movement so desperately wants . Why that one success but yet so far this failure . The short answer is, read the book. But daca was a temporary fix, an executive action, which means ultimately one person and his advisers can do. Getting congress to act and getting you to be there getting many more people, much more messy, but ultimately it is much more permanent, and so the daca was never meant to be a permanent solution, and i am optimistic that we will get there with our laws. Your perspective on that . Well, we pressure president obama, and we won because people took action, because people came out, because people put their lives on the line. Always makes me a tiny bit mad when people give all the credit to the president. The truth is, alex here, you know, like, literally organized an action inside one of his office one of the campaign offerses offices in colorado. I had to frequenting walk all the way to back to get a little attention. People were arrest left and right. And we finally won because we were able to politically, socially, we were able to pull different strategic things in order to move the president. Why not the dream act . One, i think there is a lot of political football that goes here. Right . People in this country or politicians in this country are willing to play with peoples lives, destroy peoples lives. Some of us have family members who are in deportation, and then every single day we live with the anxiety of our we dont know what the Text Messages going to be or the next call, and we live with that. We have to live with that anxiety every day. Thats not fair. And to say there are 11 Million People in this country, living like this . I have no words. We have failed this country as a nation, and i do believe that this is a fight for the soul of this country. Are we going acknowledge that people are people . Or are we going to take republican and democrat excuse my french here bs . And its not going to be resolved in congress. I can guarantee you this. Its going to be resolved in the streets. [applause] like to take questions from the audience if you have any. [inaudible] discussion. This question from laura. Im curious, you covered immigration immigration for a long time but spent every day writing about dreams could topics on immigration and outside of immigration. Im wondering whether your perspective on this issue changed at all . If you saw things in a different way by getting to spend years to them and exposed to them in 1015 minute interviews at a time. Ill yell. Yes, i did not understand when i started the extent to which dreamers felt incredibly pained and divided so much that one of the young women marks regonsalez, talk about feeling sick to her stomach when she talked about coming to the United States through no fault of her own, essentially throwing her parents under the bus, and that some of the divisions the good dreamer vs. Bad dreamer had been put upon the young dreamers themselves, and also, honestly, this is a complex issue. I went to dish had sabbatical and spent a year trying to study economics and immigration and trying to figure it all out, and theres a million studies but its not so simple. What is what did come through overwhelmingly is how many immigrants are contributing to the country in so many different ways, economically and socially, that we often gloss over in these sound bites you hear on tv, and i think that that gets lost. The Human Experience for these individuals and hour their lives affecting and benefiting the rest of us. You know, i learned through a documentary called deported by that it was actually clinton and the Obama Administration that supported so many maybe you can check my facts they would support so many haitians, back deported so many haitian back to haiti it actually created a whole class sector in haiti that is theres already a class system there anyway but now theres this growing population of deportees in haiti, and i know that with the media, that we try to pin everything on trump because we just want him out of there very quickly, but at the same time, do we really reflect on the things that the Obama Administration and even clinton administration, has really caused for this . I tried i know we dont have much time so ill say quickly i really try to do that in the book. The short is the one that was worn on may 1st, 20010 in front of the white house as we were getting arrested, pressuring obama. We have time for just one more. Congratulations, laura, and thank you so much for writing this very important book. My can he he my question is for filipe. As a syrian, the struggle in syria does not seem like its ending anytime soon so theres time is lose hope, and then i have to rye mind myself, theres light at the end of this tunnel. What is that light for you . Does it exist and what is it if it does . Thats a very deep question. I try not be jaded. Thats one thing that i try really hard. Think about it a lot. That i have seen defeat. Ive seen victory. Ive seen change that i did not expect. And then change that i kind of expected. But one thing that really keeps me grounded, if i want to be really honest with you, is my Close Friends who are also in the struggle. So sebastian who is not here but mentioned in the book, he told me something that really stayed with me. He said, sometimes in the movement, we value pain but we forget that the struggle is actually beautiful; that every day the resilience that our communities have is beautiful. The fact that my mom had the strength to put me on a plane and not know if i was ever going to see her again, just so i could have a little bit of an opportunity, is beautiful. Thats courage. Thats a light. And i try to hold on to it because, honestly, sometimes it gets really bleak. I have had bleak movements, and also, i will be honest with you, coming here is actually very emotional for me. I grew up in miami. Miami is the only place in the entire world i feel at home. Like, you know when you go home and feel like, im at home. Its the only place. I was driving with marco from orlando and i was like oh, my god, i cant wait to get there and drink coffee and have planning my whole day. And every big moment in my life was in this very city. And to have somebody to tell me that i dont belong here, like, oh, hell, no. I do belong here, and that really big certainty also grounds me in moments of difficulty, too. [applause] so, well have to end on that wonderful note. Want to thank maria, and philippine lay and laura widesmunoz and thank you for this wonderful book on a movement that is grip us right now, not just here but in washington as well, and we wish you all the best of luck. Congratulations, laura. [applause] thank you very much to all of you. [applause] i just want to say you do wrong and youre not a you do wrong and youre you do belong and youre not alone and you always have a place here. For drinks and food, go out this way. Laura will be signing books on the west side so just follow the crowd. Just want to say a quick thanks to the sponsors, the knight foundation, fusion tv and to Miamidade College who have provided your food and of course the books. Thank you. [applause] and cspan will keep us going. Thank you. [applause] [inaudible discussion] let me just make it clear, people think, theres goes the crazy leftist again, and im sawing i want a world where people are held accountable. I want a world where people feel safe. If we look at prison and if we look at police, are people actually held accountable because of a police and prison state . No, theyre not if i talk to people who are victim crime, my family is a victim of crime, theres this idea of who the victim of crimes, the white family who is in suburbia, victims of crime are also black people in poor neighborhoods. Ask them if they got accountability when somebody was sent to jail or prison. Theyd say no. I still dont have a crime. Still crime in my neighborhood i. Still dont feel safe. As much as they are dealing with the criminals in their community, quite often when the police show up things get ready bad. Exactly. I think the other piece is that we have spent the last 40 to 50 years completely investing in police, and completely investing in prisons, and not investing in other things like housing, people having access to healthy food, people having access to Public Education adequate Public Education, and we have seen the impact of that. So imagine if we flipped it. Imagine if we even took half of the police budget, took a portion over the police budget, and put that into social programming, what can we do for human beings . After words airs on saturdays at 10 00 p. M. Eastern and sunday at 9 00 p. M. Eastern and pacific. He delivered, i think i know the stump speech youre referring to, its a speech he delivered about originalism and why its superior to whats called the living constitution approach to juris prudence, and i heard him deliver that speech, too in madison, wisconsin, in 2001. It was his stump speech. Was looking forward to find a written version of that. I loved the speech. Included a wonderful passage where he compared the living constitution approach to a Television Commercial from then 1980s where a prego commercial where somebody is eating pasta, storeball south and the husband says youre not doing it home made . What about the oregano, and the wife says, its in there. What about the pep pep center its in there the garlic . Its in there the dad would say we have that kind of constitution. Your want a right to to borings. Nit there. A right to die . Its in there. Anything that guess and true and beautiful is in there. No matter what the text says, and i thought that was being a pop culture junkie myself and having watch that commercial with my father, i always loved that passage and was looking forward to finding it but he never actually apparently wrote the speech down so we have a version of it, very different version of it in the collection. When he delivered one in australia in the early 90s. [inaudible conversations] good evening everyone. We half of harvard books there thanks for coming to the cambridge library. We have Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt with us discussing their book how democracies die. Ho