Dreaming of Home, Cristina Jimenez
Dreaming of Home, Cristina Jimenez
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Dreaming of Home
How We Turn Fear into Pride, Power, and Real Change

Author: Cristina Jiménez

Narrator: Cristina Jiménez

Unabridged: 13 hr 38 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/27/2025


Synopsis

MacArthur “Genius” Cristina Jiménez writes and narrates her inspiring story from undocumented newcomer to leader in a powerful immigrant youth movement.

Dreaming of Home is a coming-of-age story for both a young woman finding her true self and a social movement of immigrant youth trailblazers who inspired the world and changed the lives of millions.

Cristina Jiménez’s family fought to stay afloat as Ecuador fell into a political and economic crisis. When she was thirteen, her family came to the US seeking a better life, landing in an overcrowded one-bedroom apartment in Queens, New York. She lived in fear of deportation and ashamed of being undocumented, but eventually, Cristina discovered she was not alone. She made it into college when students and advocates won a change in the law, allowing undocumented students to access higher education. She was proud to be the first one in her family to go to college, but she felt out of place until she met professors and student activists who opened a new world where she found her calling within a community of social justice organizers.

With deep candor and humor, Cristina shows us what it’s like to grow up undocumented and the reality that being a “good” immigrant doesn’t shield you from systemic racism, danger—or even the confusion of falling in love. She invites us to acknowledge the America that never was and to imagine the America that could be when everyday people come together, build power, and fight for change, even when the world around us seems to be crumbling.

A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin’s Press.

About Cristina Jiménez

Cristina Jiménez is an award-winning community organizer, bestselling author, and a leading voice in movements for social justice. She is Co-Founder and former Executive Director of United We Dream, the largest immigrant youth-led organization in the country. Jiménez is the Director of Shared Future, a new national initiative seeking to build a consensus on what unites us, immigrants and non-immigrants, as Americans. She received a 2017 MacArthur Fellowship and a spot on the 2018 TIME 100 Most Influential People List. Jiménez came to the U.S from Ecuador in 1998 and grew up undocumented in Queens, N.Y.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Katee on June 03, 2025

If you enjoyed reading The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio and/or want to know more about the fight for rights with DACA, PLEASE pick up Dreaming of Home by Cristina Jiménez. Cristina writes her memoir in a very breezy format that feels like we are having a conversation. I learn......more

Goodreads review by Kristen on May 19, 2025

Dreaming of Home is an eye-opening account of the lives of immigrants in the US and the immigration system. “Our immigration system, by design, has created millions of undocumented immigrants. Today there are 11.2 million undocumented people in the country, most of whom have lived here at least ten......more

Goodreads review by Lisbeth on May 06, 2025

Amazing! I was hooked on this book. I was able to resonate with the author in such a deeper level. I am also from Ecuador and currently reside in Jersey. The author’s transition from the beginning of the book to the ending demonstrates how she has grown to be a fierce and courageous women who will f......more

Goodreads review by T.J. on July 27, 2025

"Dreaming of Home: How We Turn Fear Into Pride, Power, and Real Change" is a particularly important book to read RIGHT NOW, in this current political moment. It is a powerful and emotional book about undocumented youth fighting for their community and for their rights. It forcibly struck home to me......more

Goodreads review by Reader on July 28, 2025

Reading *Dreaming of Home* by Cristina Jiménez felt like being wrapped in the familiar warmth of a conversation with a hermana —someone who’s walked through the fire and came out carrying light for the rest of us. From the first chapter, I knew I was holding something sacred. Cristina doesn’t just te......more


Quotes

"Jiménez’s story is one of transformation that is more than personal; it reaches the character of the United States ...This is for readers who remain interested in America as an equitable, inclusive community of diverse backgrounds, classes, faiths, genders, races and immigrants."
Library Journal

“Powerful...Weaving personal experience with broader social justice movements, Jiménez sheds light on the trauma of immigration, the racial and economic inequities undermining U.S. communities, and the resilience of those who fight for a better future...an inspiring testament to perseverance and collective power.”
Booklist

"We all need to hear Cristina’s story of moving from the shadows of a broken system to leading a movement that changed history.”
Heather Charisse McGhee, advocate and New York Times bestselling author of The Sum of Us

“Cristina Jiménez is documenting her life journey as an immigrant and in doing so, recording the journey of those who haven’t been acknowledged. We don’t count, we aren’t history unless we tell our own stories. In these turbulent times, Cristina’s voice is not only essential, it is heroic, a tongue of fire blazing in the night.”
Sandra Cisneros, poet, writer, and author of The House on Mango Street

"Cristina came of age building a powerful movement of young people, fighting for their place in America. Her version of the American dream will be full of wisdom for this era."
Ai-jen Poo, author, organizer, president of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, and executive director of Caring Across Generations

"You cannot write the modern history of the immigrant rights movement—and, in turn, the evolution of racial and social justice—without the leadership of Cristina Jiménez. She is a force, in the best possible way. For years I've waited for her book, and I look forward to the insights she'll share in Dreaming of Home."
Jose Antonio Vargas, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist, founder of Define American, and author of Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen