In Pursuit of an Audience

Abstract

This chapter turns from undocumented creators to their audiences to illuminate how immigrant storytellers conceive of and characterize US citizens who encounter reclaimant narratives. The narrators describe their frustration with citizens’ apparent lack of knowledge about immigrant rights and policy. I illustrate the link between US audiences’ perceptions of immigrants and the tropes present in mediated portrayals of immigrants in public discourse, and the narrators describe their own reactions to these portrayals. Finally, in response to the question “What do you wish US citizens knew about undocumented immigrants?” they explain why it is so important that citizens recognize immigrants as human, take a bigger picture view of the historical reality of undocumented immigration, acknowledge the factors that lead immigrants to give up their homes and communities and flee to the United States, and understand the privilege of citizenship.