Undocumented

A Dominican Boy’s Odyssey from a Homeless Shelter to the Ivy League

By: Dan-el Padilla Peralta

Narrated by: Dan-el Padilla Peralta

Dan-el Padilla Peralta has lived the American dream. As a boy he came here legally with his family. Together they left Santo Domingo behind, but life in New York City was harder than they imagined. Their visas lapsed, and Dan-el's father returned home. But Dan-el's courageous mother was determined to make a better life for her bright sons. Without papers she faced tremendous obstacles. While Dan-el was only in grade school, the family joined the ranks of the city's homeless. Dan-el, his mother, and his brother lived in a downtown shelter, where Dan-el's only refuge was the meager library. There he met Jeff, a young volunteer from a wealthy family. Jeff was immediately struck by Dan-el's passion for books and learning. With Jeff's help, Dan-el was accepted, on scholarship, to Collegiate, the oldest private school in the country. There Dan-el thrived. Throughout his youth Dan-el navigated these two worlds: the rough streets of East Harlem, where he lived with his brother and his mother and tried to make friends, and the ultra-elite halls of a Manhattan private school, where he could immerse himself in a world of books and where he soon rose to the top of his class. From Collegiate Dan-el went to Princeton, where he thrived and where he made the momentous decision to come out as an undocumented student in a Wall Street Journal profile a few months before he gave the salutatorian's traditional address, in Latin, at his commencement. Undocumented is a classic story of the triumph of the human spirit. It also is the perfect cri de coeur for the debate on comprehensive immigration reform.

Download the accompanying reference guide.©2015 Dan-el Padilla Peralta (P)2015 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Dan-el Padilla Peralta’s story is as compulsively readable as a novel.... From homeless shelter to Princeton, Oxford, and Stanford...he documents the America we should still aspire to be." (Dr. Anne-Marie Slaughter, president of the New America Foundation)

Great autobiography by Dominican/American Classicist

This was a great bio by a brilliant classicist on his childhood and the educational voyage while also remaining an undocumented immigrant. I have not always agree with Mr Peralta’s statements on the Classics, especially his recent ones, but his life story is indeed “compelling” and worth reading, as is his scholarship.

this genuine memoir kept my interest

The author writes and reads his story, from inner city homelessness to an Ivy League College. I had loved The Short of Tragic Life of Robert Peace, which prompted me to try this, too. This, Peralta's book, is so different. While Dan-el is a brilliant scholar, he is just a regular guy in so many ways. This is not a riveting book, but it is an authentic glimpse into another person's life, a life I was curious about. I teach some students like Dan-el, and felt this book would be valuable to me as a teacher. It was. The beginning of this book was a little slow, but picked up when Dan-el got to high school and college. He did need to deal with his race, and the fact that he had no legal papers. He had to deal with safety issues of living "in the hood." But he also had to deal with so many other normal issues of growing up - finding yourself and finding your comfort zone. Even had he not been an illegal, black immigrant, being a nerdy, intellectual boy is tough when you are growing up! The author is both ordinary and extraordinary, and to me, that was the appeal of this author's life story. I am glad I got to know him through his memoir.

Great story on life of being undocumented

Loved listening to Dan-El's tale of growing up in the projects of NY to making it to Princeton.

TRUE GRIT OF THE JUST FOR SUCCESS!!

What makes America....America!!!
George Washington would be proud!! A true inspiration of overcoming!! The willingness to be patient for ones dream!!!

Read This Book

What a beautiful and inspirational call to action. I can not recommend this book enough.

A great book that every American should read.

An unfortunate reality of America's downfall, forgetting that we are supposed to be the world's melting pot. Beautifully written story. Thank you for sharing your story.

A Must Read

Dan-El Padilla Peralta's "Undocumented" is uplifting but it's also informative for people unaware of the challenges and struggles that the immigrant community face on a daily basis. Overcoming poverty, housing insecurity, food insecurity, and community violence, this story is at once inspiring and discouraging. Inspiring in that Peralta has beat the odds and discouraging in that it takes such an extraordinary person to do so. I've started Peralta's 2020 release, "Divine Institutions: Religions and Community in the Middle Roman Republic" and I can't recommend that highly enough either. A must read.

Moving and inspirational

An inside look into the struggles and triumphs of this Cuban immigrant family. Also insights into Cuban culture via family and food. Good book.

Highly recommend!

Exquisite autobiography of Dan-el Padilla Peralta who entered America when he was young and stayed here illegally throughout his schooling. Since I do not often get to meet and interact with people who have the experience of growing up as an illegal immigrant in the U.S., this story was particularly interesting to me.

You can expect beautiful writing and great introspection from the author as he relates his incredibly interesting experiences. I highly recommend.

Absolutely Authentic

Been Dominican, I've read many books by Dominican American authors about their experience in the US. This was without a doubt the most authentic one I've read. Dan-el's experiences growing up in NYC, being admitted to elite schools where all the students were from much richer families, the dangers of walking home to your bad neighborhood every day are exactly what many of us go through. Some reviews surprisingly complained about the language used, but his choice of words is exactly the way people in these neighborhoods talk. There are primarily two ways to talk -there is your professional voice, and then there is the voice you use with your friends. A very moving story.