One Book, One Community selects memoir on immigration

One Book, One Community is renewing the call for area book lovers to read the same book at the same time. This year’s choice is “My Side of the River: a Memoir," which is sure to be a topical selection for area readers. The book, by author Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez, marks 17 years for One Book, One Community.

“It was started locally in 2008,” said Jim Gill, director at the Dover Public Library. “It was just the county library that year and then the rest of the area libraries joined the next year.” The two month long event, running now through the end of October, is sponsored by the Tuscarawas County Literacy Coalition. 

“My Side of the River: a Memoir,“ tells of the author’s family and their experiences both in the United States and Mexico as they made lives on both sides of the Rio Grande. “We are always looking for books that are relevant to our community,” said Sherrel Rieger, also of the Dover Public Library. “We thought this would be an interesting book for people to read because it gives the story of a young person’s life and the difficulties faced by this family. So we chose this book and as it happens, immigration has come to the forefront in the past several months.”

“Gutierrez was a young woman who was here in the United States,” said Rieger. “Her parents had visas and she was born here. The family had lived for a time in Mexico, but when she started school, they moved back to the states for her education. Then when Gutierrez turned 15, her parent’s visas were rejected and they had to make a difficult decision. Would they all go back to Mexico when she was already enrolled as a freshman in high school? Or would they separate? She decided to stay here, so she did that. She chose to stay in the United States on her own. She had relatives and teachers who helped her, which she talks about in the book.”

Gutierrez graduated from high school and then from the University of Pennsylvania. She’s living and working in the states now. “So it’s success story but it also shows us the cost," Rieger said. "She was able to pursue the American dream but there was a lot of pressure for her to make good because she had the opportunity to live and be educated here.” 

Rieger said Gutierrez’s parents are believed to be currently living in Arizona. 

The book relates a story that is clearly uniquely American yet not so unique for the many who face uncertainties in navigating a fluid and changing U.S. immigration policy. 

Gill said corporate sponsors have enabled many copies of the book to be available at all area libraries in Tuscarawas County. “You can go to any library in the county and check out a copy. We were also able to provide copies to teachers and schools who want to use it as part of this year’s curriculum.”

One Book, One Community culminates Monday, Nov. 3 at 7 p.m. when Gutierrez comes to Kent State University Tuscarawas to talk about the book and sign copies. 

“We’re really encouraging people to come to their public library and get the list of the many events planned for the two months of One Book, One Community,” Gill said. “You can also get a good idea of everything going on at tuscliteracy.org.”

Gill reiterated, “the focus is centered around mitigating this polarized world we live in. If we all read the same book, the same story about a person’s life and experiences, we can learn from that, see things from another’s point of view and have a conversation about that. That’s what this is all about.”