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My Journey from the Barrio to Capitol Hill
W.W. Norton
October 2013
On Sale: October 7, 2013
440 pages ISBN: 0393088979 EAN: 9780393088977 Kindle: B00CF2MB7G Hardcover / e-Book
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Non-Fiction Memoir
A candid, savvy, inspiring, and often hilarious memoir by
one of America’s most fearless political leaders.
Beloved by the immigrants and working people whose rights he
has championed, eleven-term Congressman Luis Gutierrez is,
among Latinos and along with Supreme Court Justice Sonia
Sotomayor, the most recognized Hispanic public figure in
America. Here Gutierrez recounts his life between two worlds: too
Puerto Rican in America, where he was born and yet was told
to "go back to where you came from"; too American in Puerto
Rico, where he was ridiculed as a "gringo" who couldn’t
speak Spanish. For much of his early life, he seemed like
the last person who would rise to national prominence. Yet
his tremendous will and resilience shaped his varied
experiences—from picking coffee beans to driving a cab—into
one of the most surprising careers in American politics. He
campaigned for Chicago’s first black mayor, Harold
Washington. Someone threw a Molotov cocktail through the
window of his house, and he only grew more committed to
reform. Tested in the crucible of the notoriously tough
Chicago city council, he earned the nickname "El Gallito":
the little fighting rooster.
Gutierrez was one of the first Latino public figures to
support gay rights; he led the fight to cut Congressional
paychecks, hashed out legislation with both Ted Kennedy and
John McCain, and fought with Newt Gingrich and George W.
Bush. Despite his strong support for Barack Obama in two
elections, he has twice been arrested while protesting for
immigrants in front of the Obama White House. From
recollections of his failures as a teenage activist to his
crackling observations of the nautical décor in Kennedy’s
office and the white-gloved waiters of the Speaker’s dining
room, Gutierrez is as endearing to the reader as he is
sometimes maddening to his colleagues, inspiring us all to
stand up for our rights and for those of others.
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