As Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez recounts her life as a second-generation immigrant in MY SIDE OF THE RIVER, she deftly weaves within those memories a powerful treatise concerning the struggles and deprivations that assail many American immigrants.

Gutierrez was born in Arizona, which gave her adventurous migrant parents great joy, as they were determined that their firstborn would be an American citizen. Her early childhood, in company with her brother, was spent learning two languages, gradually excelling in her schoolwork, and observing her parents working hard to keep the family fed. While the couple cleaned a movie theater, Gutierrez would start her night’s sleep on a bench, listening to the hum of the vacuum cleaner. Their living quarters were always cramped, and money was short, but they persisted because of their desire to succeed in the land of opportunity.

"As Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez recounts her life as a second-generation immigrant...she deftly weaves within those memories a powerful treatise concerning the struggles and deprivations that assail many American immigrants."

Unfortunately, the plan collapsed when Gutierrez’s parents could not secure proper visas and returned to Mexico with their son. This left Gutierrez, then in her mid-teens, to take whatever advantage she could of her birthright, supported by her mother’s parting words: “Be the best.” She lived with virtual strangers who imposed harsh rules on her everyday existence. But she was the top student in her high school graduating class and would achieve a degree in philosophy, politics and economics at the University of Pennsylvania.

Along the way, Gutierrez discovered her talent for speechmaking and used it, notably in high school with fellow members of the Jewish-Latino Teen Coalition when they visited Washington, DC. Her remarkable presentation --- which met with resounding applause --- combined an emotive autobiography with a bold declaration of the trials faced in the US by those of non-majority races and religious backgrounds, ending with an exhortation for change.

Gutierrez has worked in banking and now computer technology, and has been a guest on NPR and TED Talk. She understands and writes strikingly, from painful personal experience, of the social inconsistencies and legal loopholes that characterize the lives of those who arrive here as migrants with their darker skin color and differing culture. She has been able to help her brother make a new life through higher education in the US and visit her parents in Mexico, though they insist that she not stay there long and “get stuck in the town we worked so hard to get you out of.”

Gutierrez takes a compelling stance with this engaging tale as her literary salvo, to advance the goals she set forth so boldly in adolescence: “to make sure that America knows that people like me, from families like mine, belong here.”