Just Like Us: The True Story of Four Mexican Girls Coming of Age in America

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Just Like Us: The True Story of Four Mexican Girls Coming of Age in America

3.87 of 5 stars 3.87 · rating details · 791 ratings · 231 reviews

Written by a gifted journalist, a powerful account of four young Mexican women coming of age in Denver—two of whom have legal documentation, two of whom who don’t— and the challenges they face as they attempt to pursue the American dream.Just Like Ustakes readers on a compelling journey with four young Mexican-American women who have lived in the U.S. since childhood. Expl...more

Hardcover, 400 pages

Published September 22nd 2009 by Scribner (first published 2009)

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Oct 12, 2011 Clif Hostetler rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: current-events

This book takes the hot button issue of illegal immigration and examines it up close and personal, from every side including inside and out. The author describes the lives and experiences of four girls of Mexican heritage from high school through college; Two lack legal status, the other two have papers (i.e. legal and have path toward citizenship). The book also covers the surrounding political environment of 2005 through 2009 in Denver, Colorado when the illegal immigration issue exploded beca...more

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Mar 02, 2013 Gypsy Lady rated it 3 of 5 stars

Near the end of the book we have the opportunity to consider whether nation-states should resemble neighborhoods, clubs, or families. It is yet another thought provoking section of the book and this discussion (neighborhood, club, family) might be a good one for a book club to have.

Page 230
Political Science Marc Smyrl assigned a series of readings in political philosophy, starting with John Rawls.

[John Rawls (b. 1921, d. 2002) was an American political philosopher in the liberal tradition. His t...more Near the end of the book we have the opportunity to consider whether nation-states should resemble neighborhoods, clubs, or families. It is yet another thought provoking section of the book and this discussion (neighborhood, club, family) might be a good one for a book club to have.

Page 230
Political Science Marc Smyrl assigned a series of readings in political philosophy, starting with John Rawls.

[John Rawls (b. 1921, d. 2002) was an American political philosopher in the liberal tradition. His theory of justice as fairness envisions a society of free citizens holding equal basic rights cooperating within an egalitarian economic system. His account of political liberalism addresses the legitimate use of political power in a democracy, aiming to show how enduring unity may be achieved despite the diversity of worldviews that free institutions allow. His writings on the law of peoples extend these theories to liberal foreign policy, with the goal of imagining how a peaceful and tolerant international order might be possible.]

In a diverse society, members had to agree on the procedures by which they would make decisions, according to Rawls; they did not have to hold the same opinions, but they had to concur about how to determine whose opinion would prevail. "We need to agree on how to hold elections, we need to agree on how to hold trails," Smyrl said. "If we agree on these procedures, then it is okay to disagree on lots of other things." In Rawls's terminology, individuals who shared such a consensus belonged to "the well-ordered society." And the best test of whether a society was structured fairly, according to Rawls, was to ask a person to evaluate its rules without knowing which role he or she would play -- wealthy restaurant owner or lowly dishwasher, uniformed police officer or jaded newspaper reporter, murderer of judge, elected official or immigrant's child.

Political theorist Michael Sandel had engaged in a long debate with John Rawls over this question of the ideal society. Sandel was a communitarian, as opposed to a libertarian. "The key to the debate between Rawls and Sandel is how big the area of overlapping consensus should be," said Smyrl. Sandel favored greater consensus and more homogeneity, even at the expense of personal liberty.

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Jan 17, 2013 Sarah rated it 5 of 5 stars

I read this book during a recent hospital stay. It was a very stressful time, and I had been unable to concentrate on so much as a magazine article. This book, however, grabbed me and kept me riveted!

I am an ESOL teacher, and I have worked with the children of undocumented immigrants with and without papers of their own. I have seen for myself the heartbreak and difficulties that our immigration policy problems create in their young lives. I have never had the opportunity to work with high schoo...more

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Jan 10, 2013 JoBeth rated it 5 of 5 stars

There are a few books like Nickel and Dimed: On Not Getting By in America and A Hope in the Unseen: An American Odyssey from the Inner City to the Ivy League that I feel everyone in the United States needs to read to understand the political and social complexities and challenges of this country. Just Like Us is one of those books. Helen Thorpe follows the lives of four Mexican born high school girls for five years; two of them are documented, two undocumented. She writes about their lives in th...more

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Sep 26, 2012 Shana rated it 4 of 5 stars

At my mother’s urging, I finally read Just Like Us: The True Story of Four Mexican Girls Coming of Age in America, by Helen Thorpe (who just happens to be married to Mayor Hickenlooper of Denver). According to my mother, this is her top non-fiction pick of 2009, and it’s easy to see why. The writing is good, the story is compelling, and it’s on a thought-provoking topic.

Thorpe spends several years in close contact with four Mexican girls living in the Denver area. Two of the girls are legally in...more At my mother’s urging, I finally read Just Like Us: The True Story of Four Mexican Girls Coming of Age in America, by Helen Thorpe (who just happens to be married to Mayor Hickenlooper of Denver). According to my mother, this is her top non-fiction pick of 2009, and it’s easy to see why. The writing is good, the story is compelling, and it’s on a thought-provoking topic.

Thorpe spends several years in close contact with four Mexican girls living in the Denver area. Two of the girls are legally in the U.S., while the other two were brought across the border by their parents when they were little. We meet them as their senior year in high school comes to an end and they struggle to make plans for the future. The two girls without papers, both A students with numerous AP classes under their belts, manage to find benefactors to help pay for their college education (without papers, you are not eligible for Pell grants).

But there is so much more to their story. We learn about their parents’ struggles, how some of their siblings were born in the U.S. and therefore are citizens. We see how they keep their illegal status a secret from most, and have to find ways to explain why they can’t do certain things, like study abroad. They worry about money and their families’ survival. All throughout, they get good grades at a challenging university and hope desperately for political change (such as the DREAM Act) that will allow them to become citizens and fully accepted members of society.

Thorpe weaves local Denver politics, as well as nationwide discussions on immigration with the stories of these four young women. As the mayor of Denver’s wife, she has access to many other politicians, and as a journalist, she gains access to many places where these discussions occur. Although she tries to look at the many sides within the issue, her personal thoughts on illegal immigration do come through.

I agree with my mother in that this is certainly a very important book to read and an informative one at that. Many of us are ill-informed on what it really means to be illegal in this country, and this book helps to show several sides of it in a deeply personal way.(less)

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Jul 22, 2012 McGuffy Morris rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is an important book for our time. Immigration is a hot topic in America today, morally and politically. This book puts the spotlight on four young Hispanic women as they deal with this issue from the inside.

We meet four lifelong friends: Marisela, Elissa, Clara and Yadira. The girls grew up together, with the dream of an education and life as free Americans, earning the freedom from generations of poverty.

Only two of the girls, Clara and Elissa, have legal immigration status, however. Yadi...more

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Apr 24, 2012 Cheryl rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: adult-nonfiction, other-cultures, colorado-connections

Marisela, Yadira, Clara, and Elissa met author Helen Thorpe while they were in high school in Denver, Colorado. Each of the girls came from families who had emigrated from Mexico. In addition, each had at least one parent who had entered the U.S. without a visa. The girls had lived almost their entire lives in the U.S. Two of them had acquired legal documentation, while two had not. Ms. Thorpe developed a close relationship with these bright, ambitious young women as they approached graduation a...more

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Oct 22, 2011 Jamie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Thorpe's book offers a broad, yet deep, perspective on the immigration issue through the personal stories of four Mexican girls: two documented, two undocumented. The details about the four girls' lives are illuminating, frustrating, compelling. As one of the blurbs on the back of the book says, the immigration debate would be vastly different if more people were to read this book or ones like it.

Thorpe focuses a lot on the two girls who are undocumented: Marisela and Yadira. They defy the stere...more

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May 13, 2011 Amanda Lueck rated it 3 of 5 stars

I was pleasantly drawn into this true story of the four (really, three) girls, struggling from high school to college graduation here in Denver. As illegal immigrants, they face what so many of my students face, and their plight makes the struggle that I faced, as a teacher of those students while they were in middle school, that much more real. Of course most illegal students will see their lives as educational dead ends; it's amazing that these students did not. Illegal immigrants, especially...more

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Apr 09, 2010 Maureen rated it 3 of 5 stars

I liked the biography aspect of the book, and the author's attempt to help us understand what it feels like to be a Mexican immigrant (documented and not)in America today, but I finished feeling unsatisfied. First, it struck me as highly improbable that all the girls received full scholarships to excellent schools. I think that the author's involvement in their lives must have caused some of that to happen (good for the girls, not so realistic for most immigrant kids). The author tried very hard...more

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Feb 27, 2010 Richard Conlin rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone interested in American life

When I hear a book is 'heartbreaking' I am usually pretty leery of it -- suspect it is overly sentimental or maudlin. But that word sometimes applies to this deeply engrossing account of four Latina teenagers growing up in Denver. The insight into adolescence in contemporary Latina society alone might be an interesting story, but the kicker is that they have very different immigration status, and that makes huge differences in what these four bright ambitious girls can do. If you do not have leg...more

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Apr 06, 2010 Khaya rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: someone interested in exploring the issues around illegal immigration

Recommended to Khaya by: marg

Shelves: culturalidentity, readablenonfiction, latinamerica, thought-provoking

In “Just Like Us,” Helen Thorpe attacks the complicated issue of illegal immigration from a variety of angles. Primarily, she focuses on the lives of four motivated young girls of Mexican background – two legal (one U.S.-born, one carrying a bona fide green card), two illegal – struggling to finish college in an attempt to better their situations. The two illegal girls came over the border from Mexico with their parents at a young age, and are reaping the consequences in terms of inability to ge...more In “Just Like Us,” Helen Thorpe attacks the complicated issue of illegal immigration from a variety of angles. Primarily, she focuses on the lives of four motivated young girls of Mexican background – two legal (one U.S.-born, one carrying a bona fide green card), two illegal – struggling to finish college in an attempt to better their situations. The two illegal girls came over the border from Mexico with their parents at a young age, and are reaping the consequences in terms of inability to get a legal driver’s license, board a plane, or get hired in above-board settings. Thorpe widens her lens, though, to include an illegal alien who commits a horrific crime (and the highly publicized court case’s influence on people’s views) as well as a senator who speaks out vituperatively against illegal immigration and makes some legitimate points. This almost saves the book from being slanted.

I say almost, because it’s arguably emotionally manipulative to follow these girls’ lives in detail so that the reader becomes attached to them and roots for them, and to then cover the opposing viewpoints in a far more intellectualized, impersonal, and ultimately dry way. I can’t fairly blame Thorpe for this. The negative effects of illegal immigration are more nebulously felt, and finding subjects who experience this personally on a daily basis would probably be an insurmountable challenge. The result, though, is a book offering poignant descriptions of two girls who appear to be unfairly victimized by the system on the one hand, vs. a senator and his cohorts who mostly come across as angry bullies. While Thorpe does make a valiant effort to give the other side a fair shake, the sections explaining their positions were far more technical and didactic as opposed to the more relatable narrative sections describing the girls’ day-to-day struggles.

I don’t want to sound too critical, as this book had a lot of strong points. While I wouldn’t quite call it a page-turner, the girls’ stories were interesting and the passages explaining various sides of the issue were clearly written. Thorpe really gives you a lot to think about, especially if you’re descended from immigrants (like many U.S. citizens, I assume) who came to America seeking a better life and/or freedom from persecution. At what point do we say, America is for us and not for them? And what if someone had said that in your grandfather’s time? Additionally, what about the economic effects of eliminating the labor provided by illegal immigrants? Let’s be honest – in our struggling economy, do we really want costs to skyrocket and productivity to diminish because cheap labor is impossible to find? What about the crime rate for people who can’t attend college or find work because they have no papers? Does citizenship truly need to be such a difficult process? Who are we helping when we make it so?

Although it was a bit of an effort at times, this book was certainly readable and interesting for the most part and gave me a lot to think about.
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Jan 30, 2011 Amanda Louise rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011, nonfiction

I had never even heard of this book until my grandmother lent me her unread copy. I was immediately drawn to the journalistic aspect of this book, considering the only other books I had read about the life of Latin American immigrants in the U.S. were in the form of novels - When I Was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago and How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez. I was also drawn to the subject matter, as I have many friends and acquaintances who are immigrants to this country...more

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Nov 19, 2011 Rebecca rated it 5 of 5 stars

Helen Thorpe does a masterful job of capturing the complexities of the immigration debate in America today. As a Denver native, a DPS high school graduate (the same school as the girls in the book in fact) and a University of Denver graduate, I saw many of my friends in this book. I was in my last year at DU when these girls started their freshmen year and while I don't know them personally, I know many people that have had to struggle with the same issues of identity and uncertainty. I know of...more

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Jun 15, 2011 Chivon rated it 4 of 5 stars

I really liked this book, I wasn't sure what to expect other than what the title suggested, but based on the title I thought the girls were the only subject of the book. I was surprised to find out that the whole legal issue of immigration, immigration policy, and a horrific tragedy involving a Denver police officer were also central to the whole book.

During the middle of the book I got somewhat bored of all the legislative type of stuff. I felt that the book focused at times too much on that a...more

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Jan 18, 2010 Kalen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010-reads

What an outstanding book, despite its inaccurate subtitle. This book is about so much more than just four Mexican girls coming of age in America--it's about their families, their communities, and the politics every community is grappling with today.

The book is set in Denver in the mid- to late-part of the this last decade, running through spring of 2009. Thorpe (soon to be Colorado's first lady!) is an adept journalist who is able to weave together four girls' stories, their families' stories,...more

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Mar 02, 2011 Ardene rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: dcpl, immigration, favorites, mexico

Just Like Us by Helen Thorpe is the story of four Mexican-American girls in the first decade of the twenty-first century as they graduate from high school in Denver, Colorado and move into adulthood. The girls are from working class families; two of the young women are here legally & two are not. All have the grades and the ambition to attend college, but none of them have the money, and the two who are here illegally cannot apply for financial aid because of their immigration status.

The aut...more

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Aug 13, 2010 Rebecca Cohen rated it 3 of 5 stars

My friend Sarah recommended this book to me. It was quite good and easy to read. The protagonists of the book were wonderful. You were definitely rooting for them the whole time. It also offers a fascinating look into the practical day to day difficulties that exist for those without status in the U.S. Though, I found the author, the Mayor's wife, to be irritating. I especially got annoyed with her at the end of the book when she made these distinctions between Americans and Mexicans that were b...more

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Feb 10, 2010 Chrisiant rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, political

This is a phenomenal book. Thorpe's writing is completely engaging and really well-paced. I never felt the prose was too dry - at times it was hard to remember that it was non-fiction. Thorpe follows four Mexican girls - two with documents, two without - as they graduate high school and pursue college. At the same time that she provides a window into their lives and their perspectives on who they are and how they fit in American society, Thorpe explains immigration policy and proposed legislatio...more

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Oct 02, 2012 Jakki rated it 5 of 5 stars

I decided to read this book because it talks about four Mexican girls and their coming of age. At first I thought that it would just be another boring book, but once i opened it and read the first page, I knew I was wrong.

In the beginning I was surprised by the certain amount of actions that the characters do. I find that one of the characters, Marisela, is a really nice girl who loves to be around her friends. It"s obvious that she's smart and can be quite sneaky because she didn't want her dad...more

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May 22, 2011 Jane rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011-books-read, audio-books, denver-book-club

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. First off: don't listen to it. I've never listened to the narrator, Paula Christensen, before. She did a good job with the girls voices but was TERRIBLE with the men. Every single one sounded like they were related to JFK, especially Hickenlooper and Tancredo.

The story is very interesting and full of layers. It chronicles the journey of four Mexican young women (two with paperwork & two without, i.e. illegal)from their senior year of high school to the end of college. Thorpe also talks about...more First off: don't listen to it. I've never listened to the narrator, Paula Christensen, before. She did a good job with the girls voices but was TERRIBLE with the men. Every single one sounded like they were related to JFK, especially Hickenlooper and Tancredo.

The story is very interesting and full of layers. It chronicles the journey of four Mexican young women (two with paperwork & two without, i.e. illegal)from their senior year of high school to the end of college. Thorpe also talks about other issues surrounding illegal immigration not directly related to the girls. Interesting because it is all local & I remember these stories from the newspaper but not relevant to the story of the young women.

Illegal immigration is such a multi-faceted subject. It's difficult to find a workable solution. There is part of me which feels the young people brought to America by their parents before the age of 8 should have access to in-state tuition but then I when I hear about how GIs don't qualify for in-state tuition and they ARE Americans I think perhaps we should leave the system as is. An interesting fact - there are quite a few states that do allow in-state tuition for illegal minors: California, Kansas, Utah, New Mexico and others I can't remember (and of course there are residency and other requirements they must fulfill). I was shocked about Kansas & Utah.

I don't have any experience with illegal immigration but ET (my other half) did immigrate to America. He came here on a tourist visa, then married (first wife), applied for a temporary work permit, received his green card, divorced, applied for citizenship and is now a citizen. Of course the circumstances are very different from the women documented in the book. As well the socio-economic level of ET's family is vastly different than the Mexican women.

I read this for book club and probably wouldn't have picked it up otherwise. And we had an interesting discussion. It would have been very cool though to brainstorm possible solutions and write a summary to our senators. I feel this topic is a federal issue & should be addressed thusly.

I wish Thorpe would have spent more time detailing the lives of the young women she followed and less on local politics. I also expected her to offer some thoughts on possible solutions. She really keeps her distance, just observes, which disappointed me. And I very much didn't like how she projected HER values onto the girls, especially Marisela. This really irritated me. **Spoiler**

Marisela becomes pregnant her senior year of college and Thorpe is aghast that she is having the baby. Thorpe implies in her commentary that Marisela will lose the value of her education and her "career options" if she has the baby. I believe your education is never wasted on raising a child. No one can take your knowledge away from you and you can pass it on to many even if you don't have an acceptable career as defined by society.

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May 01, 2013 John Gurney rated it 4 of 5 stars

Tale of four bright Latina friends - two American citizens, two illegal aliens - from high school to college graduation. Written with engaging details and dialogue, the story is intermeshed with the US immigration debate. For the record, I support expanded immigration with a path to citizenship.

Real world examples demonstrate how tricky "illegal immigration" is: an American citizen born of an undocumented mother can find her mother deported. Others were brought to the US as young children, rema...more

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May 13, 2013 F. Bailey rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book is, by far, one of the best I have ever read. It is the true story of four Mexican girls who are best friends living in the US. However, two of them are illegal immigrants, two of them not. This story basically accounted the years that Helen Thorpe spent with these girls, and the challenges they faced during this time.
The thing about this book was; Helen's writing was so simple, yet it encompassed perfectly the feelings and anxiety of these girls and their problems, be them large (how...more

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Feb 22, 2010 Karen rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book told the compelling stories of 4 girls over about 6 years as they graduated high school and entered college. The girls had quite similar backgrounds but through chance and the vagaries of the old amnesty program, two of them had green cards and two of them did not. The ways in which this affected their lives was eye-opening and thought-provoking. I had never really considered the innumerable little and big obstacles that illegal immigrants face. I can't speak to the right/wrong in the...more

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Jul 03, 2010 Kate Lawrence rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: biography, book-club

My awareness of the immigration issue had not, before I read this book, extended to what it must be like for the teenage children of undocumented workers. These young people, like two of the four girls profiled here, are prevented by their illegal status from getting driver's licenses, obtaining health insurance, traveling by air, applying for college scholarships or qualifying for in-state tuition or work-study programs, and ultimately, after they are out of college, from getting good jobs for...more

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Feb 11, 2012 Bdalton rated it 4 of 5 stars

Helen Thorpe, the author of Just Like Us: The True Story of Four Mexican Girls Coming of Age in America is the wife of John Hickenlooper. At the time that she wrote this book, John Hickenlooper was the mayor of Denver and an owner of several Denver area restaurants and brew pubs. Now he is the Governor of Colorado. I saw Hickenlooper speak at my nephew's graduation for Colorado School of Mines and he came across as a man genuinely interested in resolving problems and working across cultural and...more Helen Thorpe, the author of Just Like Us: The True Story of Four Mexican Girls Coming of Age in America is the wife of John Hickenlooper. At the time that she wrote this book, John Hickenlooper was the mayor of Denver and an owner of several Denver area restaurants and brew pubs. Now he is the Governor of Colorado. I saw Hickenlooper speak at my nephew's graduation for Colorado School of Mines and he came across as a man genuinely interested in resolving problems and working across cultural and political divides to do so. Reading a book by his wife about the hot-button issue of immigration seemed like it would shed some insight into how one local politician viewed immigration.

Helen Thorpe, though, quickly establishes herself as women trying hard to retain her autonomy. She is a journalist and this book is supposed to unbiased and is not a platform or vehicle for her or her husband’s views on the topic of immigration. Instead, it is an in-depth study of the lives of four Mexican American immigrant girls. Two of the girls are legal and two are not. The book explores the challenges that the two girls without papers face - some of the small and some large, some of them practical and others ones of identity and connection. Thorpe also connects into this larger story and sub-story about the killing of a Denver Police Officer by an illegal immigrant and the impact this killing has on Denver politics. Finally, Thorpe interviews Tom Tancredo, another local Denver politician, who's views on immigration captured the attention of many in Colorado and nationwide.

The book is very descriptive which is both good and bad. It is good in that it really lets you in on the lives of the girls. Some of the details though really aren't necessary and slow the story down. Thorpe covers the pro-immigration stand and the anti-immigration stand but doesn't really cover anything in-between. This book has strong emotional appeal, but it didn't help me understand all of the various options regarding policy that our nation has. In that sense, I don't feel any better educated regarding the issue of immigration after reading this book, but the story was so compelling that it has inspired me to learn more.

I would recommend this as a good read for book clubs that are willing to discuss political topics and to anyone who likes to read about current issues. The book is set in Denver, so it has particular appeal to Denver residents. While not exactly narrative non-fiction, the strong story of the four girls'struggles makes this a good recommendation for high school students or others who do not normally read non-fiction, but are required to for an assignment.
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Jul 27, 2010 Shannon rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Illegal immigration is such a complex issue. I don't have any solutions to offer. This book has simply given me a glimpse into the difficulties faced by young adults whose goals and experiences are largely similar to my own. My heart went out to the two girls with illegal status; they can't travel (and thus visit their country of birth) or work legally even though they pay taxes by way of fake social security numbers. During college, they struggle to find meaning in their education when it's unl...more

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Apr 05, 2013 Celticoracle rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, biography-autobiography-memoir, non-fiction

This is the first audio book that I honestly couldn't wait to get back into my car to listen to. The subject matter is completely engrossing (I became incredibly invested in the girls' lives and just how much of a difference a twist of fate makes), and Paula Christensen does a wonderful job narrating (with the exception of the male voices). I honestly wonder if I would have enjoyed this quite so much if I had been reading a hard copy.

I didn't realize just how much of a hot-button immigration can...more

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Jul 24, 2012 Becky rated it 4 of 5 stars

Just Like Us by Helen Thorpe
I thought that this book would just be about the lives of four girls, all immigrants from Mexico, two with legal documents and two without. However, the book turned out to be much more than that. While it covered, in great detail, the lives of these girls through high school and beyond, it also tackled the politics that paralleled their stories.
Author Helen Thorpe, wife of current Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper, presents an almost unbiased examination of the lif...more

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May 20, 2010 J.L. rated it 4 of 5 stars

Thorpe captures the vagaries of America’s immigration laws, which puts millions of Mexican teens in an untenable position every year when they graduate from high-school. Her narrative successfully wove together the story of a cop getting murdered by an undocumented immigrant, a political movement intended to deport all 300,000 undocumented immigrants then living in Colorado, and the story of five years in the lives of four Mexican girls—two undocumented, two with papers. She loses some of the th...more

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About Helen Thorpe

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Helen Thorpe is a freelance journalist whose magazine stories have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, New York , George, Westword, and 5280.

Born in London, she grew up in Medford, New Jersey. She has worked as a staff writer for The New York Observer; The New Yorker,...more

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