My Side of the River: A Memoir

Camarillo Gutierrez transforms her 2020 TED talk into a potent debut about her separation from her parents and her experience as a first-generation college student. Born in Tucson, Ariz., to Mexican immigrants, Gutierrez’s childhood was marked by the constant threat of collapse. Her parents worked under-the-table jobs, collected cans for money, and housed their four-person family in a one-room shed. In 2011, when Camarillo Gutierrez was 15, her parents’ tourist visas expired and they were blacklisted from further entry into the United States for at least three years. Camarillo Gutierrez opted to leave her parents and younger brother in Mexico and remain in Tucson alone, where she would pursue college and attempt to become the family breadwinner. She graduated high school at the top of her class, secured admission to the University of Pennsylvania, and eventually landed an analyst position at Wells Fargo in New York City, where she took in her brother so he could also attend college. Camarillo Gutierrez sustains a sense of urgency to her writing, whether about her first memories of Tucson’s rushing Rillito River or the ins and outs of caring for her teenage brother, and creates an involving, inspirational portrait of personal resilience and firm family bonds. It’s galvanizing stuff. Agent: Johanna V. Castillo, Writers House. (Feb.)

Correction: An earlier version of this review mischaracterized the circumstances of the author’s separation from her parents.