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

The author goes with Tom Tancredo on a tour of the North Denver neighborhood where he grew up and where Marisela once lived. It had been Italian but was becoming increasingly more Mexican. Tancredo points other places from his youth. He tells the story of his grandfather, Joe Tancredo, who was born in the Basilicata region of Italy in the 1890s. His parents died, and he was put on a ship to America, where he was supposed to live with a family in Iowa. When he landed in New York, no one was there to meet him, so he worked for a grocer and then pushed west to Denver and sent for his Italian bride (who never learned to speak English). Tancredo’s maternal grandparents were also from Italy, and they came as married adults to the US and found it harder to learn English than Joe Tancredo had. They spoke to Tom continuously about how important it was to be Americanized. Tom’s father was an alcoholic, and he says he does not feel nostalgic for his childhood.

Thorpe and Tancredo go to an Italian feast day procession, but Tancredo does not march as he is now an evangelical Christian and not Catholic. The author believes that Joe Tancredo’s harrowing journey as a boy has in part led his grandson to want to want to keep threats at bay and to defend his vision of America. Joe Tancredo had been scarcely older than Marisela when he came to the US. Thorpe attends the procession but wonders how many people in the increasingly Mexican neighborhood still feel a connection to the town, Potenza, which the Italian lodge is connected with.

The girls hold a fundraising party for their sorority at a downtown club. The author runs into someone she knows there, and she writes about how she feels connected to the girls because her parents had also brought her to the U.S. at a young age. Married to the mayor of Denver, she also feels like she, similar to the girls, has “acquired labels that were not of our own choosing” (301), though the girls’label was “toxic,” while hers was “insufferably positive” (301).

The television at the club shows the trial of GómezGarcía. His trial had begun with his defense attorney admitting that his client had shot the two officers but that he had done so without intending to kill them. Officer Bishop, who had been told GómezGarcía that he could not come into the club but who did not understand the Spanish with which Young had addressed him. Rubén Huizar Gonzalez, the owner of the club, identifies GómezGarcía in the courtroom, and, on the way out of the courtroom, he smiles at Kelly Young. He had known Donnie Young for five years, and he felt close to him.

Others testify, and then Sandra Rivas, the mother of GómezGarcía’s baby, takes the stand and testifies, against her desire to do so, that her boyfriend had confessed his crime to her. Her tension with the father of her child is palpable in the courtroom. Then GómezGarcía testifies. He says that he has received almost no formal schooling and cannot read or write. His father, who was a police officer in Mexico, told him that police officers were not hurt if they were wearing bullet-proof vests, so he had assumed that when he shot the officers, they would not be killed. However, Young had not been wearing a vest. At the end of the trial, the defendant is found guilty of second-degree murder of Young and second-degree attempted murder of Bishop. 

The girls move into a dorm called La Chateau, which they have to furnish themselves, with the help of donations from Cynthia Poundstone and her friends. Marisela is living with Omar, the construction worker, and Clara has her first real boyfriend. Marisela declares a double major in political science and sociology and a minor in Spanish. She is considering attending law school and becoming a civil rights lawyer and fighting against the current system. If she could find the money to go to law school, this would solve the problem of her illegal status.

Clara is upset when she cannot go to Mexico for her grandmother’s funeral. No one sees Elissa, who attends Regis and works on a gubernatorial campaign. Yadira’s sisters live in her dorm from Sunday night through Wednesday, and she works at a clothing boutique to help her family. Yadira has a difficult time hosting her sisters, as she cannot control them or their fights. They have not seen Alma, their mother, in over a year, and they throw themselves into high school activities in an apparent effort to forget the sadness of having to part from her. Yadira’s boyfriend, Juan, attends a technical school and works in an auto body shop.

Attending a science class with Yadira and her friends, the author likens the girls to elements who are formed by the climate around them. Clara throws herself into student politics, Yadira forms new friends, and Marisela considers going to law school and breaks up with Omar, who wants to get married. In a political science class, the students debate issues related to citizenship and identity.

Cynthia Poundstone calls an immigration lawyer to see if anything can be worked out for Yadira and Marisela, but the lawyer is dismissive because the girls don’t have valid entry visas. Laura and Zulema return to their aunt’s house, but they feel guilty asking her for anything because their aunt works double shifts as a waitress. The girls run the sorority, while Clara has another boyfriend—a man who is studying for his master’s in piano composition. Luke returns from England, but the girls have drifted apart from him, and Yadira has a new job working at the same organization that Marisela works at.

Marisela moves out to her own apartment, and her father arranges to have a priest come over to bless it. Marisela engages in a conversation with the priest, as she does not believe in Catholicism and thinks it is oppressive to women. However, the priest is more open minded than what she had predicted. Her parents have decided to return to Mexico: “Marisela might achieve the American dream, but they had concluded they never would” (332). They want to leave Marisela’s 12-year-old and 15-year-old brothers, Rafael and Nestor, with Marisela, and she wants to find a place where her brothers can live with her. Marisela’s parents likely believe that she is married to Omar, as he sometimes spends the night at her place even though they have broken up. They think she has foregone the ceremony but is essentially married, as they don’t understand other types of relationships.

Marisela delays taking the LSATs and says she is afraid of the test and of getting into school, given her legal status. She is afraid of failure, and the test scares her. The prospect of winning a scholarship and then not doing well on the LSAT seems too daunting to her, and it shows that she holds herself to a high standard and is afraid of disappointing other people. The girls hold a movie night showing a film about in-state tuition for their sorority, but very few people come to it.

The author meets up with Donnie Young’s widow, Kelly, for lunch. Kelly has just passed by her old house and feels emotional about it. She speaks about picking up Donnie’s personal belongings from the police department two years after his death, and she struggles with whether she wants to be part of the police community anymore.

The author recounts that at the sentencing hearing for GómezGarcía, there had been two surprises. García had not wanted to show up, but the judge made him appear in court to say that he did not want to be there. Additionally, García’s head was shaved with a number “13,” possibly signifying his membership in a gang called the "Mexican Mafia" (340), as “M” is the 13th letter in the alphabet. Donnie’s mother, who is Latina, also showed up at the hearing, but Kelly did not want to draw attention to her former mother-in-law, as Donnie had never wanted to get advantages for being part Latino. Kelly still refuses to lump all immigrants together or to say that they are all bad because of the actions of one who killed her husband.

The author goes to the Johnson County Republican spaghetti dinner to see Tom Tancredo speak. He has not yet declared his intention to run for President but will do so the following month. His speech turns to the topic of illegal immigration, and he says that immigrants must give up their "ties" to their home countries and become more American: “When you come to America, you cut the ties that bind you to your country of origin, political and otherwise, and you connect to America” (354). He receives a standing ovation, and his message seems almost moderate.

He is more hawkish the next day when he appears at a gun show nearby. At the gun show, he supports the idea of deporting illegal immigrants, and he says that the U.S. has the power to do so. He also refers to Mexican military members crossing the border and refers to it as an “invasion” (346). He eventually drops out of the race to be the Republican candidate for President, which Mitt Romney wins, but his rhetoric changed the way Republican politicians speak about immigration. The Republican candidates appear at a debate sponsored by CNN and start with a twenty-minute “brawl” (347) over immigration. Tancredo has injected this debate into the political sphere. 

The author goes to visit Marisela’s parents in a Denver suburb where Rosalinda, Marisela’s 14-year-old sister, greets them. They have decided to postpone moving to Mexico but think Marisela and Omar will take care of their kids when they move in a few years. Rosalinda has gotten a job at Carl Jr.’s using a fake green card and Social Security card like Marisela.

Yadira and Marisela travel to Atlanta, Georgia, to a social justice conference. It is the first time they have left Colorado since they were much younger, and they record the experience on a camcorder. During the last year of school, both Yadira and Marisela take a class on the conquest of Latin America, and their readings deal with the questions of identity that continue to plague Yadira in particular. Clara is spending the first semester of her senior year in Italy. The girls think about going to law school and meet the dean of the University of Denver law school. Yadira goes through a breakdown about what she is going to do after graduation, and she has an epiphany about going to see her mother, Alma, in Mexico. However, her boyfriend Juan tells her that she does not speak Spanish well and won’t fit in, and her mother also discourages her from coming. Alma seems to be doing better and might even have a suitor. Marisela gets involved with Julio, a friend from high school who works as a labor organizer and who treats her really well. They go through romantic and platonic phases.

As the 2008 Presidential election nears, Barack Obama visits the University of Denver, but the girls are not that interested in his campaign. The girls take classes in family law and a class called School and Society in which the rich students are defensive and the poor kids don’t say anything. Yadira’s sisters are living what the class is about, as their aunt kicks them out of her house and Laura lives on Yadira’s floor while Zulema, who does not apply to college, lives with a boyfriend. Their mother’s absence has been difficult for them. Although Yadira assumed her sisters would do better because they are citizens, that has not been the case.

The author attends Elissa’s graduation from Regis. On the day of the girls’ college graduation, Yadira cannot find Zulema, and Juan is under house arrest and is wearing an ankle bracelet for speeding. Right before the event, Zulema appears. Yadira’s mom is not present at the ceremony, but she has Irene and Justino Chavez, the author, and Cynthia Poundstone present. Marisela has a "loud" (365) party at her house and charms a police officer into leaving the party alone when neighbors complain about the noise.

Clara eventually gets her certificate of citizenship, while the status of Yadira and Marisela is still undefined. Clara gets a part-time job working for a local foundation that gives students college scholarships. Yadira and Marisela continue to work for the same nonprofit that had employed them during college, while Elissa, though she is legal, struggles to find a job. Elissa applies to graduate school to become an English as a Second Language teacher. Marisela breaks up with Julio and gets pregnant and reunites with him. Her parents are overjoyed that their daughter will have a baby.

In 2009, Marisela gives birth to her baby, a boy named Emilio, and she marries Julio in 2010. Yadira is still dating Juan but has chosen not to get married. Her sisters move out, and no one knows exactly where Laura is while Zulema moves to Chicago. Clara is accepted into a social work graduate program at the University of Denver but postpones enrollment. She is still dating Diego. Elissa attends graduate school and works as a counselor to young people who are at risk. Graduate school looks less and less likely for Marisela and Yadira, and the DREAM Act is still not passed.