Julissa Arce is a best-selling author of My (Underground) American Dream (Entre Las Sombras del Sueño Americano) and Someone Like Me (Alguien Como Yo). Arce immigrated to the US from Mexico at the age of 11 and was undocumented for almost 15 years, some of them spent rising to prominence on Wall Street. She made national and international headlines when she revealed that she had achieved the American Dream of wealth and status at Goldman Sachs all while undocumented. She was named one of People en Español’s 25 Most Powerful Women of 2017 and 2019 Woman of the Year by the City of Los Angeles. She has appeared on Oprah’s Book Club, CNN, FOX NEWS, MSNBC, NPR, Fox Business News, Telemundo, Bloomberg TV and Univision among other networks. Her writing has been published on TIME, The New York Times, Vogue, BuzzfeedCrooked, Media, Huffington Post, Fusion, CNN, CNN en Español, The Hill, and Univision. She serves on the board of directors of the National Immigration Law Center. Her book, My Underground American Dream is currently being developed as a television series with producer and actor America Ferrera.

She will be reading from her new book You Sound Like a White Girl: The Case for Rejecting Assimilation. As a brown immigrant from Mexico, assimilation had been demanded of her since the moment she set foot in San Antonio, Texas. In this dual polemic and manifesto, Julissa dives into and tears apart the lie that assimilation leads to belonging. She combs through history and her own story to break down this myth, arguing that assimilation is a moving finish line designed to keep Black and Brown Americans and immigrants chasing racist American ideals.

This event is part of the 2022 Sor Juana Festival.