An evocative exploration of Jewish women’s immigration to America.

Over a three-year period, award-winning Chilean poet and human rights activist Marjorie Agosín interviewed Jewish women immigrants who arrived in the United States from Europe and Latin America between 1939 and the 1970s. Each conversation opens with a chronology of the “traveler’s” life and a historical description of her country of origin. These uncertain travelers—so named to highlight the possibility and difficulty of their journeys—discuss friendship, food, work, language, writing, anti-Semitism, and politics. Affecting and inviting, the conversations allow the reader to share an extended meditation on the experiences of exile—and on the ways in which writing, speaking, and memory can restore a personal and collective past.

Marjorie Agosín is professor of Spanish at Wellesley College. Her many books include A Map of Hope, Dear Anne Frank, Always from Somewhere Else, Ashes of Revolt, and A Cross and a Star. Among her most recent publications are Cartographies: Meditations on Travel and At the Threshold of Memory. Agosín was awarded the 2004 Mujer Award from the National Hispana Leadership Institute for her work on behalf of Latina communities in the United States.

“In this richly woven tapestry of recollections, both bitter and sweet, Marjorie Agosín…brings to life the different voices and experiences of nine women. The result is a lively and rewarding journey for the reader, who will travel across generations and continents, through a variety of mother tongues, to share in the conversational worlds of these compelling stories.”
–Froma Zeitlin, Princeton University