Alejandra Campoverdi explores many things familiar to first-generation kids: the invisible inheritances passed onto us from our family, being a “parentified child,” imposter syndrome, balancing two cultural identities, and guilt for breaking away from our families in some way.
ALEJANDRA CAMPOVERDI HAS BEEN A CHILD on welfare, a White House aide to President Obama, a gang member’s girlfriend, and a candidate for U.S. Congress. She’s ridden on Air Force One and in G-rides. She’s modeled on the pages of Maxim and had a double mastectomy. Living a life of contradictory extremes often comes with the territory when you’re a “First and Only.” It also comes at a price.
Part memoir, part manifesto, First Gen is a story of generational inheritance, aspiration, and belonging – a poignant journey to “reclaim the parts of ourselves we sacrificed in order to survive.”
With candor and heart, Alejandra retraces her trajectory as a Mexican American woman raised by an immigrant single mother in Los Angeles, foregoing the tidy bullet points of her resume and shining a light on the spaces between them instead. What emerges is a moving testimony of personal struggle and triumph that shatters the one-dimensional glossy narrative we are often sold of what it takes to achieve the American Dream. Alejandra uses her own experiences to illustrate the emotional tolls First and Onlys often face that are widespread yet rarely acknowledged, providing a road to truth and healing in the process. It is a timely and revealing reflection, as social class continues to be a key determinant of career success.
Being the first to do something can be daunting. Instead of following a map, you’re the one charting it.
Maybe you’re the first in your family to go to college, or you chose not to go to school, unlike the rest of your family. Maybe you started a small business or dropped everything and moved to New York. In some way, you chose to break from family tradition and history. This is often the case for first-generation children of people who immigrate to America.
Alejandra Campoverdi explores this in her memoir “First Gen,” and many things that may be familiar for first-generation kids: the invisible inheritances passed onto us from our family, being a “parentified child,” imposter syndrome, balancing two cultural identities, and guilt for breaking away from our families in some way.
Alejandra Campoverdi is a nationally-recognized women’s health advocate, founder, producer, writer, and a former Obama White House official. She produced the PBS health documentary Inheritance, founded Latinos & BRCA in partnership with Penn Medicine’s Basser Center, and served as White House Deputy Director of Hispanic Media.
Alejandra holds a Master in Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and graduated cum laude from the Annenberg School at the University of Southern California. She currently serves on the boards of Harvard’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy, the Friends of the National Museum of the American Latino, and the California Community Foundation, and previously received a gubernatorial appointment to the Medical Board of California and was a Commissioner for First 5 California.
Praise for First Gen
- “I wish this book existed when I was a first generation student navigating the alienating world of academia and the mostly white workplaces thereafter. Campoverdi’s writing is honest, healing, and empowering. First Gen has made me feel seen and less alone.” JAVIER ZAMORA
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF
“SOLITO” - “FIRST GEN is a luminous achievement, one of the most moving debuts in memory… Campoverdi transforms the furies, hypocrisies and disappointments of the American dream into a survivor’s song of surpassing poignancy… this is literary love medicine, a book you will not soon forget.”JUNOT DÍAZ
PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR OF NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERS
“THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO“
AND “THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE HER” - “FIRST GEN is a gift to all of us—the children of immigrants who have longed to read a story like ours in books. With vulnerability and transparency, Campoverdi gives us special access to so many setbacks, triumphs, and hard-won lessons as a First and Only. Every Latina hoping to end cycles of generational trauma must read this immediately.” ERIKA L. SÁNCHEZ
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF
“I AM NOT YOUR PERFECT MEXICAN DAUGHTER” - “Intimate and unflinching, First Gen reveals the very real human and emotional costs to living the “American Dream.” Alejandra Campoverdi shines a guiding light for fellow “First and Onlys” who struggle to overcome systemic barriers while detangling generational trauma. No discussion of America’s supposed meritocracy is complete without consideration of this book.” QIAN JULIE WANG
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF
“BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY: A MEMOIR OF AN UNDOCUMENTED CHILDHOOD”
