"I Was Their American Dream" is a graphic novel by NPR deputy editor Malaka Gharib. Gharib is Egyptian-Filipina-American and grew up with her immigrant parents in California. Her book explores her multicultural identity and how she felt she had to adapt to different traditions, languages, and religions with the different people in her life.
Nguyên Khôi Nguyễn, also an author, can relate. His work focuses on his identity as Vietnamese-American.
Both Gharib and Nguyễn join us this hour to share their stories and to discuss what it means to be a first-generation American in 2020. Our guests:
- Malaka Gharib, author of "I Was Their American Dream," and deputy editor and digital strategist on NPR's global health and development team
- Nguyên Khôi Nguyễn, author of "The Gulf" and "Bittersweet: A Pandemic Sketchbook," and digital media lecturer at Loyola University Maryland