Susie Anderson
Staff writer
When she was 15, Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez’s life changed in an instant. One moment she was a high school student in Tucson, Arizona, and the next, her parents were deported to Mexico, and Gutierrez stayed behind, facing homelessness and heartbreak. She refused to let a broken immigration system define her existence. Instead, she transformed her anger into action.
“I felt that I had been failed by many things — the government, my parents, to some extent — for being put into a situation like that,” Gutierrez said. “But when I’m angry, what I want to do most is overcome it. It’s a kind of spiteful thing — like, ‘I’m gonna do it just because you’re saying I can’t.’ ”
A testament to her resolve, Gutierrez graduated as the valedictorian of her high school, studied at the University of Pennsylvania, worked on Wall Street, became the legal guardian of her teenage brother and put her life to page in a captivating and tender memoir — all before the age of 30.
Gutierrez will discuss her memoir My Side of the River at 3:30 p.m. today at the Hall of Philosophy for the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle.
In a week themed “The Future of the American Experiment — A Week in Partnership with American Enterprise Institute and Brookings Institution,” Gutierrez’s story presents the struggles of family separation and the toll of the American dream. As Gutierrez straddles two countries and identities, she sheds light on the emotional and systemic challenges faced by immigrant families and the power of perseverance in the face of displacement. Gutierrez recalled the intensity of her determination from a young age.
“I will not let them see me crumble,” Gutierrez said. “… My parents did everything to make sure I could have rights, and I am going to use my rights as much as I can, and I’m going to take everything that is put in my way as an opportunity to better myself so that I can be somebody that can eventually protect my family.”
In February 2020, Gutierrez delivered a TED Talk titled “What’s Missing from the Immigrant Narrative,” highlighting the danger of stereotypes of immigrants in the United States. The talk went viral, and Gutierrez received messages online about a book deal. After investigating the validity of the messages, she sat down to write her story at the age of 24.
“Some criticism I’ve gotten is that I should have waited 10 years to write this memoir. And I’m just like, ‘Who knows if I have 10 years?’ ” Gutierrez said.
Instead of waiting, Gutierrez took the book deal with a goal of writing a resonant story in an accessible manner. In the process, Gutierrez pushed the boundaries of the memoir genre as a young author.
“I think that there’s a lack of younger voices showing what’s happening to them in their eyes and their perspective at this moment in literary culture,” Gutierrez said. “So in my way, this is a history book to the ‘now’ of me and to the ‘now’ of kids who are like me.”
Gutierrez has received an outpour of messages since the book’s 2024 release from young readers who have said that her memoir made them feel less alone and inspired them to pursue their goals, including higher education. Responses from teachers informed Gutierrez of her impact in helping educators connect with and support students struggling with family separation.
“In similar situations, where kids’ parents are deported and they’re homeless, (teachers) now know how to look for these signs and give them the resources and the support and humanity that I think a lot of people are missing right now,” Gutierrez said.
When depicting her own life in her memoir, Gutierrez said she struggled with navigating and complicating the stereotypes addressed in her TED Talk: the immigrant laborer — jobs that Americans deem low-wage jobs but immigrants consider valuable opportunities — and the “superimmigrant” or an idealized symbol of American success that casts a shadow on immigrants who do not immediately succeed.
“You grow up, and people are like, ‘Oh, it’s just another immigrant story,’ ” Gutierrez said. “… I am more than these traumas I’ve gone through, and yet I’m using the book to share those traumas. So, I’ve always felt some sort of frustration internally.”
However, Gutierrez prioritized a multidimensional depiction of her family and community in her memoir, stemming from a desire to depict the humanity behind the statistics of immigrant experiences.
“For me, it was really important that — irrespective of everything — my family and the people in my life are shown as full, complex people and not just somebody that, in this society, could be taken and harassed or turned into some sort of villain,” Gutierrez said.
Gutierrez said she adopted a fierce dedication to her education from her parents. As they watched successful figures on Mexican news, they instilled in her an admiration and aspiration for achievement.
“They call these people ‘muy preparados’ or very prepared, which means that they have gone through extensive education,” she said. “They are well-traveled, and they have perspectives worth listening to … and so for me, it was always like, ‘How do I become that?’ ”
Balancing the roles of older sister and parental figure for her younger brother since she became his legal guardian when he was 16 and she was 23, Gutierrez said she does her best to instill the importance of education in him.
“The stakes are so high for you to do well because unless you are exceptional, people do not take you seriously,” Gutierrez said. “Unless you are exceptional, people will think you are worth expelling from a country. So that was my biggest thing. I was like, ‘Your education and your success is your armor.’ ”
Gutierrez’s brother recently graduated from college and moved in with her in Brooklyn. Their parents have received green cards to live in the United States. While paying her rent, looking out for her brother and working in product marketing, Gutierrez said it is easy to idealize the life she has achieved. However, the threats and deportations facing immigrant communities today weigh on her conscience.
“I try not to listen to the news because it upsets me, and then something brings me right back to reality,” Gutierrez said. “And it’s not just something — it’s something with somebody that I really love and adore, and I feel like I can’t do anything, and then I have all these feelings of guilt of like, ‘Why can’t I do more?’ I’m like, ‘What could I possibly do more?’ ”
This past week, Gutierrez’s uncle was detained by ICE agents after taking photographs alerting his neighbors of suspicious activity of unmarked trucks in their community.
“It’s devastating that he was trying to do something so altruistic, but it’s also heartbreaking because they took him,” Gutierrez said.
In working toward a better and safer future for her loved ones, Gutierrez encourages audiences to find the balance between protecting their safety and speaking up for threatened individuals who make their communities vibrant.
“It’s hard because I don’t want more people to be taken into these custody centers, but it’s also hard because I do think that people need to have a backbone and do what’s right and take some risk with it,” Gutierrez said. “Because I don’t think — the way that things are going — this is going to stop if we are quiet about it.”
