I was their American Dream by: Malaka Gharib - Review

 I never heard of this book before and decided I should check it out because it was easy to read for me, So after finishing this book I would like to give my opinion about the book, This book is more of an autobiography, the name of it is I was their American Dream by Malaka Gharib who also happens to be the main character of the book. Just like New Kid it does look like something that would be more for kids but Its quite similar when it comes to some racial undertone but instead about hardships of being a child of immigrant which for one I could relate to.

The story starts of with the background behind Malaka, she was born to a Filipino mother and an Egyptian mother, her mother indented to completely stay in the Philippines as she was already very wealthy but because of martial law and protests during the 1970s, one by one her and her family members left the Philippines to go to California, U.S.A on the other hand Malaka's Egyptian father always wanted to go to the United States ever since he was in high school and so his father worked to get a visa for him and after he graduated he left for California in which he would Meet Malaka's mother. They would soon fall in love and get married because she admired his sense of humor. Malaka would soon be born and her parents wanted her to have an American upbringing but the relationship between husband and wife would soon fracture, this would soon lead to a divorce in which Malaka's mother would have custody of her while her father went back to Egypt, later on finding a job working in hotels (both of them would later remarry). Fortunately, Malaka would still visit him every summer, she was mostly brought up to the Filipino part of her family and most people at her school didn't think she was Filipino and some said she was white washed because of how American she tried to be and so she couldn't really fit in with other Asians but her younger more Filipino half-sister could. So she decided to befriend white people as they shared most of her interests. She would befriend even more white people even into college in fact she would soon fall in love and later marry one in which her Muslim father opposed but would later on be fine with and gave her his blessing for the marriage.

This book was one that was pretty relatable for me because I was also born to immigrants albeit I wasn't born in America but I lived mostly in it so I would have a mostly American upbringing which is what my parents wanted for me and my family. I didn't really fit in at school with people that were African sometimes so I mainly talked to other people who would share my interests. I do appreciate that despite the fact that Malaka went through being insulted and not being able to fit in really well she managed to find a real group of friends who she could actually talk to and despite it being against her father somebody to be able to love, to me It just shows that despite how the circumstances of your birth or heritage and the fact that bad things could happen you have to be able to get over and power through it and fight back for yourself and more importantly find people who will be there for you during your life. I hope that you enjoyed this blog and thank you for having the time to read this!

-Elliot