Entry Without Inspection

A Writer's Life in El Norte

Cecile Pineda author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:University of Georgia Press

Published:15th Nov '20

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Entry Without Inspection cover

Cecile Pineda—award-winning Chicana novelist, memoirist, theater director, performer, activist—felt rootless throughout much of her life. Her father was an undocumented Mexican immigrant, and her mother was a French-speaking immigrant from Switzerland. Pineda, born in New York City, felt culturally disconnected from both of her parents, while also ill at ease in U.S. culture. In her life, we see the strange intersection of immigrant politics, troubles with ethnic identity, and the instability of family ties.

In Entry Without Inspection, Pineda brings it all together, reconciling her past (much of which she had to piece together from vague memories and parental clues) while tracing how she formed her own identity through prose and theater in the absence of known roots. But as Pineda discovers, her life story doesn’t belong solely to her but is interwoven with those of her families, whether biological or chosen, and of the world around her. Because of this, Pineda’s memoir features parallel stories, that of her life running alongside and being informed by those of other immigrants.

Pineda traces her story while also documenting the work of the first whistleblower to reveal an immigrant death in detention, in 2009, with the storylines converging to reveal the lasting consequences of U.S. immigration policy. She explores the ripple effects of these policies over generations, revealing the shocking truths of marginalization and deportation. Pineda exposes both the cultural losses and the traumatic aftereffects of misguided U.S. immigration policy. Entry Without Inspection is a truly American story in all its historical and emotional complexity, one in which personal ethics and political commentary are necessarily and inextricably interwoven.

Cecile Pineda is a foundational voice in Latina/Latino literature. Every new book is cause for celebration. She is writing at full force. Read it.

* author of The House of Broken Angels *

Timely, informative, and moving, this memoir that is ‘more than a memoir’ tells a complex story of immigration, migration, deracination, multiple kinds of separation, suppression, loneliness, and the necessity to improvise. . . . It is of interest to anyone involved with or passionate about the arts or deeply intrigued by the mysterious forces of creativity and the cultivation of an ethically engaged artistic vision.


Writers, readers, teachers, and creative writing classes, take note: Cecile Pineda is an American original, a literary treasure. . . . Her prodigiously inventive and important work deserves a place in the forefront of American literature.

* Bloomsbury Review *

Entry Without Inspection is a truly American story in all its historical and emotional complexity, one in which personal ethics and political commentary are necessarily and inextricably interwoven.

* Hippocampus Magazi

ISBN: 9780820358468

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

240 pages