About Being... an Undocumented Immigrant (with Andrea Cruz)
Tell Me More with Nicole Walters
Dear Media
4.8 • 1.8K Ratings
🗓️ 16 July 2025
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It took over 30 years for Andrea Cruz to gain her American citizenship, and her lawyer said she had it easy…
You may have opinions about undocumented immigrants and that’s exactly why I’m chatting with Andrea Cruz today.
Andrea was an undocumented immigrant from Peru for much of her adult life. She shares how her parents brought her to America legally at the age of 9 and the hoops she had to jump through to gain her citizenship.
There are so many misconceptions about immigrants and the process they must go through to chase The American Dream.
Andrea shares what her local community is going through with the current political rhetoric and how they are supporting one another. Immigrants, just like any group of people, are not a monolith. We all have more in common than we may believe.
With any chat, it's important for us to listen with an open mind and heart. Thank you to Andrea for opening up about her lived experience and thank YOU for being here to learn and listen.
Get the rest of the links and resources from this chat at https://nicolewalters.com/episode506
And WATCH this chat on YouTube at https://nicolewalters.com/youtube
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The following podcast is a Dear Media production. |
| 0:04.8 | I used to care so much about portraying a perfect life and acting like everything was okay |
| 0:10.2 | when really things were far from it. I was secretly struggling with my mental health and wondering |
| 0:15.4 | if other people were too. That's why I created RealPod. Hi, I'm Victoria Garrick Brown, |
| 0:20.6 | and every Wednesday I host the types of conversations |
| 0:23.5 | that most of us only have in therapy. |
| 0:26.4 | RealPod brings you the heart-to-heart moments we all need to be having, and will leave you |
| 0:31.1 | feeling comforted no matter where you're at in life. |
| 0:33.8 | So leave the filters at the door because it's time to get real. |
| 0:38.4 | Tune into RealPod wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 0:46.0 | Welcome to the Tell Me More podcast with Nicole Walters, the only podcast where I'm not seeking to make you think more like me, but to help you keep thinking |
| 0:55.0 | for yourself. |
| 1:04.4 | Hey, y'all. |
| 1:05.3 | So I have been loving, loving the conversations we're having, not just here, but also offline, right, when we |
| 1:13.7 | are talking after the episodes have happened. And you guys are not just learning so much, |
| 1:18.8 | but you're also teaching me a lot. You know, we've had the opportunity to speak to someone who |
| 1:23.7 | is a trans activist. We've had a chance to hear from Generation Z about how they're feeling about politics and the economy. |
| 1:31.4 | And we've spoken to a sugar baby. |
| 1:33.6 | You know, we've had some real conversations that are widening our minds, I think, opening |
| 1:38.7 | our hearts and really helping us all grow in a time where it can feel like we are so divisive |
| 1:44.1 | and things are |
| 1:44.6 | friction-filled. And we're also laughing a lot because these episodes, people's lives are wild, |
... |
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