I'm MSNBC's Ali Valshi. Welcome to the Velshi Bank Club.

Immigrants and their place in this country have long been a topic of heated conversation

in the country. Today's meeting in the Valshiban Book Club

is going to explore two works of literature that illustrate what it means to be an immigrant

and a young woman in America, how the Garcia girls lost their accents by Julia Alvarez,

an American Street by Ibi Zuboi. Perhaps at a cursory glance you would see clear

similarities between the two

stories. Both books grapple with family dynamics, the role of religion, and what it means to

become an American when so much of who you are remains in another place and in another culture.

And both books grapple with what all of this means for women, for young women in New York City and Detroit.

The respective settings of both books, the stakes are higher.

Finding yourself, your community, and your footing in America can mean life and death.

And yet, how the Garcia girls lost their accents and Street, were published 26 years apart.

Together, they are a temporal study in the changing culture in America and changing dynamics for

immigrants.

We didn't pick these two stories as a means of contrast, rather as a critical look at a small

part of the ever-growing immigrant literary canon and the nuanced

stories that illuminate this very real experience. Let's start with the first of the two books to be

published, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez. There's a family of six,

two parents and four daughters, that live right here in New York City. They came

from the Dominican Republic and can trace their lineage all the way back to the conquistadors.

They left behind cousins, aunts, and uncles and a community with tall, safe walls. After their

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