Review by Eleanor J. Bader
Gabrielle Oliveira’s latest book, Now We Are Here, delves into the lives of 16 newly-arrived immigrant families from Brazil, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras and covers their first three years in the US, 2018-2021. All of these families – 30 kids under 18 and 24 parents – experienced weeks-to-month-long separations after requesting asylum at the border. Although all of the people profiled were eventually reunited and allowed to settle in the country, the long-term damage of their often-traumatic journey – and the subsequent rupture caused by their incarceration – is evident, especially in the children Oliveira introduces.
Indeed, hundreds of hours of interviews reveal that the children desperately wanted to talk to their teachers and peers about what they’d been through since leaving their homelands. Unfortunately, this was discouraged. Instead, Oliveira tracks how the kids’ attempts to talk about their experiences were repeatedly shut down by teachers in what Oliveira calls “the pedagogy of silence.”
“Children often encountered adults who stifled their narratives, changed the subject, or decided that this type of political knowledge could be dangerous or complicated to discuss in the classroom…Educators were not actively seeking to hurt or ignore children. More than anything, teachers wanted their students to feel supported in the present moment and understand that they were now safe.”
But the kids knew better and expressed a deep longing to share their fears and worries with other newcomers. For their part, most parents also wanted to avoid rehashing the past, suppressing discussion of past atrocities in favor of adjusting to new realities. At the same time, most simultaneously questioned their decision to migrate and wondered if uprooting their families had been a mistake.
Now We Are Here is an intensely moving book. And while it barely touches the surface of the current administration’s anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies, it is nonetheless essential reading for educators and those working with Central American immigrants.
Now We Are Here: Family, Migration, Children’s Education, and Dreams for a Better Life by Gabrielle Oliveira. Stanford University Press, November 2025.
Reviewer bio: Eleanor J. Bader is a Brooklyn, NY-based journalist who writes about books and domestic social issues for Truthout, Rain Taxi, The Progressive, Ms. Magazine, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and The Indypendent.
