FIRST GEN
A Memoir
An unflinching memoir about navigating social mobility as a first gen Latina, FIRST GEN is both a riveting personal story and a broad examination of the unacknowledged emotional tolls of being a trailblazer.
PRAISE FOR FIRST GEN
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"FIRST GEN is a gift to all of us—the children of immigrants who have longed to read a story like ours in books. With vulnerability and transparency, Campoverdi gives us special access to so many setbacks, triumphs, and hard-won lessons as a First and Only. Every Latina hoping to end cycles of generational trauma must read this immediately.”
Erika L. Sánchez
New York Times bestselling author of
“I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter” -
“FIRST GEN is a luminous achievement, one of the most moving debuts in memory… Campoverdi transforms the furies, hypocrisies and disappointments of the American dream into a survivor’s song of surpassing poignancy… this is literary love medicine, a book you will not soon forget.”
Junot Díaz
Pulitzer Prize-winning author of New York Times bestsellers
“The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao“
and “This is How You Lose Her” -
"Intimate and unflinching, First Gen reveals the very real human and emotional costs to living the "American Dream." Alejandra Campoverdi shines a guiding light for fellow "First and Onlys" who struggle to overcome systemic barriers while detangling generational trauma. No discussion of America's supposed meritocracy is complete without consideration of this book."
Qian Julie Wang
New York Times bestselling author of
“Beautiful Country: A Memoir of An Undocumented Childhood” -
"I wish this book existed when I was a first generation student navigating the alienating world of academia and the mostly white workplaces thereafter. Campoverdi’s writing is honest, healing, and empowering. First Gen has made me feel seen and less alone."
Javier Zamora
New York Times bestselling author of
“Solito”
ALEJANDRA CAMPOVERDI is a nationally recognized women’s health advocate, bestselling author, founder, producer, and former White House aide to President Obama.
Alejandra's memoir, FIRST GEN, examines the often unacknowledged emotional tolls of being a trailblazer. A national bestseller, FIRST GEN is the winner of the California Independent Booksellers Alliance (CALIBA) Golden Poppy Martin Cruz Smith Award, and longlisted for the Outstanding Works of Literature (OWL) Award for the First Year Experience. FIRST GEN is also the 2024 Opportunity Matters Book Club selection for the Council for Opportunity in Education (COE), a national book club for first-generation and low-income students at colleges and universities across the country.
Previously, Alejandra served in the Obama White House as the first White House Deputy Director of Hispanic Media. She produced and appeared in the groundbreaking PBS documentary Inheritance, and founded the LATINOS & BRCA awareness initiative in partnership with Penn Medicine’s Basser Center for BRCA. Alejandra holds a Master in Public Policy from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and graduated cum laude from USC.
