FIRST GEN
A Memoir
A national bestseller and winner of the Martin Cruz Smith Award, FIRST GEN is a story of generational inheritance, aspiration, and the true meaning of belonging—a gripping journey to "reclaim the parts of ourselves we sacrificed in order to survive."
An unflinching memoir about navigating social mobility as a first gen Latina, Alejandra Campoverdi’s FIRST GEN is both a riveting personal story and a broad examination of the unacknowledged emotional tolls of being a trailblazer.
Alejandra Campoverdi has been a child on welfare, a White House aide to President Obama, a Harvard graduate, a gang member’s girlfriend, and a candidate for U.S. Congress. Living a life of contradictory extremes often comes with the territory when you’re a “First and Only.” It also comes at a price.
With candor and heart, Alejandra retraces her trajectory as a Mexican American woman raised by an immigrant single mother in Los Angeles. Foregoing the tidy bullet points of her resume and shining a light on the spaces between
them instead, what emerges is a powerful testimony that shatters the one-dimensional glossy narrative we are often sold of what it takes to achieve the American Dream. In this timely and revealing reflection, Alejandra draws from her own experiences to name and frame the challenges First and Onlys often face.
Part memoir, part manifesto, FIRST GEN is a story of generational inheritance, aspiration, and the true meaning of belonging - a gripping journey to “reclaim the parts of ourselves we sacrificed in order to survive.”