Interpreting Immigration at the US/Mexico Border

Were you one of the millions of viewers who didn't give away their shot at watching the Hamilton premiere on Disney+ last weekend? Billed as "the ultimate immigrant success story," the blockbuster musical was penned by and starred a man who grew up in an immigrant community playing the only Founding Father not from America. Lin Manuel-Miranda told Oprah that, "As an immigrant, you work three times as hard and are promised maybe a fraction as much." This fact, not the choreographed chronicle of Alexander, more closely reflects the lived experience of Tim Leon-Getten and his "Spanish for Spanish Speakers" students.

Most of Tim’s ancestors settled in Minnesota from Ireland during the Potato Famine. His great-great-grandmother was the first European born along the shores of Lake Minnetonka. His other side of the family came from Sweden ...