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Journey of an Immigrant is a poignant and inspirational account of Saisnath Baijoo's experiences when he left Trinidad to start a new life in the United States a month after 9/11. The successful owner and operator of two pharmacies in Trinidad, Baijoo was held at gunpoint during a robbery. His near-death experience sent a wake up call to pursue a pharmaceutical career in Florida. With only a verbal promise of a pharmacy internship position, Baijoo packed his belongings, and, together with his wife and three daughters, left his Trinidad and set his eyes on the American Dream. Baijoo's debut memoir covers a multitude of themes (racial, employment, and educational discrimination, to name a few) relating to the hardships that accompany the establishment of new roots in America.
Baijoo's first-person narrative is nothing less than candid. Amid a plethora of adversity, Baijoo not only shares his trials and tribulations to attain American citizenship, but also describes the mindset that carries him through those difficult times. Never forgetting his familial and spiritual roots, Baijoo's constant reflection on the profound words of his parents, as well as Hindu and Christian teachings, facilitates him through job loss, financial troubles, divorce, and so much more. Baijoo is always mindful that his problems are nothing compared to what his Indian parents and grandparents had to endure when they were sugar plantation slaves. Also apropos to his narrative, Baijoo includes the irony between Trinidad's breathtaking scenery and its horrific history.
A mix of struggle, perseverance, and a bit of romance, Journey of an Immigrant is not only an encouragement for other fellow and future immigrants, but also a must read for U.S. citizens who have lost the fire of compassion for foreigners and forgotten that their citizenship would not be intact if it wasn't for the empathy extended to their brave immigrant ancestors.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review