Rafael Agustin was a television writer on the award-winning CW show Jane the Virgin. He was a speaker at the United Nations’s 70th Anniversary Celebration of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. He currently serves as the CEO of the Latino Film Institute (LFI), where he oversees the Youth Cinema Project, the annual Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival (LALIFF), and LatinX in Animation. He is the author of Illegally Yours: A Memoir.
A funny and poignant memoir about how as a teenager, TV writer Rafael Agustin (Jane the Virgin) accidentally discovered he was undocumented and how that revelation turned everything he thought he knew about himself and his family upside down.
Growing up, Rafa’s parents didn't want him to feel different because, as his mom told him: "Dreams should not have borders." But when he tried to get his driver's license during his junior year of high school, his parents were forced to reveal his immigration status. Suddenly, the kid who modeled his entire high school career after American TV shows had no idea what to do -- there was no episode of Saved by the Bell where Zack gets deported! While his parents were relieved to no longer live a lie in front of their son, Rafa found himself completely unraveling in the face of his uncertain future.
"Illegally Yours" is a heartwarming, comical look at how this struggling Ecuadorian immigrant family bonded together to navigate Rafa's school life, his parents' work lives, and their shared secret life as undocumented Americans, determined to make the best of their always turbulent and sometimes dangerous American existence. From using the Ricky Martin/Jennifer Lopez “Latin Explosion” to his social advantage in the ‘90s to how his parents—doctors in their home country of Ecuador—were reduced to working menial jobs in the US, the family's secret became their struggle, and their struggle became their hustle. A hilarious and touching exploration of belonging and identity, "Illegally Yours" revolves around one very simple question: What does it mean to be American?
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