Daisy Hernández argues 'Citizenship' has never been a fixed legal status

Summary

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NPR's Book of the Day: Daisy Hernández on the Shifting Meaning of Citizenship

Episode Title: Daisy Hernández argues 'Citizenship' has never been a fixed legal status
Air Date: March 19, 2026
Host: Emily Kwong (for NPR)
Guest: Daisy Hernández, author of Notes on an American Myth

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Episode Overview

This episode spotlights Daisy Hernández's new essay collection, Notes on an American Myth, in which she critically examines the evolving and unsettled concept of citizenship in the United States. Drawing from her family’s immigrant history and rigorous research, Hernández challenges the notion that citizenship is a merely legal status, instead presenting it as a dynamic, contested identity shaped by power, history, and social realities. The conversation, rich with personal anecdotes and reflections, underscores the limitations, possibilities, and lived experience of citizenship—especially for immigrants and people of color.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Personal Story as Entry Point

• Daisy Hernández, daughter of a Cuban refugee and a Colombian immigrant, grew up amid a rich tapestry of Latin American identities in Union City, New Jersey.
  • “I tell people I grew up in the United Nations of Latinos located in New Jersey.” (Daisy Hernández, 02:18)

2. Citizenship as a Moving Target

• Citizenship is presented not as a static achievement but as a fluid status, often dictated by those in power to define who does and doesn’t belong.
  • The rules and meanings attached to citizenship have changed overtime—from race, to gender, to economic status.

3. Historical Shifts in US Citizenship

• Hernández traces the shifting boundaries of citizenship throughout US history:
  • 1790: Only "free white immigrants" could naturalize.
  • Post-Civil War: Black citizenship debated and resisted.
  • Chinese Exclusion Act barred Asian immigrants.
  • Early 20th century: Women’s citizenship tied to husbands; marriage to foreigners could mean loss of citizenship.
  • 1930s: Mass deportations of Mexican Americans, including U.S. citizens.
  • Civil Rights, women’s, and LGBTQ+ movements expanded—but didn’t universalize—the meanings of citizenship.
  • Quote: "Citizenship is definitely not a single fixed status, and it just never has been." (Daisy Hernández, 07:07)

4. Social Citizenship: More Than Legal Papers

• Introduces T.H. Marshall’s theory of social citizenship—beyond civil rights (property, speech) and political rights (voting), social citizenship is about tangible access to opportunity, healthcare, education, and a dignified life.
  • Many Americans, especially people of color, experience a "very limited social citizenship":
    • “It means that, yes, we don’t all have the same access to schooling, to medical care, to housing … we could also define it as having a very limited social citizenship here in the U.S.” (Daisy Hernández, 04:29)

5. Intimacy and Exclusion: Family and Health Care

• Moving personal narrative about the intersection of immigration, social structures, and love.
  • Hernández shares wishing she could use her job’s health insurance to support not just herself, but her whole family—reflecting on “the right to a civilized life.”
    • Memorable moment: “I wanted to marry my mother to give her health insurance, to extend her social citizenship in that way.” (Emily Kwong quoting Hernández, 05:05)
  • The pain of building a future on a family’s sacrifices, but being unable to share basic benefits:
    • “I only had that job, and this was a job in publishing, and I only had that college education because this whole family of people had supported me … but they couldn’t reap the rewards of the labors.” (Daisy Hernández, 06:30)

6. Citizenship as Social Construct

• The idea that citizenship, like race or gender, is created and recreated by the forces in power, rather than being a fixed, immutable status.
  • “It can get remade, it can get rewritten by those in power.” (Emily Kwong, 06:47)

7. On the Risks and Necessity of Speaking Out

• Hernández addresses contemporary backlash and fear surrounding discussions of citizenship, acknowledging a friend’s question about whether it’s “safe” to write such a book now.
  • Her response is a call to collective responsibility:
    • “I think that we lose democracy more quickly when we stay silent, and silence is what the rise of a fascist government wants. So I wanted to do my part, however tiny it might be, to keep our democracy alive.” (Daisy Hernández, 08:43)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On growing up surrounded by immigrants:

  • “I tell people I grew up in the United Nations of Latinos located in New Jersey.” (Daisy Hernández, 02:18)

• On the meaning of citizenship:

  • “Citizenship was a private story one women told in the dark, where faces could not be seen.” (Emily Kwong quoting Hernández, 01:58)

• On wanting to share social citizenship:

  • “I wanted to marry my mother to give her health insurance, to extend her social citizenship in that way.” (Emily Kwong quoting Hernández, 05:05)

• On access and exclusion:

  • “We relied on community clinics…my mother into her 50s, relying on these health fairs that would pop up in local parks run by nurse practitioners.” (Daisy Hernández, 05:32)

• On the historic variability of citizenship:

  • “Citizenship is definitely not a single fixed status, and it just never has been.” (Daisy Hernández, 07:07)

• On the courage to speak out:

  • “I think that we lose democracy more quickly when we stay silent, and silence is what the rise of a fascist government wants.” (Daisy Hernández, 08:43)

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Important Timestamps

• [01:20] Introduction of Daisy Hernández and the premise of her book
• [02:15] Hernández describes her family's multicultural household and her motivation to write the book
• [03:09] Explanation of "social citizenship" and its implications
• [05:05] Personal story about health insurance and familial sacrifice
• [06:45] Discussion of citizenship as a social construct versus legal status
• [07:07] Detailed history of shifting definitions of citizenship
• [08:37] Discussing the risk and importance of publishing on this topic in today's political climate
• [08:43] Hernández on the necessity of speaking up to preserve democracy

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Summary Flow & Takeaway

This episode encourages listeners to rethink the boundaries and meanings of citizenship—urging an understanding that goes well beyond paperwork or legal status. Through Hernández's storytelling and analysis, it's clear that citizenship is a malleable construct, perilously dependent on politics, history, and social forces. The conversation is intimate, deeply reflective, and marked by both political urgency and personal vulnerability.

Final Thought:
Notes on an American Myth asks us to interrogate not only who gets to be an "American," but also what—beyond paperwork and laws—true belonging, justice, and equity should look like.

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Transcript

[A]

Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbong. Any immigrant or immigrant family knows that citizenship can often feel like the last piece of a puzzle. You spend years and years jumping through hoops filling out this form and that, making sure your T's are crossed and your I's are dotted just for that one piece of paper. That puts you on the other side of that line, the official document that says you were once this and now you're that. Of course, things in life are rarely so binary. The book Notes on an American Myth by Daisy Hernandez is an exploration into how complex the very concept of citizenship actually is. She tells NPR's Emily Kwong that in America, we're constantly changing what it means to be an American citizen. That's ahead.

[B]

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[C]

Citizenship is a game of tic tac toe. Your father had a Cuban passport. Your father won. That's how Daisy Hernandez sets up her new book, notes on an American Myth, a collection of essays that combines history with memoir. The daughter of a refugee of Castro's Cuba and a mother from Colombia, Hernandez presents the US Immigration system as a game whose rules are always changing. Daisy Hernandez is with us now. Welcome to ALL THINGS considered. Hi.

[D]

Thank you so much for having me.

[C]

Your mom is from Colombia, and she told you stories about how she came to this country at bedtime. You write about being a kid with your sister, like in darkness under the covers, listening to her stories. And you write, quote, I learned as a child that citizenship was a private story one women told in the dark, where faces could not be seen. So I'm wondering what made you want to write this book and bring these stories into the light.

[D]

Yeah, I think part of it was growing up in that immigrant family, not only with my mom and my father, but I also had an uncle from Peru, another uncle from Puerto Rico. We had family friends from Mexico, Argentina, Guatemala. So I tell people I grew up in the United nations of Latinos located in New Jersey.

[C]

Everywhere. Yes. Union City, New Jersey.

[D]

Union City, New Jersey. So citizenship was so at the center of my life and when I was a child. This is 1986, the Reagan administration passed legislation with Congress creating a pathway to citizenship for 3 million people, mostly Mexicans. And to me, it's been so revealing that, you know, four decades later, we now have such a deadly persecution of immigrant families. So part of working on this book was to investigate that change and what citizenship has meant to us.

[C]

The book is so deeply researched with history and also with. I really want to make this clear with concepts, because I don't think we've always had the language to talk about immigration and about citizenship as a country. Like, we don't. We just don't know the words and we don't use the same words. And one concept I found really powerful is the idea of social citizenship. Can you describe what that is? It's a type of citizenship that not all citizens have.

[D]

Yeah. This harkens back to the work of the sociologist T.H. marshall, who was looking at the history of England and so described the trajectory of citizenship, starting with civil citizenship and the right to own property, to have free speech, to then political citizenship, which. The right to have your vote. But then social citizenship he saw as emerging in the 20th century with essentially having, I think he called it the right to a civilized. But what is your access to medical care? What is your access to education? Does everyone get equal opportunities for this? And it really gave me the language to think about, yeah. What many people of color in the United States experience, which is a very limited social citizenship. It means that, yes, we don't all have the same access to schooling, to medical care, to housing. And we often describe it here in the US As a case of racism, of socioeconomics, things along those lines, these isms, you know. But we could also define it as having a very limited social citizenship here in the U.S. yeah.

[C]

Well, that reminds me of a line that really got me. When you talk about marriage as a pathway towards citizenship, and you say, and you have a sweetie and. But you said, you write, quote, I didn't want to marry my girlfriend who had a job with health insurance. I wanted to marry my mother to give her health insurance, to extend her social citizenship in that way.

[D]

I did. And it's important to acknowledge here that both of my parents worked in factories when I was growing up in New Jersey in textile factories. And initially there was some health insurance coverage, but as the years went on and unions came under attack, there were sort of fewer and fewer benefits. And so for most of my childhood, neither my parents, my sister, nor I had health insurance. So we relied on community clinics. I write in the book about my mother into her 50s, relying on these health fairs that would pop up in local parks run by nurse practitioners. So, yeah, so there was so much that we did not have access to. And for me, when I got my first job out of college, I mean, that was the first time that I had a robust health insurance plan. And absolutely, I actually called the insurance company to find out if I could include my mom and my dad and my sister.

[C]

You wanted to name them as your dependents.

[D]

I wanted to name them as my dependents. And I still remember this very kind insurance representative on the phone with me who said, I'm so sorry, but you can't claim them as dependents for the purposes of insurance. And it was so painful because I only had that job, and this was a job in publishing, and I only had that college education because this whole family of people had supported me and made that possible. But they couldn't reap the rewards of the labors.

[C]

Here you are kind of showing the ways that citizenship is almost a social construct, like race, like gender. It can get remade, it can get rewritten by those in power. But there are those who say, no, no, no. Citizenship is this well defined legal status. There are laws about it, et cetera. What would you say to them?

[D]

Yeah, citizenship is definitely not a single fixed status, and it just never has been. So when we at the history of our country, starting in 1790, Congress said, you can only naturalize if you're a free white immigrant in this country. And then less than 100 years later, we had a civil war to abolish slavery and to determine the citizenship of black Americans. In that time period, we created the Chinese Exclusion act that led to the exclusion of almost everyone from Asia from coming to the country, from naturalizing. In the early 1900s, women with birthrights, citizenship could lose that citizenship if they married a foreigner. In the 1930s, we deported more than a million Mexican Americans. Half of them were US Citizens during that time. And I would tell them, you know, in the 1960s and 70s, when we had the civil rights movement, the gay liberation movement, women's movement, all of that was an expansion of social citizenship. Right? It was an expansion of what citizenship could mean for those who had technically been born with it. So we have just been constantly changing what citizenship means.

[C]

It's quite a reckoning we're having right now. And maybe every generation goes through this, but we're definitely going through this. And as far as your contribution goes, at the very end of the book, you reveal that a friend asks you, like, is it safe to produce a book about citizenship?

[D]

Now?

[C]

What ultimately brought you to the decision to keep going and publish this?

[D]

I think that we lose democracy more quickly when we stay silent, and silence is what the rise of a fascist government wants. So I wanted to do my part, however tiny it might be, to keep our democracy alive.

[C]

Daisy Hernandez, thank you so much for speaking with us.

[D]

Thank you.

[C]

Citizenship Notes on An American Myth is out now. Foreign.

[E]

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