Loving Immigrants in America: An Experiential Philosophy of Personal Interaction

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At once narrative and reflective, Loving Immigrants in America: An Experiential Philosophy of Personal Interaction is a philosophical account of Daniel Camposs experience as a Latin American immigrant to the United States of America. A series of interrelated personal essays together convey this experience of walking or sauntering, going on road trips, reading American literature in the southern United States, playing association football (soccer or ftbol), churchgoing, and Latin dancing in the U.S. This books central motif is the caring saunterer, who is understood to be a person who makes him or herself at home anywhere, even as a Latino immigrant in the U.S. The narrative essays convey one immigrants experience seeking an affective, social, and intellectual home in a new land. The intertwined philosophical reflections lead to the recommendation of an ethic of loveresilient lovefor the day-to-day interactions and long-term relations between immigrants and hosts in this country. The authors aim is to establish an open and earnest philosophical dialogue with critical readers interested in the problems surrounding immigration in the U.S. today. He writes as an American philosopherin the continental sense of North, Central, and South Americawhose reflections provide an accessible and provocative angle for the development of insight into the experiences of immigrants in the United States. Thus he brings philosophical reflection drawn from experience, in the broad American tradition, to bear on current issueson the problems of people and not of philosophers, as John Dewey might put it.

Reviews

Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps . . . I hope. Loving Immigrants in America presents the possibilities of stories, not the necessary results of argument. This represents a beautiful opening of the discipline of philosophy, returning us to Platos Socrates, and his much wider faith in logoi, which also included narratives, myths, allegories, music, and poetry. Like the American philosophers, literary figures, and musicians that serve as his inspiration, Campos unstiffens our theories about what constitutes philosophy, reminds us that we can do more than merely engage in internecine arguments, and challenges immigrants and non-immigrants alike to listen. * Radical Philosophy Review *
A timely contribution to the tradition of American philosophy (James, Du Bois, Addams, Peirce, Lugones) that starts with lived experience and with the notion that narratives sometimes provoke more philosophical reflection and understanding that argumentation. Immigration is more than a legal status, it is a lived experience; full of not only of conflict, hatred, and xenophobia but possibilities for mutual understanding and learning. -- Gregory Fernando Pappas, Texas A&M University
Daniel Campos gifts us with a picaresque of American Pragmatism and American literature: on the road with Kerouac and Clemens, blending the experientialmemorable narratives of personal saunteringswith the philosophical, reflections informed by Peirce and Thoreau, Addams and Lugones. These evocative narratives and lyrical reflections on experience and meaning, the timely observations on the state of our culture, are enriched by his perspective as a citizen of Transamerica, all informed by an insightful grasp of American literature and philosophy. A Pilgrims Progress for our challenging times. -- Robert King, Utah State University
Loving Immigrants in America is a gift. Daniel Campos has a rare capacity to write in a way that is deeply reflective, with the philosophical and personal all intertwined. I thank him so much for sharing his insights with us. -- Marilyn Fischer, University of Dayton
Loving Immigrants in America is filled with insights, with the turn of every page the discovery of something new. In part this is because Daniel Campos is a sojourner, a saunterer, always on the move, continuously encountering new places and new people. But it is also a result of the quality of attention that he pays, his capacity for listening, his skillfulness as a readerCampos has produced not only a compelling memoir, but also a text that serves as a unique introduction to American philosophy. -- Michael Raposa, Lehigh University

Author Bio

Daniel G. Campos is associate professor of philosophy at Brooklyn College of The City University of New York.