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An event from this summer's Aspen Ideas Festival that moderator David Brooks wanted a lot more people to hear.

It's his conversation with Jose Antonio Vargas, an undocumented immigrant from the Philippines and a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who has a new book coming out in September about what it means to be an American. 

David Brooks of the New York Times and PBS has been a regular at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado. At the conclusion of the discussion, he said his conversation with Jose Antonio Vargas was one of two events in the 13 or 14 years he's been participating at Aspen that "really moved" him. 

Antonio Vargas was a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for the Washington Post. The undocumented immigrant from the Philippines is now the founder and CEO of the nonprofit Define American.

Brooks said when we talk about immigration in America, we talk about people, and we talk about laws. But we don't talk about experiences. So, that's what Brooks talks to Antonio Vargas about this hour.

Antonio Vargas said there are three themes in the undocumented immigrant experience: "lying, passing and hiding."


"Everything I learned about being American I learned from the library," he said. He emphasized the important role of mentors, and encouraged others to do it.


Antonio Vargas said most Americans don't understand how the immigration system works. "There's no process. There's no line for people like me to get in." Beyond immigration reform, he said, "we need to think bigger, for all of us."


His first book is being published September 18, 2018 and he titled it "Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen." Antonio Vargas said the first sentence is something like, "I don't know where I'll be when you read this book." If the Trump administration says "go get him," Antonio Vargas told Brooks, "I'm packed." He said a California elementary school has been named after him, "so if I have to leave this fall, it's OK."

Both men were introduced at Aspen by Damian Woetzel, president of the Julliard School and former director of the Aspen Institute Arts Program. The event was held June 27, 2018.

To listen to their conversation, click the audio player above.

MPR News Staff

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David Brooks speaks with Jose Antonio Vargas about the undocumented immigrant experience, and what it means to be an American.

Jose Antonio Vargas on what it means to be an American

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