In Finding Motherland, acclaimed nonfiction author Helen Thorpe shares seven essays she has written on the related themes of her own family's story, the labor that goes into producing local food, and the intersections of migration, race, and privilege. She begins by depicting life on the dairy farm in Ireland where her mother was raised, then describes how immigrating to the United States reshaped her Irish parents, and shares her experience of motherhood. She celebrates the stories of immigrant neighbors by profiling an undocumented student who carries the American flag in his ROTC unit at a local high school, and illustrating the economic, legal, and social challenges facing a single mother without legal status who gives her cooking lessons. She recounts the labor by men from Mexico and Honduras who work in fields and orchards to produce the locally grown food that we eat. In the final essay, the author recalls the large number of Irish-American immigrants who arrived in the United States penniless and starving in the wake of the potato famine, and asks us to have greater empathy for those who are migrating today.
