What?s it like to come to a new country? To learn a new language and have your parents depend on YOU to translate? How does it change you?

This 54-minute special covers these questions through the eyes of teens. They?re from Hong Kong, Sierra Leone, the Philippines, Mexico, El Salvador, the Bahamas, Columbia, and Jeremiah, Kentucky. Now, they?re all in America ? which, as we hear, doesn?t necessarily make them Americans.

This show pulls together work from youth radio groups around the country. Producer Jenny Asarnow has found a slew of it ? all of it skilled, none of it redundant. It testifies to the strength of youth radio and the value of Generation PRX, the show's coproducer.

Asarnow has built a nice structure for the material. Short interstitials mix tape, music, and copy to underscore themes like borders, language, and home.

We also get longer pieces, several noteworthy:

From KRCB, a young man tries three times to cross the US-Mexico border. His young translator reads the story in English, with evocative overdubs and techno underbeats. It?s long but it works.

From Radio Rookies, a teen born in Sierra Leone doesn?t have her green card ? even though her dad does. We hear her outraged uncle as she threatens to go on radio about it. And from WAMU?s Youth Voices, we get what?s almost a reporter?s piece about parents who depend on their kids to translate.

Almost all of the pieces were made by teams, something you can't help noticing. And eighteen-year-old host Dinorah Flores-Perez is a find. A poet and activist, she adds several bridges that keep the narrative going.

So there?s lots here ? including some new spins on the immigrant experience.

Despite the vote in Congress, the issue isn?t going away. This special can help advance the discussion. Consider it for Labor Day.

Anthea Raymond
PRX Editorial Board
July 13, 2007
Los Angeles, CA