First Gen: A Memoir

Alejandra Campoverdi In conversation with Jean Guerrero
Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 | 7:00pm Mark Taper Auditorium-Central Library

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From former White House aide to President Obama and Harvard graduate, Alejandra Campoverdi comes a riveting unflinching memoir on navigating social mobility as a first gen Latina.  She offers a broad examination of the unacknowledged emotional tolls of being a trailblazer. Join us as we follow Campoverdi’s journey, from being a child of welfare to becoming a candidate for U.S. Congress. Part memoir, part manifesto, First Gen is a story of generational inheritance, aspiration, and belonging – a poignant journey to “reclaim the parts of ourselves we sacrificed in order to survive.”

Campoverdi will be in conversation with author and LA Times columnist with Jean Guerrero.

Alejandra Campoverdi

Alejandra Campoverdi is a nationally recognized women’s health advocate, founder, producer, and former White House aide to President Obama. She produced and appeared in the celebrated PBS documentary Inheritance, founded the Latinos & BRCA awareness initiative in partnership with Penn Medicine’s Basser Center, and served as the first White House deputy director of Hispanic media. Alejandra is currently on the boards of Harvard’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy, the Friends of the National Museum of the American Latino, and the California Community Foundation. She holds a master in public policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and graduated cum laude from the University of Southern California.

Jean Guerrero

Jean Guerrero is a columnist at the Los Angeles Times. She is the author of Hatemonger: Stephen Miller, Donald Trump and the White Nationalist Agenda. Her first book, Crux: A Cross-Border Memoir, won a PEN Literary Award and was named one of NPR’s Best Books of 2019. Her writing is featured in Vanity Fair, Politico, The Nation, Wired, the New York Times, The Washington Post, Best American Essays 2019 by Rebecca Solnit and more. She won the 2022 “Best Commentary” award from the Sacramento Press Club. While working at KPBS as an investigative border reporter, she won an Emmy, contributed to NPR, the PBS NewsHour and more. Months before Trump’s family separations captured national attention, her PBS reporting on the practice was cited by members of Congress. She started her career at the Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires as a foreign correspondent in Mexico and Central America. 

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