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Kar­la Corne­jo Villav­i­cen­cio was the first undoc­u­ment­ed per­son to ever be a final­ist for the Nation­al Book Award in 2020, accord­ing to the Nation­al Book Foun­da­tion. Her book The Undoc­u­ment­ed Amer­i­cans, pub­lished this year, is a run­away best­seller. It chron­i­cles the lives of undoc­u­ment­ed immi­grants as well as Villavicencio’s own life in Amer­i­ca. She was brought to the Unit­ed States of Amer­i­ca from Ecuador at age four or five by her parents—also undoc­u­ment­ed immigrants.