There’s a well-worn script about those who become the first in their families to notch certain accomplishments. Difficulties are overcome with hard work, leading to accomplishment and a piece of the American Dream.
Alejandra Campoverdi, a native Angeleno whose family resettled from Mexico, wants people to know a lot is missing from that description of social mobility.
“Many times, the stories of our lives are condensed into tidy bullet points on our resumes,” she said. “I want to add nuance to that oversimplified, linear narrative. The spaces between our bullet points are where the real stories lie.”
Indeed, a quick web search can unfold the details of her multihyphenate achievements — as the White House’s first-ever deputy director of Hispanic media under the Obama Administration, a congressional candidate, documentary filmmaker, an advocate for breast cancer and BRCA awareness, and more.
In her bestselling 2023 memoir, First Gen, Campoverdi goes far beyond those bullet points to detail the sometimes-painful experiences that get left out of the story, such as the time she felt overwhelmed during freshman orientation, had a panic attack and fainted at Tommy Trojan’s feet.
“It was important to me to shine a light on the common pitfalls, sacrifices and challenges that come with the territory when you’re the ‘first.’ When I was a 17-year-old freshman, I felt lost and overwhelmed. It would’ve made a big difference to have known that I wasn’t the only one.”
Her book was inspired by interactions with college students who were “first and onlys,” as she calls them. This refers to the first and only in the family to cross particular thresholds such as pursuing higher education or owning a home.
In opening up this conversation, First Gen has attracted acclaim. It is the winner of the California Independent Booksellers Alliance Golden Poppy Martin Cruz Smith Award, a nominee for the Outstanding Works of Literature Award for the First Year Experience and one of The Latin Times’ Top 5 Latin Books of 2023. First Gen is also the 2024 Opportunity Matters Book Club selection from the Council for Opportunity in Education, a national book club for first-generation and low-income college students.
The memoir is dedicated to the first and onlys, in the sense of not only an inscription or inspiration, but also providing them with something useful. Telling her story from the inside out, she organizes the memoir based on the components of what she calls “the Trailblazer Toll,” the emotional cost of social and economic mobility.
Her own college experience as a USC Annenberg communication major was where she first felt the freedom to explore academic disciplines that were completely foreign to her up until that point — including taking classes on gender studies in media and even sitting in a glass box on Sunset Blvd.
The latest step in a career since influenced by curiosity is Campoverdi’s appointment as a senior fellow of the USC Center on Communication Leadership and Policy (CCLP). The honor resonates with an enduring Trojan connection. The center’s founder and director is University Professor Geoffrey Cowan. He was USC Annenberg’s dean during Campoverdi’s undergraduate years and she conducted research for Cowan as a graduate student while attending Harvard’s Kennedy School.
“Becoming a senior fellow at CCLP is an honor and a beautiful full-circle moment,” Campoverdi said.
In many ways, it is a continuation of a career dedicated to exercising radical vulnerability.
“A life-altering moment was when I realized that the challenges we encounter in our lives can be alchemized and transformed through vulnerability,” Campoverdi said. “Vulnerability can create connective tissue between us, leading everyone to feel more seen and less alone. Ultimately, I’ve always been driven by the purpose of creating that connection.”