23 parts Ongoing Petra Palmerova is a native of the Czech Republic who came to the United States in 1998 drawn by the magnetic allure of achieving the promise of the American Dream.
After working a variety of manual labor jobs, Petra was still unable to make ends meet. When her visitor's visa expired, Petra decided to stay at least long enough to save a nest-egg to bring back home and use to start a new life there if not in America. When a relative got sick and Petra didn't have the money for plane fare, she took a friend's advice, went with her to a gentleman's club, and not only did she earn the money she needed in a single night, her professional and personal life would never be the same.
Now Petra had money to pay her bills but without citizenship status she faced limitations at every turn. Her purpose in writing this novel, Petra's Passage, is to encourage the reader to replace the cold, threatening polarizing political talk about illegal aliens with at least this one gripping human interest story, based on her life.
Petra hopes to have Americans experience the personal face of this issue and in so doing learn they have nothing to fear from undocumented aliens. And more than that, realize that these very people form the labor backbone of much of the low-level manual work that takes place in America.
You don't always see them, but these are the workers who harvest our crops, cook the food in our restaurants, clean our homes and offices, provide day labor at construction sites, drive our cabs, take care of our children and senior citizens, put new roofs on our houses, manicure our lawns, and so so much more.
It is Petra's wish that one day soon a collective political voice will rise up and force much needed reform to our immigration system which currently leaves millions like her in limbo, unable to realize their personal potential or their potential benefit to the United States of America as productive, morally upright, law-abiding, tax-paying citizens.
