Diane Guerrero in a December 2013 file photo. (2013 Getty Images)
Diane Guerrero wants to change other people’s lives by sharing her family’s immigration story that ended with her parent’s deportation when she was 14.
Henry Holt and Company announced Thursday that the Colombian-American actress is working on a memoir that is scheduled to be released in early 2016.
The book will be called “In the Country We Love” and will tell Guerrero’s story of when her parents and older brother were taken from their home in Boston by immigration services in 2000.
The “Orange is the New Black” actress revealed her parents’ story last month in an op-ed for the Los Angeles Time.
“My real story is this: I am the citizen daughter of immigrant parents who were deported when I was 14,” she wrote. “My parents came here from Colombia during a time of great instability there. Throughout my childhood I watched my parents try to become legal but to no avail. They lost their money to people they believed to be attorneys, but who ultimately never helped.”
The 28-year-old actress said that her biggest fear were realized when she was 14 and returned from school to an empty house.
“Lights were on and dinner had been started, but my family wasn’t there,” Guerrero wrote. “Neighbors broke the news that my parents had been taken away by immigration officers.”
The actress, who appears on the hit CW show “Jane the Virgin,” revealed that it was through the help of friends that she was able to survive the ordeal. She continued to live in the U.S., attending the Boston Arts Academy high school.
In an interview with CNN shortly after publishing the op-ed, Guerrero said she thinks about that day all the time. She said she visits her family once a year, but that it’s tough.
“We’ve been separated for so long, I feel like sometimes we don’t know each other. It’s difficult,” she told CNN. “I love them so much. I have they have gone through this.”
According to Holt, Guerrero will "cast a much-needed light" on the fears of deportation faced by many immigrant families.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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