THE BOOK OF UNKNOWN AMERICANS: CRISTINA HENRIQUEZ

I  enjoyed and learned from this book, about the 'unknown Americans' that surround most of us gringos, building our homes, cutting our lawns, shingling our roofs, cleaning our houses, people we see during the day but rarely include in our lives.  They live here but apart, caught between two cultures, the one they have now adopted, the one they left behind.  This is a book everyone should read because of the understanding that comes from 'walking in someone else's shoes,' and this novel puts you right their among the 'Unknown Americans.

Two families dominate this narrative, Alma, Arturo and their teenage daughter, Marilbel, guest workers from Mexico.  They have come to the States for one reason---their daughter Maribel, who has suffered a brain injury and they have been told that the schools in the States might help her. Arturo, the father,  gets a visa to work in the mushroom farms of Pennsylvania, so they immigrate to Delaware, a state that's cheaper to live in than most states on the East coast.  The other family we follow is from Panama and are now American citizens, having lived in the states for the fast fifteen years.  They befriend the newly arrived Rivera's and we see the world through their teenage son, Mayor. The older brother has won a soccer scholarship to the University of Maryland, and is the pride of the family. Mayor's father has been a short order cook in a diner for fifteen years, making just enough money for them to survive and live in a small apartment, where others from Latin America have lived because they rarely find the job with money to move upward in status.

We live intimately with these two families, see their love for each other, sense of 'otherness' living here in the States, where their lack of English skills and understanding of a new culture destines them to underclass status.  And there seems to be no way out unless, like the successful son, you assimilate, get an education and win a scholarship to college.  We also are given numerous vignettes of others who have come to the United States, how they have been received, how they fit in despite their differentness.  Some are happy with their new home, others long, of course, for the pace and intimacy of their homes in Latin America, few return.

The conflict, the trouble, essential to any story, involves the burgeoning relationship between Mayor and Maribel.  Neither family approves, especially Alma and Arturo, who fear for their brain damaged daughter.  Mayor, however, befriends her, helps to bring her out of her shell and despite the families restrictions, manages to drive her off to the ocean for the day, to see snow and ocean for her first time. The families are alarmed when neither returns on time, and Arturo and Alma fear the worst, that a neighborhood tough has molested Maribel.  Arturo, in a rage and fear for his daughter, confronts the boy and his red neck father and is shot dead by the father, enraged by Arturo's Spanish and dark skin.

The novel concludes with Alma returning to Mexico, with her daughter Maribel, and the body of her husband, Arturo, determined to bury it in Mexico.  We, the reader, empathize with all of the families, the characters, their struggles to gain a better life.  And they go against stereotype, as there are no gang bangers, no drugs, no violence, just people like us hoping for a better life for their children. It's a book that will open your mind to humanity, to the 'others'. as Henriquez puts it, the  'unknowns.'