THE BOOK OF UNKNOWN AMERICANS
Arturo and Alma Rivera have lived their whole
lives in Mexico. One day, their beautiful fifteenyear-
old daughter, Maribel, sustains a terrible
injury, one that casts doubt on whether she’ll ever be the same. And so,
leaving all they have behind, the Riveras come to America with a single
dream: that in this country of great opportunity and resources, Maribel
can get better.
When Mayor Toro, whose family is from Panama, sees Maribel in a Dollar
Tree store, it is love at first sight.
Arturo and Alma Rivera have lived their whole
lives in Mexico. One day, their beautiful fifteenyear-
old daughter, Maribel, sustains a terrible
injury, one that casts doubt on whether she’ll ever be the same. And so,
leaving all they have behind, the Riveras come to America with a single
dream: that in this country of great opportunity and resources, Maribel
can get better.
When Mayor Toro, whose family is from Panama, sees Maribel in a Dollar
Tree store, it is love at first sight. It’s also the beginning of a friendship
between the Rivera and Toro families, whose web of guilt and love and
responsibility is at this novel’s core.
Woven into their stories are the testimonials of men and women who have
come to the United States from all over Latin America. Their journeys and
their voices will inspire you, surprise you, and break your heart.
Suspenseful, wry and immediate, rich in spirit and humanity, The Book
of Unknown Americans is a work of rare force and originality that offers a
resonant new definition of what it means to be an American.
- Vintage
- Paperback
- March 2015
- 304 Pages
- 9780345806406
Buy the Book
$14.95
About Cristina Henríquez
Cristina Henríquez is the author of the story
collection Come Together, Fall Apart, which was a New York Times Editors’
Choice selection, and the novel The World in Half. Her work has appeared
in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The American Scholar, Glimmer Train, the Virginia Quarterly Review, Ploughshares, TriQuarterly, AGNI, and Oxford
American, as well as in various anthologies. She lives in Illinois.
Praise
“Vivid . . . . Striking. . . . A ringing paean to love in general: to the love
between man and wife, parent and child, outsider and newcomer, pilgrims
and promised land.”—The Washington Post
“Powerful. . . . Moving. . . . [Henríquez has] myriad gifts as a writer.”—The New York Times
Discussion Questions
How does Alma’s perspective in the novel’s first chapter
illustrate her and her family’s hopes for their new life in
America? Take another look at her statement after the
trip to the gas station: “The three of us started toward
the road, doubling back in the direction from which
we had come, heading toward home” (11). What are the meanings of
“home” here, and how does this scene show how America meets and
differs from the Riveras’ expectations of it?
Mayor describes how he’s bullied at school and his general feelings of
not fitting in. How do you think this draws him to Maribel? What do
they have in common that perhaps those around them, including their
parents, cannot see on the surface?
What are some key differences in the way that the women in the novel
respond to challenges of assimilation compared to the men? How does
Alma’s point of view highlight these differences?
What brings Alma and Celia together as neighbors and friends, and
how does their relationship change by the end of the book?
How does Alma’s lingering guilt about Maribel’s accident affect her
choices and interactions when she’s in America? Do you think that she
still feels this way by the end of the book? What does she have to do,
and realize within herself, to move beyond her feelings?
Discuss Quisqueya’s role in what happens to Mayor and Maribel.
Without her intervention, how might have their relationship, and
ultimately the novel, ended differently?
How does the Toros’ buying a car influence the course of events in the
novel? What does the car mean for Rafael and Mayor individually and
for their father-son relationship?
Do you, the members of your family, or your friends have stories of
moving to another country to start a new life? Did any of the stories in
the novel resonate with those you know?
How does the final chapter, told in Arturo’s voice, influence your
understanding of what he felt about America? What do you make of
how he ends his narrative, “I loved this country,” and that it is the last
line of the book (286)?