44 pages • 1 hour read
Cristina HenríquezThe Book of Unknown Americans
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2014A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 10-15Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 10 Summary: “Alma”
Alma continues to try and adjust to life in America. She makes the best of their limited budget, and the family eats oatmeal for the first time, which is like the atole Alma enjoyed in childhood but not nearly as flavorful. At night, Alma often lies awake and replays the accident that resulted in Maribel’s brain injuries. She remembers the old, stubborn, high-spirited Maribel, who would not take no for an answer and who on one occasion even talked her parents into letting her climb a ladder to bring her father a bucket of clay, as he worked on the roof of their home in Mexico. On her way back down the ladder, Maribel lost her footing and fell. Alma blames herself, sure that she jerked the ladder and caused the fall.
Alma describes the time spent in the hospital after the fall—waiting for Maribel to open her eyes, waiting for the doctors to complete the surgery on her skull, the operation designed to relieve the swelling around her brain. Then came therapists and rehabilitation, the attempts for accommodations at school. At last, it was clear to Arturo and Alma that the only way to get Maribel what she needed was to come to the United States and get her into a special education school.
Chapter 11 Summary: “Mayor”
Mayor’s relationship with Maribel grows as the Toros and the Riveras become more intertwined. Maribel shows Mayor more of the notes she keeps about her day, and she tells him about the accident on the ladder. Rafael doesn’t entirely approve of his son’s fondness for Maribel, asking why he can’t talk to regular girls. Mayor protests and defends Maribel and himself, though he continues lying to his father and pretends like he hasn’t quit the school soccer team.
Chapter 12 Summary: “Quisaqueya Solis”
Quisaqueya describes her life after moving from Venezuela to the US at age 12. Though she does not want to leave Venezuela, her mother meets a wealthy man from California, and she and Quisaqueya move into his palatial Long Beach home. When Quisaqueya is 16, she is raped by this man’s teenage son, Scott. When Quisaqueya tells her mother, her mother calls her a liar. Quisaqueya says to her mother that she is moving out, and her mother doesn’t stop her. Quisaqueya lives for a time at a shelter and then with a friend. After getting her high school diploma, she hitches a ride with that same friend, who is headed east, to attend college in New Jersey. Quisaqueya gets a job waiting tables, where she meets a man who loves her but whom she is not able to trust after her persisting trauma from the rape. Nonetheless, they have two sons together. These two sons are the center of Quisaqueya’s life, and she believes them to be the only good men alive. Because of her alimony from a previous marriage with her sons’ father, Quisaqueya doesn’t have to work and instead volunteers at the hospital. She wants to help others and have friends but she will not tell others her story.
Chapter 13 Summary: “Alma”
One day while preparing dinner and trying to ignore the coldness of their apartment, Alma realizes that Maribel has wandered outside. When Alma goes to find her, she discovers Maribel pushed up against the brick wall of the apartment building, and the boy from the gas station standing over her, holding Maribel’s wrists in place. Maribel’s shirt is up and her bra exposed. Maribel’s eyes are squeezed closed and her head is turned. She cowers. Alma runs at the boy, who grabs her arm and digs his nails into Alma’s skin. Alma spits in his face and runs, dragging Maribel back into the apartment building.
Alma wants to tell Arturo what has happened but feels that she can’t. Again, she feels that she has failed to protect Maribel. She inspects Maribel’s body and decides she’s fine. Then Alma thinks back to a Christmas Eve dinner two years ago when Maribel insisted on preparing the food on her own. Alma remembers Maribel’s pride in her accomplishments that night and how filled with hope both she and Alma had been, envisioning a future for Maribel that included a family, lovingly prepared food, and a satisfying life.
Chapter 14 Summary: “Mayor”
At school, Garrett continues to harass Mayor, teasing him for dating a “retard girl.” Without thinking, Mayor punches Garrett in the face. He and Garrett are both taken to the principal’s office, where their parents are called.
At home, Mayor is grounded, though not for the reason he expects. While his mother is upset about the fighting, Rafael is mostly upset that Mayor has been lying to him about quitting the soccer team. Life becomes bleak for Mayor, as he is now not allowed out of the house to see Maribel or his friend, William. The only bright spot is his brother’s return home for the holidays. Enrique is newly rebellious since going off to college and encourages Mayor to rebel, too, and not wear a tie to church.
After mass, as the Toros are celebrating Christmas with coffee and desserts and a few simple gifts, the power goes out in the building. The Riveras come over, Celia lights candles, and everyone dons coats and scarves. Pretty soon, all the building residents are gathered inside the Toros’ home, toasting the holiday together, shivering but calling out “Presente!” as their home nation is called out.
While the adults drink and celebrate, Mayor and Maribel wander off into the hallway. There Mayor gives Maribel a present, an alpaca scarf. He kisses her and is surprised when she kisses him back. He cherishes a moment of telling a campy joke and making her laugh.
Chapters 15 Summary: “Fito”
This chapter tells the backstory of the building’s landlord, Fito. Fito travels to the US from Paraguay to be a boxer. He connects with a famed trainer, Sully Samuelson, and decides to go to DC, where Sully is training fighters. However, Fito is unable to attract Sully’s notice. When Fito learns that Sully has moved to Vermont, he intends to follow him but runs out of money. While working in construction, laying blacktop at the apartment building, Fito attracts the attention of the building owner, who confides in him that he is looking for a replacement. Fito says he isn’t interested and that he is following his boxing dream. The two men agree to settle the matter via arm wrestling. Fito loses and relents, taking the building manager job. Ten years later, Fito buys the building. Though it’s not what he expected to be doing, Fito is pleased with how far he has come in America.
Chapters 10-15 Analysis
This section highlights Mayor and Maribel’s coming-of-age stories. While Maribel may not seem like she is changing to her parents, it is clear in her interactions with Mayor that her communication skills and her memory are developing. When Mayor asks what happened to her, she struggles over some words but is able to tell him about the fall from the ladder. Her budding romantic interest in him signals that she is no longer a child. A similar change is taking place in Mayor, whose devotion to Maribel is absolute by now, with him even engaging in a fistfight to defend her.
Unlike Fito, whose account is folded into this part of the novel, Mayor is not a fighter by nature. This highlights the novel’s theme of The Dangers of Machismo. Mayor’s lack of athleticism is a recurrent point of contention between Mayor and his father, Rafael, who is more upset that Mayor lied about being on the soccer team than he is about Mayor getting in a fight with a peer. Rafael derides many of Mayor’s decisions, including his interest in Maribel, but Mayor gets some support in his independent thinking and rebellion from his older brother, Enrique, when Enrique comes home from college for winter break. The holidays offer a brief respite from conflict in the Toros’ house when they welcome in their neighbors on Christmas.
The most pivotal moment in this section of the book is Alma’s discovery of Maribel being sexually assaulted by Garrett, the white boy who torments and fights with Mayor at school. Alma’s reaction, after seeing to her daughter’s safety, is to try to bury the pain and shame—to try and convince herself that everything is fine. This highlights The Myriad Forms of Trauma described in the novel, with sexual assault being a recurring experience for the women. This in turn connects with Quisaqueya’s narrative, which recounts her being raped as a teenager and attempting to find safety and process the trauma on her own, as she establishes a new life for herself. Just as Alma feels alone because she is dismissed by Officer Mora, whom she turns to for help, Quisaqueya is also alone after her attack and is even called a liar by her mother.
Quisaqueya’s story foreshadows the response Alma gets in later chapters when she tries to report Garrett’s sexual assault to the police. Even though she talks to a Spanish-speaking officer, the environment is so foreign and intimidating that she has difficulty making herself understood. This highlights The Cultural Isolation of Immigrants in America, as even resources designed to help immigrants, such as employing Spanish-speaking staff, can be inadequate amid the unfamiliar and complex situations newly arrived immigrants must navigate.
