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 5-9Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 5 Summary: “Mayor”
After asking around about her, Mayor finally meets Maribel. He is in the store with his mother, Celia, buying underwear to replace some clothing of theirs that was recently stolen at the laundromat, when Alma and Celia become acquainted. As the two discuss places to buy decent Mexican groceries, Mayor eyes up Maribel, whom he finds attractive. When he learns that she is going to Evers School, the special education school, he decides that there is something wrong with her, something that might explain her unusual clothes and unkempt hair.
Chapter 6 Summary: “Benny Quinto”
An immigrant from Nicaragua, Benny recounts his experiences traveling to the US. Though he originally trained to become a priest, Benny stole money from the church collection basket to travel north. He was able to pay for his passage to Arizona, but once there, he was held in a de facto prison by the men who transported him. These men kept him locked in a house until he could get them additional money. Benny calls relatives asking for help but eventually turns to selling drugs like other men locked in the house with him. After being assaulted by a junkie, he decides to travel to Baltimore and then to Delaware to get away from his life of crime. Now working at Burger King, he feels he “took a couple nasty turns but ended up all right” (47).
Chapter 7 Summary: “Alma”
Alma waits to see progress with Maribel’s cognitive functioning, hoping against hope that her new school will provide an answer. Alma helps Maribel with her homework and attempts to keep her home as warm and loving as possible, though she doesn’t get the closeness from her husband that she longs for.
When alone in the apartment during the day, Alma watches television in Spanish and gradually becomes acquainted with the women in the building, who hail from all over Latin America. Celia in particular reveals herself to be a true friend when she encourages Alma to remain hopeful about Maribel’s future in America.
Alma explores the world beyond the apartment too, traveling to the laundromat where she hopes someone will smile at her and say hello, though no one does. Celia tells her about the Community House, and Alma decides to investigate and see what services they offer. There, she inadvertently ends up in an English class. She meets a grandmother from Chiapas and tries out a host of basic conversational phrases, mulling them over as she proceeds home. She realizes too late that she is on the wrong bus. Frantic to make it home in order to pick up Maribel at the bus stop, Alma calls the school but is unable to communicate with the English speaker who answers. She screams and sobs, running down the highway in the rain until another bus appears that is going her way. When she finally arrives home, she finds Maribel safe and sound beside Celia’s son, Mayor. Though Alma thinks she should probably be worried about Maribel being alone with a strange boy, she is too relieved that Maribel is okay to care.
Chapter 8 Summary: “Mayor”
The Riveras—Alma, Arturo, and Maribel—begin to forge a friendship with the Toros—Celia, Rafael and Mayor. They attend church together and spend time after mass bonding as well, sharing food and conversation at Celia’s home. Mayor is glad to have Maribel around more, and they begin to bond. She shows him the things she writes in her notebook. The journaling is supposed to improve her memory problems. Mayor is pleased when he can make her smile and laugh.
One day after school, Mayor is harassed by Garrett Miller, the same boy who previously frightened Alma. Mayor doesn’t know much about him but has heard rumors that his brother died in the Iraq War, that his mom had a breakdown, and that his dad has a drinking problem. After picking on Mayor, Garrett moves on to bullying Maribel. Mayor defends her, getting in a minor altercation, and after that begins to feel more protective of Maribel.
In this chapter, Mayor recounts his parents’ history in fuller detail. He talks about their political views, especially the high hopes they had when Barack Obama was elected. He recalls his mother’s words about how difficult it was for them to leave Panama and how they wanted to stay but couldn’t envision a safe future there. In America, they studied the Constitution and proudly became citizens. Mayor notes that his mother, Celia, always votes with pride, noting that she has done her duty as a citizen.
Mayor also tells of his parents’ thwarted attempts to travel back to Panama for a visit. They nearly traveled back home for his father’s high school reunion, but Rafael was enraged when an old classmate called him “gringo royalty.” Celia tried to talk Rafael into still attending but his mind was made up.
A year later, they almost went back to Panama again, to celebrate Celia’s birthday. This time the plans were derailed by September 11. Mayor describes how his family and their immigrant neighbors struggled to process the horror of the attacks. The illusion of safety in the US vanished and frightened them all. Rafael refuses to allow the family to travel by plane, so instead of going to see the beaches of Panama, he takes his family to nearby Cape Henlopen. Huddled together with the family, Celia marvels at the natural beauty of this country.
Chapter 9 Summary: “Gustavo Milhojas”
Gustavo recounts his childhood in Guatemala as one spent in fear of the military. He states, “I couldn’t take it anymore. When I was twenty, I decided to leave” (87). Though he tries to persuade his mother to accompany him out of Guatemala to safety, she refuses to leave, so he travels alone. Being half Mexican, he expects to be able to establish a new life for himself in Mexico, only to quickly discover that he is subject to ridicule and prejudice for being part Guatemalan. In time, though, he meets a woman, Isabel, with whom he falls in love and later has two children.
Gustavo describes Isabel’s battle with breast cancer and the lack of treatment available for her in their village. After she passes away, he travels to the US to earn money to send his teenage children to college. Both are now in college in Mexico, studying for careers made possible by Gustavo’s labors in America. Though his jobs are menial—sweeping floors in one movie theater by day and cleaning toilets in another at night—he feels grateful for the chance to work and provide for his children.
Chapters 5-9 Analysis
This section develops the plot lines for the main characters established in the first chapters and introduces some new key narrative voices. Alma is desperate to see some sign of progress in Maribel. Her days at home alone are long and lonely until she befriends Celia, who helps her navigate her new world. This highlights The Cultural Isolation of Immigrants in America. Getting out into the world poses its own challenges. Alma’s English class experience at the Community House is fulfilling, but her guilt is triggered when she gets on the wrong bus home and is late to meet Maribel. Her inability to make herself understood over the phone in English and her unsuccessful attempts to socialize at the laundromat show how difficult it is for new immigrants to become part of their communities.
Gustavo’s narrative in Chapter 9 provides another portrait of immigration, focusing on someone whose multiethnic background made their life difficult in Latin America. His experience shows that not all immigrants bring their entire families to the United States. He chooses to work menial jobs in the US in order to send his children to college in Mexico. This builds on the book’s description of the resources available in the countries from which the characters emigrate. For example, Mexico has prestigious universities but few resources for special education. These details emphasize the complexity of the factors that influence an individual’s choice to emigrate. Though Isabel’s village lacks adequate medical care, she and Gustavo do not attempt to immigrate to the US, as others might, to access better health care. For Isabel, staying in her home country is more important. Gustavo chooses to immigrate to the US after her death and lets his children stay in their home country so that he can support them from abroad.
The novel’s antagonist, Garrett Miller, is introduced in more detail in Chapter 8. Though Mayor only has second-hand knowledge about Garrett, his description of Garrett’s brother dying in the Iraq War, his mother’s emotional breakdown, and his father’s alcohol addiction reveal The Myriad Forms of Trauma that influence the characters’ lives. In Garrett’s case, he deals with his trauma by bullying those weaker than himself, a pattern that culminates in his raping Maribel. Garrett’s history of family trauma shows that inherited patterns of violence only continue if the root causes of the trauma are not addressed.
The relationship threads established in the first chapters develop in this section. In Chapter 5, Mayor and Maribel finally meet. Their bond is significant because they are both outsiders in their families and communities. Even though Mayor does not have a good first impression of Maribel due to her unkempt appearance and special education status, he quickly grows to see her as an engaging person with whom he has a lot in common. Mayor wins Alma’s trust too, which sets up an important dynamic in the story. When Alma sees Mayor keeping Maribel company as she waits in the rain for her mother, Alma begins to slowly trust him, deeming him fairly harmless. This foreshadows an event later in the novel, in which a meddling neighbor incorrectly accuses Mayor of assaulting Maribel, leading to Alma almost breaking off ties with the Toro family.
