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.
Symbols & Motifs
Food
Food is a motif that showcases The Cultural Isolation of Immigrants in America and the ways this interacts with alienation and prejudice. At the start of the novel, Alma relies on home-cooked meals to feel less unmoored. When she is home alone for the day, she makes herself familiar, comforting meals: “pork and beans or chicken basted in onions and orange juice” (53). Authentic food allows the characters to feel tied to home, but it is also hard to come by in the US. As Rafael notes in frustration, “It’s like how everyone thinks I like tacos. We don’t even eat tacos in Panama” (137). Similarly, Alma is taken aback by the food that passes for Mexican in America: “Is this what they think we eat?” (8), Alma asks Arturo, when she discovers, and is promptly baffled by, American salsa. At the same time, sharing meals with neighbors brings happiness, drawing the community of immigrants closer together.
Food also suggests the economic struggles many immigrants to the US experience. When the family grows poorer, it forces them to make do with whatever foodstuff they can afford. For the first-generation children, however, food is generally less nuanced and complex, as shown when Mayor responds to his father’s taco statement with jokes and laughing. For Mayor and Maribel, real bonding happens over McDonald’s fries—a quintessentially American food that shows their assimilation into their new home.
Work
Most of the adult male characters in the book perform very menial labor with little job security. While Arturo is at first demoralized to be picking mushrooms in the US after running a business in Mexico, later he is desperate to get any job in order to keep his visa. When the diner where Rafael serves as fry cook suddenly goes under, his employer does not give him any notice or support, despite his having worked there for 15 years. Gustavo, an interspersed voice in the book, works at two different movie theaters, cleaning floors and toilets. Benny, another narrator, works at Burger King. Though the work is often exhausting and humiliating, the characters take pride in the fact that they are supporting their families and holding a job stateside. As a motif, work therefore highlights both the systemic obstacles that immigrants to the US face and The Dangers of Machismo, as merely having a job is a source of pride for male characters.
Snow, Ice, and Cold Weather
Delaware’s cold weather is jarring to many of the novel’s characters, as the Latin and South American countries they have left tend to have warmer climates. Alma, for instance, is appreciative when Celia directs her to the Community Center, where she can locate the coats and supplies the family will need for the winter. After a while, however, the cold brings the families together. The Toros and Riveras decide to make the most of a sudden ice storm and try out ice skating. When the power goes out on Christmas day, all the neighbors pack into the Toros apartment to share body heat and the holiday. The unexpected sight of snowfall toward the end of the novel is what prompts Mayor to cut class and go meet up with Maribel. The cold, in this scene and others, allows the characters to come together and share warmth, both physically and emotionally.
