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Emily Pulmano
Professor Dwivedi
Lit Ideas: Immigrant Writing EH 213
26 September 2021
The Book of Unknown Americans: A Literary Analysis
If you are an American, you probably know someone who is an immigrant. After all, The
United States is known to be “the melting pot” of races, ethnicities, and multicultural
backgrounds. Cristina Henriquez, the author of the novel “The Book of Unknown Americans”,
carefully depicts the hardships of the common immigrant. Henriquez utilizes point of view,
symbolism, and metaphors to fully portray the struggles of American immigrants in the novel
“The Book of Unknown Americans”. This story beautifully uses these literary elements to tell
the lives of the Rivera and Toro families as well as their neighbors, who have all immigrated
from foreign countries.
The novel contains 28 chapters, many of which are from different points of views.
Henriquez employs a pattern throughout the book. Each chapter is narrated in order by Alma and
Mayor, followed by a third immigrant story. This immigrant is usually a friend or a neighbor
from the Redwood apartments, where the Toro and Rivera families reside. The author uses
multiple points of views to get a diverse story in the novel. Some are first generation immigrants,
some are second generation, others are mothers or fathers looking for a better life for their
children. Every immigrant is different and has different experiences, struggles, and thoughts.
This way the reader will have at least one character they can relate to in the book as well as open
their minds to the many different perspectives they may have not known before. “We left a lot of
things behind – not only physical objects, but our friends and of course our families, pieces of
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ourselves – all for the chance to see that light in Maribel’s eyes.” (Ch ). Here we have Alma’s
experience and thoughts on leaving her home country. She and Arturo took this huge step for
Maribel in hopes of seeing a change in her health and attitude. Their family had to start from a
blank slate in an unfamiliar area, which can be extremely nerve-wracking, but she believes it is
worth it to see her daughter get the proper tools she needs to improve. “We’re citizens, and if
someone asks me where my home is, I say los Estados Unidos. I say it proudly. Of course, we
still miss Panamá. Celia is desperate to go back and visit. But I worry what it would be like after
all this time. We thought it was unrecognizable when we left, but I have a feeling it would be
even more unrecognizable now.” (Ch 3). Here, Rafael touches on his own view as an immigrant.
Much like the Rivera family, he misses his home country, but would rather choose to call the
states “home”. A difference the families have is their reasons for coming to America. Rafael,
