The Book Of Unknown Americans And By Looking At The Author 's Name- Cristina Henriquez

In “Puerto Rican Obituary” by Pedro Pietri, the author takes his readers on a journey of the oppressive life of a Puerto Rican immigrant. He describes a vicious cycle of stagnancy in which immigrants work endlessly without reward. Hopeful every day that the American dream they once imagined would come to fruition, but instead they are continually faced with trials and turmoil on every hand. Instead of uniting as a body to work towards greatness, the immigrants grow envious of each other, focusing on what they lack instead of the blessings that they currently attain. Contrary to the ideals of early immigrants, Pietri portrays Puerto Rico to be the homeland. The ideals of early immigrants have drastically changed throughout the development of America. Petri paints a completely different picture of America throughout his poem. Early immigrants describe an America that is welcoming, with endless opportunities, and a safe haven. Despite earlier depictions of the immigrant experience, these ideals are challenged because they weren’t integrated into society, were inadequately rewarded for hard work, and were disadvantaged due to their socioeconomic status.

Family is the first thing anybody grows to know. You become familiarized with the traditions and the people of the unit. In the case of an ethnic family living and growing up in the United States, the unit should be a more joint and stronger community within, and set apart from the rest with its own uniqueness. There should also be a security and comfort entering the home. Yet through the book you begin to see a fissure opening more and more thus separating Richard from his family as he begin to venture out into the “gringo” community. Suddenly the comfort felt in the home diminishes and it becomes awkward. The unity you could sense seems to be no longer present and silence falls over. The community built in order to keep the gringos out is no longer there. In the case of Richard this begins with the start of the path of his education.

In “Antojos”, Alvarez shows a strong sense of characterization to portray real life experiences. For instance, “‘What exactly does it mean, antojo?’ Yolanda asked. Her aunts were proven right: After so many years away, their niece was losing her Spanish” (259). In this short story, the main character, Yolanda, doesn’t feel that she fits into the place she grew up in. Her aunts see that she is losing her native tongue. This shows that Yolanda is distanced from her heritage, and has a sense of lost identity. Her experience of feeling set apart from her native life incorporates the emotions of illegal immigrants that have had to adapt to a different life setting. Alvarez herself writes, “This was what she had been missing without really knowing that she was missing it all these years. She had never felt at home in the States, never…” (262). Yolanda misses her homeland where she was surrounded by her culture, and her native language. She feels like she has lost that part of her identity -where she originated from. This incorporates the emotions of how all illegal immigrants must feel. There is a sense of relation between the experiences of the strong character, Yolanda, and illegal immigrants who have felt a similar

Mikayla has been bullied since she was young. She got punched by a second grader at her first day of kindergarten. Her school life became worse and worse, and she was called “Big Fat Loser” because she was fatter than other students. It was difficult for her to accept the abuses, and she attempted to hurt herself. Bullying is someone uses threats, coercion or force to maltreat or humiliate others. The harmful effect of bullying is it can destroy a person’s life, or even make a person die. In the book, “The Book of Unknown Americans” we see that how Garrett abused Mayor and Maribel and the different views and ways of dealing with the problem of bullying by their parents, and I think the way their parents used to solve the problem is not effective.

Julia Alvarez is the narrator and author of this book, in which it describes her and her families life adjusting their immigrant ways to their new life in the United States. Alvarez has grown up with her Dominican culture but throughout the book she tries her very best to fit into

Immigration has been a very disputable topic in America. Newcomers to America undergo many struggles during their time trying to get a better life from which they came. The author Cristina Henriquez is that of Latino immigrants, she published the book in 2013 around the time when Immigration started becoming more controversial. Henriquez wrote the book as a way to show the point of view of immigrants escaping corrupted homelands or in search of better lives but sometimes at certain costs. An article on the Book of Unknown Americans editorial eyes says “Book of Unknown Americans plays against the idea of America as the promised land for people running from social or political upheaval, or people running toward a shining dream of success in a

She discusses how her culture uses their language against each other, especially the Latinas and Chicanas, they will speak English to each other to keep it neutral. She gives the reader very vivid memories from her childhood and how being raised poor affects her identity as a person. She discusses how Mexicans identify themselves; since there are many different ways to identify culture, they make up several different cultures (Indian, Black, and Mexican). By the end she talks about the fight that Mexicans put up to stand up for their culture and their identity.

During the 1930s, the Mexican Americans had a tragic on The Great Depression. Back then the Hispanics were also called Chicano because that name is another short version of saying Mexicano. Thousands of people had ran away from Mexico and if they go to the United States, they are considered as a United States citizens so they are marked as white on the United States all the way till the 1930s by law. In that time a lot of Mexican Americans had move to the United States “Mexicans and Mexican Americans make up one of the largest and most rapidly growing minority in the United States.” (Gelletly,4-15-16 Book). This also makes the Mexican and Mexican Americans the second largest minority group in the United States. In the United States the government is in charge and counting on how many people living in the United States, so about 20million Mexican and Mexican Americans are living there. The Great Depression had led all of the people’s life to a bad and poor condition liken living, food, money, jobs, and etc. Especially if they have children(s), it makes it a lot harder for them to work and they got to work extra hard for not only themselves, but also for their family too. One of the important thing why Mexican Americans moved, they all just one to have a good and better life besides them struggling for their life “…Many Mexican choose to

In The Book of Unknown Americans the Author, Cristina Henriquez, gives us a real life insight on a family’s story about coming to America and adjusting to the American way of life. Henriquez put the words “It’s not paradise, but at least here I can be at peace” (Henriquez 47) in the mouth of Benny Quinto, an immigrant from Nicaragua. Benny, like many others in the story, came to America to find an “escape” from their native countries. America is sought after by many immigrants for better living conditions, a better life for their families, and like we see in this book, medical treatment. America is seen by immigrants as a place of freedom, promises and opportunities but, that isn’t necessarily true.

The Riveras struggle with both emotional and financial difficulties after immigrating to America. When the Riveras arrive to America they are faced with many financial difficulties. When Alma first arrives to Redwood Apartments she realizes that it is nothing like how she expected American housing to be. She says “ I had expected it to be nicer. Something with white shutters and red bricks with manicured shrubs and flower boxes in the windows. The way American houses looked in movies.” (Henrique 12) Even though the Riveras housing was not as they had hoped for it was the best they were able to do because of Arturos low pay at his new job in a mushroom factory which is keeping the Riveras visas active. Arturo undergoes harsh conditions working

The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henríquez is told from multiple first person points of view. The speaker is a revolving cast of native Latinos who have come to the United States, and live in the same apartment building. The speakers, or the characters, tell their stories. As the book progresses, it becomes apparent that every speaker has experienced many hardships. The speaker is ambitious, someone who had dreamt of America as their means to make a fortune, become famous, or provide a better life for their family. They each have made sacrifices, and have often encountered long and dangerous journeys in order to reach America. Guatemalan Gustavo Milhojas arrived in the United States to earn more money for his children. In order to

In the novel, The Book of Unknown Americans, Chirstina Heriauvez uses the characterization of Alma to depict an immigrant's´ journey in America to unravel the truth about the dark side of assimilating. The novels demonstrates that immigrants´ are filled with hope at the prospect of starting someplace new which often blinds them to believing that their new place will be better than their current situation. It can easily be impacted by racism, intolerance and the mistreatment of others.

To begin, Esmerelda Santiago and her family immigrated into the United States from Puerto Rico. Immigration means, the movement of persons into a non-native country. At this point in time the family only consisted of Esmerelda, her seven younger siblings, Mami, Tata, Tío Chico, and Don Julio. After moving around from apartment to apartment, they finally settled down in Brooklyn, New York. Esmerelda explains that they came to Brooklyn, “in search of medical care for my youngest brother, Raymond, whose toes were nearly severed by a bike chain” (Santiago 1998: 3). Mami hoped for better medical attention for her child than she would have received in Macún, Puerto Rico. Esmerelda also describes the apartment they currently lived in on McKibbin Street, in New York as, “more substantial that any of our houses in Puerto Rico” (Santiago 1998: 6). This shows her level of living back in Puerto Rico was a worse living

In attempts to solidify a sole American entity, there are various cultural and legal boundaries that individuals face on an everyday basis, particularly post-colonial immigrants. In Junot Diaz’ The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Oscar de Leon’s disconnection from the society around him is continuously portrayed. Born and raised in New Jersey to Dominican parents, Oscar De Leon’s experience is an example of how cultural borders play a role in everyday life. Oscar struggles to reconcile into the American culture, and also fails at blending into the Dominican culture he inherited from his immediate family. Oscar instills a sense

All the stories in the book had a specific theme that somehow identifies the Latino culture. The most known theme is “mi casa es su casa”. This saying is important in the Latino culture because it shows our friendliness and our caring for one another. Mi casa su casa means that we give a shelter to our families or friends who are in need. Especially, to our family members who are traveling from different states or countries. We provide them with shelter while they look for a job a job and are able to get a home of their own. Another reason for that is