The Book Of Unknown Americans: What Makes Us Human?

A dream can push people into the upper level, but dreams do not always come true. The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henríquez is about immigrants who move to America. This is a book of the story collection; also, it combines different emotions, especially love and guilt. Alma loves her daughter, Maribel, more than anything else like every parent does, so Maribel is the only reason they are in America. Alma does as much as she can to Maribel. Although Alma is a newcomer to America, she becomes stronger because of her daughter.

Cristina Henriquez’, The Book of Unknown Americans, folows the story of a family of immigants adjusting to their new life in the United States of America. The Rivera family finds themselves living within a comunity of other immigrants from all over South America also hoping to find a better life in a new country. This book explores the hardships and injustices each character faces while in their home country as well as withina foreign one, the United States. Themes of community, identity, globalization, and migration are prevalent throughout the book, but one that stood out most was belonging. In each chacters viewpoint, Henriquez explores their feelings of the yearning they have to belong in a community so different than the one that they are used to.

I started this essay off with a quote one of the characters mention in the book because it basically gives us the main idea the author is trying to get readers to understand throughout the book. By looking at the title of this novel, “The Book of Unknown Americans” and by looking at the author’s name- Cristina Henriquez, we can already get an idea of what this novel is going to be about. When someone first takes a look at the title and author of this book they would assume that it is going to be about immigrants who moved to the United States and struggled to fit in. After reading this novel, I now understand how difficult it was for these Latino immigrants to leave everything they have in hope for better lives here in the United States. Each person has their own meaning of what it means to be an American and their own reason of what most immigrants come here for. The Rivera family came here in hope for better resources to help treat Maribel because they didn 't have the resources they needed back in their country.

What it means to be human? To me what it means to be human was walking, talking, breathing air, being the superior mammal. Now that has changed into a much deeper thinking of what makes us human. Our bodies have

May immigrants sacrifice who they are, what have and their cultural beliefs and identity when immigrating to a new country. These experiences and struggles are clearly echoed in Cristina Henriquez’ novel, The Book of Unknown Americans. These immigrants leave behind their roots and their cultural awareness behind in order to reach a land that promises freedom and financial growth. I just wonder if the sacrifice is worth the struggles and emotional losses immigrants encounter during this journey. The story of Maribel Rivera keens closely to me because it resembles my journey as well as the journey of others who bring or send their families to the United States.

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

Therefore, today I ask you to be more than empathetic, I ask you to consider the question of what separates us from each other?

Last week the author, Cristina Henriquez, of The Book of Unknown Americans came to talk to the freshmen class here at Stony Brook. I was expecting an arrogant author to come up on stage and pat herself on the back because her book was so wonderful. But, Cristina went up on stage and expressed herself and told her life story instead. She explained her family life and how she came to where she currently is. When se started to talk about her father she eluded to the fact that he loves America. Cristina told us how much he struggled when he came here and how his life was hard, but she also explained that it all seemed worth it in the end because the family ended up successful. The last four words of her book were “I loved this country”.

Due to the many factors that we see in other mammals we don’t know why we classify ourselves as “human”. We basically have the same DNA as chimpanzees (that’s why we conduct experiments on them). Scientists just can figure out what really makes us different from everything else in the world. Paleontologists have found skeletons that resemble humans but are really linked to apes or other primates. For example we have the same tooth pattern but our jawbones are different. We have the same attributes to gorillas such as we have somewhere where we stay and also families. Our DNA and chimp DNA have been compared together and the match it gave was 95%. Although our form of communication of speech is better and improved other things in the animal kingdom also have their way of communicating an example of this is a wolf calling out or a whale calling a mate. We have our distinct feature such as we are hairless and we also stand up straight unlike our cousins the apes. We also dress unlike the other animals that are naked. And our brains are more advanced and bigger much larger than the ones in the animal kingdom. We also use many different things such as fire and tools unlike apes. Many believe this is why we are so much different from the other entire mammals that

There are various attributes we as humans have, such as the way we treat others, verbalize the way we feel, or the way we react to different predicaments in our lives that correspond to our personalities. We can see we act one way or another based on how we were raised, or however the outcome of the person we strive to be is. But why is this, and what causes us to act the way we do? The main question that should be asked is, what makes a human, human?

What makes us human? Is it our intelligence? Is it our pride? Plato described humans as "two-legged creatures without feathers". Well, it isn't much, but at the same time, it does narrow down humans from living things, a lot. Humans are perceivable dominant creatures, but I don't think it's their intelligence that explains it. Animals are intelligent on their own, it's just that over the years we grew the upper hand. It's not our emotion, animals have emotion. It's definitely not because we don't have feathers. It's a mystery as of now, and you may have your own opinion on what's right or wrong, but let's face it. We'll continue this argument years from now.

Have you ever heard of the twenty-three-chromosome, humanoid, tier three, outersteller organic species called the Anlich-Rase. Similar to Homo-Sapiens, they have one head, two arms, and two legs. Their condition is that of Earth some time ago. They have developed numerous adaptations similar to that of humans. They wear cloth but work with tools of iron and steel. To the naked eye they are human. If this is true then what really defines a human. The difference comes based off culture and morals. When someone thinks of an individual human, or even that of their entire species what comes to mind? The history? The anatomy? The morals, the values, government? Rather than limiting the definition of “human” to mere words, how about taking a step

Since the beginning of time,man has questioned themself of what makes them different from others that walk the Earth. Today we walk with pride to be human,we rightfully put ourself at the top of the food web,and we say we know what it means to be human,but what does it really mean? To be a human we must express emotions,show bravery, and have human intellect.

So, is there anything that can set us apart from animals? The first and most obvious concern raised when questioning the separation of man from animals is our common ancestry. In terms of evolution, all animals, and humans descended from one single ancestor. This would seem to imply that animals and we are related, at least by out ancestry, meaning that we would share many of our characteristics with them, meaning that there could not be an essential nature of man, because, we are animals.

What sets the human race apart from other species on Earth? The answer can be summed up in three words; cognition, language, and creativity. We have the ability to think and create. The human race communicates in a unique way.