What are some key differences in the way that the women in the novel respond to challenges of assimilation compared to the men? Be sure to define assimilation as part of your answer.
Wiliam A.V. Clark, an expert on immigration, and immigrant response, defines assimilation as “a way of understanding the social dynamics of American society and that it is the process that occurs spontaneously and often unintended in the course of interaction between majority and minority groups" (Clark 13). It is, more generally, the way in which an individual begins to build a new, strictly American life, including building social connections with other Americans, and establishing a sense of belonging. Women and men appear to assimilate to their new environment, and local culture, differently through The Book of Unknown Americans.
The men in the text seem to assimilate, not by building real relationships, but by going to work .We are told that the job Autoro originally comes to American to do, picking mushrooms, in degrading, and well below the position and social station he held in Mexico (Henriquez 24) However, it is representative of the kind of work that Hispanic men are expected to do in America, and so he assimilates to his new life in America by fulfilling that role, and going to work at this mushroom farm, along with other Latin American immigrant men.
In contrast, women in the novel interact more socially, and build relationships within their community. Alma and Celia become friends, and it is clear that Alma is building connections within the local Hispanic community, and specifically within her building. However, becoming part of the American Hispanic community makes her an outsider, as it relates to her interactions with non-immigrants. Of these interactions she states that she is “simultaneously conspicuous and invisible, like an oddity whom everyone noticed but chose to ignore” (Henriquez 186). This demonstrates that assimilation is hard for both the men and the women in the novel, though they actually manage their assimilation differently.
2. Do you, the members of your family, or your friends have stories of moving to another country to start a new life? Did any of the stories in the novel resonate with the stories you know or have heard about?
I had a friend in high school who was only a second generation American citizen. Her grandparents were Jewish Germans and had come to America from Germany during the early days of WWII. They realized the fear when they were still free to leave the country, and had come to America in order to avoid persecution. It always seemed to weigh heavy on their minds, how close they came to destruction. Their extended family was forced into Jewish Ghettos, taken to concentration camps, and some died as a result of the Holocaust. However, their experience in America was very different than that of the immigrants that in the novel. They did not live with the stereotypes, discrimination, and fear that is imposed on immigrants especially Latin American Immigrants today.
I never heard her grandmother mention fear of deportation, rather she lived in thankfulness of the safety and security that her immigration afforded her. In contrast, however, the finalization of immigration, or security of the immigrants in their new lives always seems threatened, or at least tenuous, in The Book of Unknown Americans. This book demonstrated that if you are a Latin American immigrant, then you are probably suspected of being illegal. It was as if people in the text were just waiting for them to step out of line, or violate the terms of their visa, so that they could suspend their rights to be in America. I don’t think that European, or even Middle Eastern immigrants are subject to this level of scrutiny as it relates to their right to be in this country. Though they may still be subject to bigotry, or racial discrimination, there is not the assumption that they are in the country illegally, or should be sent away at first opportunity that there seems to be with the characters in the novel.
3. Do you feel differently about the immigration debate now raging in the United States after reading this book? Why or why not?
Coming into reading this novel I felt strongly that immigration must conform to a set of legal standards. I think that is key that individuals who seek to enter, and remain, in this country do so thorough proper legal channels. I think that those coming her from Mexico need to be legal immigrants, who are documented, and who are on the path to naturalization or other legal citizenship. Reading this novel did not change that for me. However, it did make me consider, in greater detail, what happens to those who enter the country legally and then, for whatever reason, lose their authorization to remain in the country. I think in these cases there needs to be a compassionate path for them to remain in this country, and to build, and rebuild the lives that they have created here, in spite of employment hardship or other devastating personal changes that can alter their legal right to remain in America. I did not realize that their status, as American residents was so fragile.
There was no law to compassionately allow Alma and Maribel to remain in the country after the death of Arturto. Further the neighbors in the apartment complex are described, from a variety of Latin American backgrounds, as living in fear of deportation. I cannot imagine living with this level of uncertainty, always being on the precipice of losing everything, including home, neighbors, employment, and more. As such, the reading did change my feelings about the immigration debate in that I now believe that there should be greater protection for immigrants to help those who are in the country legally to remain in the country, even when disaster strikes.
Works Cited
Clark, W. A. V. Immigrants and the American Dream: Remaking the Middle Class. New York: Guilford, 2003. Print.
Henriquez, Christina. The Book of Unknown Americans: A novel. Random House: New York, 2014. Print.
