All of Henríquez’s characters are chasing something to the United States-and few of them ever really find it. Others in the apartment building departed their home countries in search of fortune and fame. Rafael and Celia Toro left Panamá with their small children, Enrique and Mayor, to escape the horrors of war. As Henríquez’s characters reckon with realizing that they are-and perhaps always will be-the “unknown” Americans, they struggle to accept that the reality of American opportunity is different from the myth of being recognized and embraced-the reality of the American dream is struggle, uncertainty, and unknowability.Īrturo and Alma Rivera come from México in an attempt to heal their brain-injured daughter, Maribel. However, as Henríquez’s characters-almost all immigrants from South and Central America, who occupy the same bustling apartment complex-make their new lives in the United States, they each find that the myth of the American dream does not offer quite what they thought it would. The pursuit of the American dream offers, in theory, the chance not just to be safe and sheltered in the United States, but also to be seen, known, and accepted. The American Dream-the idea that in America everyone, regardless of race, creed, or class, can enjoy prosperity, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness-is a driving force in the lives of the characters in Cristina Henríquez’s The Book of Unknown Americans.
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