Written by the S.U.R.E. Diversity book club organizer and curator, Rachel Shiryayeva
“Back then, all we wanted was the simplest things: to eat good food, to sleep at
night, to smile, to laugh, to be well.” - excerpt from The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henriquez
It was a beautiful, mild, late afternoon when nine of us convened for the first
ever S.U.R.E. Diversity Book Club at the Swampscott Public Library. The date was
September 16, 2024. The time was 5p.m.
After getting seated and waiting a few minutes for latecomers, we introduced
ourselves and found where we shared something in common: some had gone to the
same churches, others the same universities, and most of us originated from outside
of Massachusetts.
I asked that we also share favorite reads, starting from as far back as
childhood. Answers included Isaac Asimov’s science fiction, Beatrix Potter’s Peter
Rabbit, A.A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh, J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, the
works of Stephen King, murder mysteries, and there were others I’m afraid I have
forgotten!
My plan for the meeting was that we would take turns sharing something that
had impressed us about the book, but this turned out to be unnecessary. After the
first person shared her thoughts, others contributed ideas in spontaneous
conversation, and the talk brought us to the end of the hour.
Henriquez’s book is about Hispanic immigrants and their experiences trying to
build a life for themselves in this country–the main families featured are Mexican and
Panamanian–, so we inevitably talked about what it means to be an immigrant. For
me, a memorable moment was when the discussion turned to questions of
assimilation. Should an immigrant learn the majority language of the new country?
Is learning English the only way new immigrants can empower themselves and
hopefully, in time, thrive here? Also, how much of themselves do immigrants give up
when they leave their native countries and cultures behind? What toll does this take
on a person, and is this dependent on factors such as age and temperament, or are
all immigrants inevitably profoundly affected by a permanent move?
We also spoke about how the book was structured. One of us liked the way
each of the chapters had a different narrator. The multiple first-person narratives
allowed us an intimate look at the lives of tenants in one building, so frequently their
paths crossed and their stories intersected.
All in all, people expressed appreciation for the book, and I like to think there
was a warm feeling as we took leave of one another: there was that sense of
accomplishment that comes with meaningful conversation, the chance to listen and
the chance to be heard.
In closing, I’d like to offer some additional titles by Hispanic authors, on the
immigrant experience. These titles feature protagonists from Mexico, the Dominican
Republic, and Puerto Rico. The first and the last titles are memoirs, and the middle
title is a novel.
Recommended works:
The Distance Between Us by Reyna Grande (memoir–Mexican immigrant story)
Dominicana by Angie Cruz (novel by Dominican author –about the immigrant
experience of a young girl moving from a rural part of the Dominican Republic to
New York City, to a marriage of convenience)
When I Was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago (The first of a series of three
acclaimed memoirs. This details the author’s childhood in Puerto Rico and her move
with her large family to New York City.)
If you enjoyed the structure of The Book of Unknown Americans, with its offering of a
different narrator for each chapter (with the main characters’ stories being dispersed
over multiple chapters), consider reading the following novel, in preparation for
November’s Native American Heritage Month:
There, There by Tommy Orange (work of fiction featuring multiple contemporary,
urban Native American narrators whose lives often intersect, with a climactic incident
at a powwow).
Finally, as Henriquez does in fact touch briefly on the question of U.S. interference in
Latin America in a few places in her novel, I wanted to inform myself on that issue
as well as on the effects this interference has had (and continues to have) on
immigration today. Here are a few links that might serve as an introduction to the
topic: uhttps://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/central-americas-turbulent-northern-triangle
(Within this article, there is another especially relevant source from Vice Online:)
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