The Book Of Unknown Americans By Aristina Marquez

In Cristina Henríquez’s novel The Book of Unknown Americans she presents her readers with a striking and dramatic tale of her definition of what it means to be an American with a certain community, and this community who just so happen to be composed of Latino immigrants in the United States. Through the trials and tribulation that is day to day life for these people with the added constraint of discrimination the group continues to prevail as a positive community. With this and a mostly pathos or emotional approach, Henríquez establishes an effective argument on the reality of who these “unknown” Americans truly are and not just the negative view that many Americans may gauge the group: such as criminals or intellectually inferior. With the utilization of the

rhetorical devices of: audience, point of view, and diction, her argument shines as valid.
The first topic I will approach for the sake of Henríquez argument is that of the community presented. Transparently, in our modern times some Americans reserve bias toward the Latino immigrants that come into America as observed by Micho Alvarez, “They hear ‘Mexico,’ and they think: bad, devil, I don’t know.” (Henríquez, 236). The account by the character of Alvarez is not without credentials, he has personally felt this type of discrimination is some sort of way. This form of diction utilized by Henríquez is audience. It communicates the arrogance of the established peoples of America. It takes a personal attack on Americans’ preconceived opinions they may harbor against these immigrants. These opinions held by the character has also faced this discrimination in his lifetime, if in silence it tends to speak volumes on the psyche of the afflicted. Alvarez also udders in some confusion to the whole ordeal, implying that it is crazy and illogical. And I believe it is this illogical view that Henríquez tries to capitalize upon with her audience. As I will present next, proof against the established stereotypes of Mexican and other Latino immigrants are easily found in the work.
A prime example of going against the “evil” stigma that some Americans may hold to the minority group of the Latino immigrants can be found with Celia and the whole of the community in Delaware. Facing the difficulties of deciding to bury her husband away from his home in Mexico, Alma is presented a gift from her neighbor Celia and her community, utilizing the rhetorical device of diction, “’We took up a collection;’ she said ’Everyone chipped in.’” (Henríquez, 277). This by no means should completely illuminate to the audience that the Latino population is prefect, they do have flaws and some indeed fall into the categories listed by Alvera previously, but it seems most do not. This act is what I would consider the definition of a good community to Henríquez and it is an effective one. When a beloved fell in the community and his family cannot provide a proper departure, the community acts as a unit for what they see as their responsibility to preserve the memory of Arturo Rivera. A notable characteristic about this act of the community, the Rivera family spent less than a year in the community and they stilled received over five-thousand dollars to fly a corpse to Mexico. It demonstrates again that these people are unsurprising capable of having values that are positive, like of honor rather than evil. This group, after all is a positive community.
Keeping with the theme of altruism we can peek into the mind of the hardworking, callas at times, but caring father that is Rafael Toro. When recalling his times of his younger years in Panama, Henríquez utilizes the point of view of Rafael that reveals his altruism. “Celia. She didn’t care I couldn’t give her lots of things. But I cared.” (Henríquez, 21). The goals of Rafael are those of a noble cause, providing a better life for his wife and his children, it is difficult to extrapolate an argument that this is a negative for the Toro family to move to America; when their goal to make a better life for the family. It is this honorable cause, again, that the author communicates with the audience that the Latino Americans, that some Americans shun, have desires that are not volatile to the American people. Rafael, I believe strikes the hardest with the demographics of parents, at least the good ones. The American society and human natures mandate that a parent should try their best to provide the best they can for their family, and the pursuit of Rafael’s goal to make his wife’s life better (and later by extension his sons) is a commonality that appeals to many Americans. Henríquez manipulation of the audience's sense of honor does not end with the idea of family it even branches off to the armed services.
Henríquez effectually uses the character of Jose Mercado to display the community in a sense of patriotism and heroism.

With the uses of point of view, the elder wounded veteran states the following on why he chooses to go into the armed forces, “I enlisted in the navy, I always wanted to do something heroic” (Henríquez, 217). There is a romanticism that is held by many Americans with the American people and our armed forces, especially with veterans, e.g. veteran’s hospitals and the holiday Veterans Day. Henríquez utilizes the view of a former veteran to tap into the gold mine that is the sympathy for these people. To added to theses sympathies the war caused Mercado to become crippled. This man sacrificed his own freedoms of time and of health, for his country. This is the type of altruism that radiates the idea of a strong American hero, who so happens to be Latino and integrated in the community found in Delaware. It is again a second guesting of the audience initial view the point of view of Mercado provides like we have seen with Celia and Rafael. Henríquez argues more than just the idea of the positive Latino community in America, the idea of self-blame is also articulated in her

argument.
When focusing on the action of the community in Delaware there is a considerable magnitude of fodder to elaborate on with the idea of the good American community, but intellectual and emotional support is also explored. After battling self-blame, herself for the incidents of Maribel and Arturo, Alma exhibits character growth when Celia tries to blame the same logic of Alma onto her son and herself, in the following diction, “‘No. Stop. Please.’ because it was true that Mayor had taken Maribel away, he hadn’t done this.” (Henríquez, 268). Alma has come to terms that she can never change what happened in the past, rather than continually blaming herself, she teaches the audience this valuable lesson of moving on from the past to move forward in life. It is a lesson to the audience that can be universally accepted, as is provides a potential of the sense of disassociation of an issue not being someone's complete vault, that people so often try to take credit for. I believe this advice is not as simple as to relinquish the blame though, but rather push the readers to pursue actions that will better avoid catastrophic events; while also, promoting risk in a way. In the incidents of both Author and Maribel risk was involved, but so was coming to America in the first place. The risk the Rivera family took was both damaging with the loss of Arturo, and awarding with Maribel seems to regain herself in the end. It communicates the message that nothing may ever be done without risk, be it good or bad.
The argument that Henríquez makes throughout her work is effective play on emotions. Appealing to core values held by many Americans, she shows that these Latino immigrants are not much different from the presumed audience of the established non-Latino Americans. She diffuses arguments of the stereotypes that plague the community: that Latino are not worth the time of American and may cause a burden, but rather; they are more alike than different. Collectively, the community presented is caring – both in the sense of a pack and the sense of the individuals. The character studies, from Rafael and his love of his family and Alma’s acceptance, provide the author with emotional tools that evoke these sympathies that Henríquez strives for. At the end of the day the only thing different from these Americans are their origins, but not matter the origin humans are capable of both good and bad, and stereotypes and preconceived notions should not blind us from this.