The Book of Unknown Americans

Content Warning: The guide contains discussions of racism, rape, ableism (including the r-word), and sexual assault of a minor that are present in the source text.

In the first chapter, narrated from the perspective of Alma Rivera, we learn about her journey from Mexico to Delaware with her husband, Arturo, and her daughter Maribel. Alma describes the ways in which America surprises and disappoints her. She dreams of a house with white shutters and red bricks, with shrubs and flower boxes, but instead the family is confined to an apartment building with a littered yard and a chain link fence. Venturing out to find food for the first time is disorienting and even frightening due to language difficulties. There is vexing concern that the family is being targeted by teenagers eager to pick a fight, and food that doesn’t resemble food at home (American salsa is not Mexican salsa, Alma quickly learns).

Mayor Toro and his family, who are of Panamanian descent, live in the same apartment building and engage in some speculation about their new neighbors. They are authorized, Mayor and his family learn.