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Born: September 19, 1915, Mexico City, Mexico
Died: June 29, 1973, Mexico City, Mexico
He was an actor, comedian, and a singer. Also, he voiced some of the Disney characters like Cat O'Malley from the Aristocats, and Baloo from The Jungle Book.

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Born: Match 2, 1917, Santiago de Cuba, Cuba
Died: December 2, 1986, Del Mar, CA
He was a Cuban-American actor, musician, comedian, and a film and tv producer. He was best known for the show I Love Lucy, and he had married Lucille Ball.

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Born: December 11, 1931, Humacao, Puerto Rico
She was a Puerto Rican-born American dancer, actress, and singer. She had won four of the major North American entertainment awards which is rare. There are only 16 EGOT winners. EGOT stands for Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and a Tony awards.

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Some themes i have noticed throughout the story is The American Dream, Isolation, and The Unknown.

Isolation:
The reason why I believe isolation is one of the many themes in this book, is because majority of the characters struggled with this. Wether it is physically or being away from their family back home where they are originally from. Like the only Spanish community in Delaware was everybody at the apartments. Imagine going somewhere completely new to you alone or with your family and leaving everything you know behind you to make a better life for yourself or to follow a dream. I think that focusing on the Rivera family specifically isolation is shown many times with them especially because they just came to America. Like with Alma, she is isolation in an emotional way because throughout the story she tries to forgive herself for what happened to her daughter Maribel and she just feels guilty about it all the time even though she wasn't responsible for it, she kept it to herself.

The American Dream:
The issues and struggles described in this book are still happening today. I think it's just a matter of how the media portrays it or if you are experiencing or witnessing it. With the American Dream, the way the author wrote this book each character talks about why they came to America and it was to follow their own dreams or to live somewhere better because where they were from was not as nice or stuff was going on. I feel like each character had their own different perspectives on how America worked as if some were still learning. It's not easy to achieve the American dream or why are they allowed to do this and not this because of their race limiting them. So it was interesting to see different views
Well, looking through the race lens immigrants are treated differently and not equal because of their race and what the media says about them. In the book some immigrants came here knowing how they would get treated but some like Alma didn't fully understand that or want to. Their rights were limited and Americans didn't care about them or had a bad view of them because of the media but they really didn't know them at all so they were judged. Alma came to America to get help for her daughter (Maribel) after the brain injury and they got help, but because of society, and the things that happened like Arutro (Alma’s husband) getting shot and killed when he was looking for their daughter when he didn't do anything wrong, or Maribel getting assaulted by a boy, these things really conflict the American ideals in opportunity, rights, equality, and freedom etc.

Unknown:
This kind of plays into The American Dream because The American Dream is greatly conflicted in this story and the authors purpose of writing this book was to make people know about the Unknown Americans and their struggles that the media does not show. For example, Micho Alvarez, a character from the book said, “These people are listening to the media, and the media, let me tell you, has some fucked up ideas about us. … we’re all gangbangers, we’re all drug dealers,... we want to destroy America...lazy...stupid...crossed the boarder illegaly.” Another thing he said, is “ I want the benefit of the the doubt....I want them to see a guy who has just as much right to be here as they do, or a guy who works hard, or a guy who loves his family, or a guy who’s just trying to do the right things.” Nelia Zafon another character from the book talked about her perspective as well, “Thats how it works. Americans can handle one person from anywhere….Desi Arnaz from Cuba...Tin Tan from Mexico...Rita Moreno from Puerto Rico. But as soon as there are too many of us, they throw up their hands.”

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A few symbols I noticed in this story was the ladder, and Rafael's car, because of the way they had an affect.

Ladder:
The ladder is how Maribel got her brain injury, because she fell off of it in Mexico. The whole reason Maribel and her family came to America was to get her the best help in treating her brain injury. The ladder is mentioned many times in the story especially when Alma explains what happened to Maribel. But also with Alma because  she feels responsible of letting Maribel on that ladder and she got hurt, she carried around guilt hoping that moving to America she could forgive herself. When they are on their way back to Mexico in the end Alma asks Maribel if she's okay and she said yes and Alma said that thats what she had been needing to hear. I think at that specific moment was when Alma fully forgave herself for what had happened.

Rafael's car:
When Rafael got the money he got from Celia's sister he immediately bought a car because it is part of The American Dream. Mayor and Maribel are both marginalized in the story and being in the car was a restriction for them. One day Mayor takes his fathers car without permission and he doesn't have his license, and he drove with Maribel and they had fun together. The car is a way of symbolizing their freedom and having opportunity to go do stuff even though it was forbidden for them to be in the car together in the first place.

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I looked through the race lens for this book because I believe that it was very prominent compared to the other lenses. But, for overall some of the characters had revealed a little bit of all the lenses. For example Celia Toro explained to Alma about the neighborhoods how where they both live in the apartments is where the Spanish community is. As well as where the richer and poorer area are and how the different races live separate from one another. An analysis through the race lens for this one part of the book is where Rafa is talking about how the color of your skin or race affects the way the cops treat you "If you're black or brown they automatically think you've done something wrong". His wife Celia tries to argue that because they have been citizens for 15 years that's it's ridiculous.  Another example is how Mayor's friend William always made racist jokes towards him like calling him names and etc. Even in our world today we still see some of these things happening.

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Throughout this story, the author really shows her craft through dialogue. For example "Why cant you talk to normal girls? "...But we all knew what he meant:why couldn't I talk to a girl that wasn't brain-damaged.? I see the tone here as judgmental and disparaging because Mayor's father does not approve of him talking to Maribel because of her brain injury. Another example is when Quisqueya Solis describes how she came to America with her mother. Her mother married a rich guy and he had a son that raped Quisqueya , but when she tried to tell her mom she wouldn't believe her. "Later, I told my mom what he had done to me, but she didn't believe it. She accused me of trying to ruin things for her...she warned me not to be ungrateful". The authors tone helps me as a reader  to try to imagine or feel what these characters are going through to get a better understanding

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Throughout the book, I focused on two characters being marginalized. Maribel and Mayor. They are both around the same age and both in high school. Both of their families came to Delaware but Mayor's family had been there a lot longer. The reason Maribel had come to America was to get help for her brain injury she got back in Mexico in an accident. So, she ended up going to a special school for help with that and for learning English. But, because everyone knew of her brain injury and the school she was going to they assumed she was helpless, and couldn't do anything for herself, when really Mayor was the only person who could see through her and that she was actually smart. For example Alma which is Maribels mother is always worried about her. Maribel is only allowed at school, her apartment, or with Mayors family. Mayor noticed how Maribel is not able to do much because she is marginalized by her mother. "...seem like a little like a caged bird who no one trusted to fly." Mayor is marginalized by his father. His father always talks about his oldest son (Mayor's older brother) being perfect. So, Mayor's father always compares him to his older brother and is always disappointed when he doesn't follow in his brothers footsteps or does exactly what his brother did. So, any move or action that Mayor takes that isn't necessarily bad he gets judged and criticized because it’s not what his older brother would do. He is very limited on trying to be his own person because  he struggles with trying to please his father at the same time.

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Author’s Background, Historical Background & ESP

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Author’s Background, Historical Background & ESP

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About the author:

born in Deleware

father immigrated to U.S from Panama

Majored in English

Inspiration:

the authors mother said "no one is ever going to ask about our stories" and talked about how the way the media portrays immigrants is misleading

fathers struggles of wanting to go back home, existing between two cultures,  self conscious about his accent

wanted to show that latinos are not just one monolithic ethnicity

The book takes place in Newark Delaware.