READING THROUGH THE UNITED STATES....DELAWARE

Delaware...

Here’s a question for all parents out there. What would you do to help your child? Or maybe I should I ask, what wouldn’t you do? Most of us would do anything within our power to help our children. We love them, nurture them, and protect them. Our lives revolve around them, a piece of us that we raise up and present to the world in the hopes that they will surpass our own meager lives.

The book I chose to read for the state of Delaware was The Unknown Americans by Cristina Henríquez. The novel is about the Rivera’s, Alma and Arturo, whose daughter Mirabel survived a tragic accident but was left with brain damage. They leave their home, Mexico, for the United States to seek out help for their daughter. In Mexico, they had their own home and Arturo had a good job. They had a life with friends and family. It was a life they loved. 

It was tragedy that changed the course of their lives. It was the difficult choice, that two parents had to make that changed their lives. It was a choice to put their daughter before themselves that changed their lives. They settle in Delaware, and move into a community of other immigrants. People who come from all different areas and came to the United States for all different reasons, but they are all joined by one commonality. They are challenged or have been challenged by the language and cultural barriers they encounter everyday. Little by little, life begins to settle and they achieve their own version of the “American Dream”. They make friends and build a life, but more importantly Maribel begins to improve. Yet this dream is not to stay as tragedy strikes the family again. 

On the surface it is a story of the immigrant experience, and yes it does that well, but for me, at its heart, this was a story about parents who are just like myself. Parents who love their child, and are willing to risk all to help their child. It’s a story about a family falling apart the falling back together again. It’s a story about a family who survives one tragedy only to be broken by another.