Have you ever felt alone, like an outcast, like a vagabond? Well, so did the Riveria family when they first moved to the United States of America to help their daughter Maribel, recover from a concusion from an accident that happened at a construction site in Mexico, this idea was great until a chain of events lead to the death of Maribel’s father. In the book, The Book of Unkown Americans, by Christina Henriquez, the story revolves around 2 main characters, Mayor Toro and Alma Riveria, these lead to multiple points of view as well as relationship issues between the side characters. In the first few days of being in the United States, Alam feels like her family is not welcomed by the American people; However, as the Riveria family start to let their guard down, they meet the rest of the immigrant families in the apartment complex. Throughout the story, Maribel Riveria and Mayor Toro also become more than just friends, leading to bad events in the future.

 First moving to a new community can be scary, I have personally experienced this when I was 8, my parents decided to move and unfortunately our new house was not in the same school district as before, so I knew no one at my new school, after being at this school for about seven years, I have gotten a good friend group. The Riveria family had just arrived in the United States the night before and they went to a gas station to get food. While there, Alma sees a teen boy and can tell he doesnt accept them. ”He looked because he didnt know. And the way he looked made me uncomfortable”(10). This shows how Garrett is not accepting of new immigrants in his town, unless he takes a liking to them. Although not entirely his fault, more encouters between the Riveria family and Garrett lead to some problems in the story. Alma decides she has had enough of Garrette coming around the apartment complex, and takes the bus to tell him to leave Maribel alone. Garrett, unsurprisingly, tells Alma to “go home” which he ment as go back to where you came from. “ I summoned enough courage to say it again, louder this time. ‘Leave alone’ “ “I understood. ‘Go home,’ he said” (152). This shows how Garrett believes that the Riveria family should go back to Mexico, now I have not had experience with these interactions, but if this did happen to me, I would want to punch him for insulting me and my country’s pride. 

 A few months after their arrival, the Riveria family start to meet all the other immigrant families in the apartment complex, which is good for Maribel because she starts to recover from her injury through talking with Mayor Toro, one of the sons of Celia and Rafael Toro. In the down time Alma had because Maribel was at school and Arturo was at work, the rest of the immigrant families, mostly the wives, introduced themselves and gave gifts. Alma eventually met with Celia and they talked about generic stuff about their lives. “One afternoon I made chicharrones and carried them over to Celia’s apartment. She clapped her hands together in delight when she saw me and motioned for me to come inside” (54). This shows Alma warming up to Celia and accepting the other people in the community. During the winter, the buildings heating system went out, so Mayor had the idea to invite everyone in the apartment to a party in his familys apartment. Eventually everyone starts yelling where they are from like a school attendance list. “ ‘!Mexico!’ Sr. Rivera said. ‘!Panama!’ my dad said. ‘!Presente!’ my mom said, and everyone laughed. ‘!Nicaragua!’ Benny shouted ‘!Presente!’ ‘!Puerto Rico!’ Jose said. ‘!Presente!’ Yenz and Nelia chimed at the same time. ‘!Venezuela!’ shouted Quisqueya. ‘!Presente!’ ‘!Paraguay!’ said Fito. ‘!Presente!’ “ (141). This shows how the Riveria family is becoming used to life in America and gaining friends they can count on. I have experienced this when me and my scout troop were going on a big trip to the East coast, we all had fun messing around in hotel pools and exploring the U.S.S. Massachusetts, a World War 2 battleship, that we were sleeping on.

 Over the course of all the previous events, Maribel Riveria and Mayor Toro start talking together, starting out innocent but escalating into actually dating. A few weeks after the Riverias started going to the same mass as the Toro family, Mayor was asked by his dad why he cant talk to “normal” girls compared to Maribel. “But it was never easy for me, at least not the way it was easy for me with Maribel” (109). This shows how Mayor is mostly quiet around girls except if they are more shy like him as well as possibly having found his soulmate. I have personally experienced this because I am not very social, I have a friend group with all genders, but outside of that I do not like talking to anyone else. During the party when the heating systems were out, Mayor and Maribel sneaked off to a hallway and something urgaed Mayor to confess his love for her. “Then, there in the shadows of the hallway, I kissed her. This strange electricity shot through my body. My first real kiss” (142). This shows how Maribel and Mayor’s relationship had grown from just being strangers to being lovers.

 As said before, moving to a new community can freaky, both the family moving and the families that already live there, but eventually, things will calm down and the new family will become a part of the community. While this is going on, the children of both the new family and old family might start becoming friends, or might evolve into something more than friends. These lessons show how relationships can be both positive and negative as well as between a single person against a group of people. As well as being negative on purpose, this also has negative repercussions such as, make people not want to be around you. I know how lonely it can be, moving to a new home, new school, new city even, but after some time you get to have some great friends and memories with those people.