The Book of Unknown Americans

Food is a motif that showcases The Cultural Isolation of Immigrants in America and the ways this interacts with alienation and prejudice. At the start of the novel, Alma relies on home-cooked meals to feel less unmoored. When she is home alone for the day, she makes herself familiar, comforting meals:  “pork and beans or chicken basted in onions and orange juice” (53). Authentic food allows the characters to feel tied to home, but it is also hard to come by in the US. As Rafael notes in frustration, “It’s like how everyone thinks I like tacos. We don’t even eat tacos in Panama” (137). Similarly, Alma is taken aback by the food that passes for Mexican in America: “Is this what they think we eat?” (8), Alma asks Arturo, when she discovers, and is promptly baffled by, American salsa. At the same time, sharing meals with neighbors brings happiness, drawing the community of immigrants closer together.

Food also suggests the economic struggles many immigrants to the US experience. When the family grows poorer, it forces them to make do with whatever foodstuff they can afford. For the first-generation children, however, food is generally less nuanced and complex, as shown when