The Book of Unknown Americans

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). Alma is taken aback by the food that passes for Mexican in America: “Is this what they think we eat?” Alma asks Arturo, when she discovers, and is promptly baffled by, American salsa (8). Later, when the family grows poorer, it forces them to make do with whatever foodstuff they can afford. Alma tries oatmeal and thinks, “[i]t wasn’t good. Not at all like the atole I remembered” (94). Sharing meals with neighbors brings happiness. Authentic food allows the characters to feel tied to home. As Rafael notes in frustration, “It’s like how everyone thinks I like tacos. We don’t even eat tacos in Panama” (137).For the first-generation children though, food is less nuanced and complex, as shown when Mayor responds to his father’s taco statement with jokes and laughing. For Mayor and Maribel, real bonding happens over McDonald’s fries.