The Book of Unknown Americans

Alma continues to try and adjust to life in America. She makes the best of their limited budget, and the family eats oatmeal for the first time, which is like the atole Alma enjoyed in childhood but not nearly as flavorful. At night, Alma often lies awake and replays the accident that resulted in Maribel’s brain injuries. She remembers the old, stubborn, high-spirited Maribel, who would not take no for an answer and who on one occasion even talked her parents into letting her climb a ladder to bring her father a bucket of clay, as he worked on the roof of their home in Mexico. On her way back down the ladder, Maribel lost her footing and fell. Alma blames herself, sure that she jerked the ladder and caused the fall.

Alma describes the time spent in the hospital after the fall—waiting for Maribel to open her eyes, waiting for the doctors to complete the surgery on her skull, the operation designed to relieve the swelling around her brain. Then came therapists and rehabilitation, the attempts for accommodations at school. At last, it was clear to Arturo and Alma that the only way to get Maribel what she needed was to come to the United States and get her into a special education school.